“My Government’s legislative programme will be mission led and based upon the principles of security, fairness and opportunity for all.” – His Majesty’s most gracious speech to both Houses of Parliament.
The scrutiny now begins. Wednesday 17th July marked a new parliamentary session, and the hotly anticipated King’s Speech announced 36 full bills and four draft bills. There were few surprises, given the government’s agenda being well-versed in their manifesto, but there is now opportunity to showcase expertise and provide robust research evidence to aid the legislative process.
As part of our College’s passion and determination to create a fairer world and our focus on facilitating knowledge exchange, some of our social scientists outline their practical recommendations on how Labour could shape their policy making.
- English Devolution Bill aka the ‘Take back Control Bill’
- Crime and Policing Bill, cracking down on anti-social behaviour
- Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill – The asylum system
- Children’s Wellbeing Bill – Increasing teacher numbers
- The absence of Health and Social Care
We have several more policy briefs, spanning a variety of research areas, from financial inclusion to vision impairment. To find our latest policy briefs and expertise please visit the Social Science Policy Hub.
English Devolution Bill aka the ‘Take back Control Bill’
Associate Professor, Rebecca Riley
In its manifesto, Labour said that economic growth was hampered because “decisions are often taken in Westminster, and not by local leaders who understand local ambitions and strengths”. Almost immediately after the election the new Prime Minister met with Mayors and did a tour of the devolved regions. Our research echoes this sentiment. Deepening devolution will likely mean new powers and requirements to deliver statutory local growth plans. The English Devolution Bill is likely to make local leaders and employers accountable for adult education and skills planning, universities are key to successfully delivering these objectives. Universities also hold the key to innovation in areas of delivery, not just the of local public services but also the innovation in transport, housing, business and employment support.
- Growth Plans need to have the full involvement and be co-produced with local universities, this needs to be enshrined in the statutory requirements. As key drivers of local growth through, education, research and an anchor employer they play an important part in the success of place.
- Review how research and match funding align with the needs of places. With options for aligning allocation of funding for place-based innovation to the objectives of growth plans, the needs of local businesses, people and to drive greater innovation in public sector delivery.
Crime and Policing Bill, cracking down on anti-social behaviour
Professor Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay and Dr Debjani Dasgupta
In the run up to the election Labour emphasised being tough on tackling antisocial behaviour. One of its promising steps to achieve this is a plan to create a network of youth hubs which will have youth workers, mental health support workers, and careers advisers on hand to support young people’s mental health. Our research at the Centre for Crime, Justice and Policing indicates that if these hubs minimise school exclusions and address problems arising from adverse childhood experiences, youth anti-social behaviour will drop too, since tailored diversion initiatives have been shown to reduce reoffending are cost-effective.
Our research teams are involved in some ongoing trials for diversion programmes for which there is encouraging evidence to see if it can indeed break the intergenerational cycle of offending by intervening early to help young people at risk. These include interventions mentioned in Labour’s manifesto and includes youth workers and mentors in A&E units and Pupil Referral Units as suitable people to work with young people facilitated by innovative local partnerships. Using the best evidence from the current trials to design the support offered via the youth hubs can reduce antisocial behaviour without a need for tough new penalties.
View policy brief: Ending the criminalisation of poverty
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
Professor Jenny Phillimore and Pip McKnight
Integration and the Asylum System: Forced migration has reached an all-time high reflecting the growing number of geopolitical and climate crises globally. Britain receives a tiny proportion of the world’s forced migrants. The vast majority arrive to Britain as asylum seekers because there are no safe and legal routes to enable entry. The Government should prioritise reform of the asylum system to ensure that those currently stuck in the system and arriving in the future can have their claims processed quickly and humanely. Jenny Phillimore’s work as a Commissioner for the Commission on the Integration of Refugees enabled me to work with fellow Commissioners to envision a new humane asylum system that works for everyone, including local communities. The evidence we collected showed we need a new settlement for asylum seekers and refugees. I would strongly advise the Government to:
- Devolve the provision of asylum housing and support to local partnerships
- Ensure local partnerships receive multi-year settlements wherein resources are invested locally to build capital infrastructure that can be utilised by vulnerable individuals and groups as well as asylum seekers
- Develop a national refugee integration strategy based on the UK’s Indicators of Integration
- Appoint a Minister to oversee refugee and asylum matters
- Allow asylum seekers to work within six months of arrival.
The evidence we collected as a Commission demonstrated that the above approaches would help to create a more humane asylum system, improve the integration of individuals into life in Britain once they received leave to remain, and would save the country large sums of money, deflecting surpluses from shareholders to communities.
Forced Migration and Sexual and Gender-based Violence: Over the past six years the SEREDA project has examined experiences of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in forced migration. Our research shows that women and LGBTQI+ forced migrants are particularly vulnerable to SGBV and experience multiple and repeated incidents of harm both in transit and once they have arrived in the UK. While we welcome the Labour Government’s commitment to addressing the scourge of human trafficking, we strongly recommend that any border security actions consider the needs of the victims as well. Our recommendations include:
- Recognise that violence extends beyond conflict into flight and refuge and introduce appropriate mechanisms to protect forced migrants when they reach the UK.
- Ensure SGBV victims are not further harmed in the UK – appoint an entity to oversee their treatment in UK immigration and asylum systems
- Create specially trained, trauma informed teams to deal with the asylum claims of SGBV victims and LGBTQI+ communities
- Ensure availability of gender and LGBTQI+ appropriate housing for those who need it
- Facilitate victim-centred and proactive service delivery – services must focus on the needs of forced migrant victims including their protection from further abuse
- Adopt a non-discriminatory approach to forced migrant SGBV victims, ensuring they receive the same protections as all people resident in the UK.
View policy brief: Forced migration and sexual and gender-based violence.
Children’s Wellbeing Bill and VAT on private school fees
Professor Beng Huat See
Wellbeing of teachers play an important role children’s mental health. Happy, cared-for teachers are better positioned to look after the wellbeing of their pupils. Teacher wellbeing also has a downstream effect on pupil wellbeing, as the PISA survey highlights a strong link between teacher wellbeing and student wellbeing. Research evidence shows that students whose teachers are happy also feel happier.
Sir Keir Starmer’s promise of an additional 6,500 new teachers for England is very much welcomed and necessary. However, to make it a reality would require more than just pay.
- Revamp the system of screening potential teachers into training. We have more people interested in teaching than there are places available. Over the last 10 years only 50% to 67% of applicants have been accepted.
- Increase the number of home domiciled undergraduates in shortage subjects. Teaching is already taking in a large proportion of graduates. Unless the number of home domiciled undergraduates in the so-called shortage subjects is increased even further, recruitment into teacher training is likely to fall short in the years to come even with additional money.
- Encourage an interest in teaching among students before they make their choice of subjects at university. Our research shows that most undergraduates make decisions about their career choice by the time they enter university.
- Improve retention by making teaching attractive. Reduce teaching hours, not paid working hours, increase teaching and classroom resources and address intimidation of teachers by students. Our research shows that internationally these are factors triggering shortages.
View policy brief: Evidence-based approaches to addressing issues of teacher recruitment and retention.
The absence of Health and Social Care
Sir Keir Starmer and his Party are committed to ‘building a NHS fit for the future’ but details and plans for the NHS and social care were notable silences in the Kings Speech. Population health measures do feature with the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, the Mental Health Bill, and the fair pay agreement all notable attempts at improving our nations health. But given the absence of health and social care, our academics highlight some of the important considerations facing the Labour government and its reform agenda.
Improving the NHS by supporting the health and well-being of its workforce
Dr Daniel Wheatley and Dr Ross Millar
The social, economic, environmental impact that the NHS has on its workforce and the communities it serves continues to receive much coverage. This anchoring role is significant with the NHS being the largest employer in the UK and the fifth largest employer globally by headcount.
Workforce health and well-being is a specific concern for the NHS as work conditions create a unique set of challenges, including incidence of work-related stress and employee absence through ill health. Estimates from the Nuffield Trust suggest that across the NHS up to 27million days were lost to sickness or injury in 2022, while 57% of NHS staff reported working while unwell. The socio-economic status of many frontline NHS workers creates additional challenges including financial pressures associated with the cost-of-living crisis.
These challenges together reflect the urgent need to better understand how to support the health and well-being of the NHS workforce and its role in addressing key policy challenges to reduce health inequalities and improve NHS service delivery. Given that NHS resourcing is subject to limited budgets and under ever more scrutiny, it becomes even more important to capture the social, economic, and environmental value that can be achieved by enabling and maintaining a healthy and productive workforce.
View policy brief: Realising the well-being benefits of flexible working.
Social work with older people has a distinctive role and value within the broader field of ‘adult social care’. Social workers are fully qualified professionals, registered with Social Work England. Their professional qualification and ongoing professional development give them unique expertise, including knowledge of the law, adult development, the influence of social circumstances and life events and extensive communication and therapeutic skills. This equips them to work in complex, changeable and risky situations.
Our research shows that social workers play a key role in supporting older people to continue living well in their own homes. They also facilitate discharge from hospital for people with complex needs, assessing, planning and arranging care and support in collaboration with the NHS and other agencies.
Key steps to make best use of social workers’ unique expertise include:
- Name social work as a ‘key profession’ in adult social care policy.
- Provide clear information and advice about social work to the public.
- Enable people to access social workers when needed.
- Create systems that support, not obstruct, social workers. Our reports make specific recommendations to achieve this.
- Boost training in working with older people in social work education.
- Train NHS staff on the role and contribution of social work.
View policy brief: How social workers can best support older people