Blog
Where is the plan for social care?
Despite promising to ‘fix’ social care, government has kicked the can down the road again

By
Daniel Button
13 May 2021

Despite promising to ​‘fix’ social care, it looks like the government has kicked the can down the road again. In Tuesday’s Queens Speech, social care was only given a cursory mention, and government has not tabled a specific bill for reform. Just a single line — ​“Proposals on reforms to social care will be brought forward.”
The system has needed root and branch reform since long before Covid-19 arrived on the

Blog
Social care reform: ambition vs reality
Public appetite for social care reform is high but will the government finally take some action?

By
Daniel Button
08 April 2021

Last month, the National Audit Office (NAO) released a damning assessment of the social care system in England and the government’s record on the issue. Covid-19 has drawn attention to social care ​‘as never before’, argues the NAO, and ​‘the lack of a long-term vision for adult social care coupled with ineffective oversight of the system means people may not get the care that best supports them’.

Blog
Making government spending matter
GDP, inflation and the government deficit reign supreme in the budget – but are they giving us the results that we want?

By
Daniel Button
10 March 2021

Our dominant approach to policymaking too often focuses on an excessively narrow set of priorities. Indicators like gross domestic product (GDP), inflation and the government budget deficit reign supreme, but we fail to question whether we are achieving the social, economic and environmental outcomes we want.
As we emerge from the crisis, and think about how to build back better, a

Blog
How to end the hostile environment in the NHS
Evidence of its failures alone won’t end the hostile environment – we need to get organised.

By
Daniel Button
16 October 2020

New research has found that migrants who need NHS care in England are denied treatment for an average of 37 weeks as a result of the government’s hostile environment policies. Just last week, Priti Patel promised to lead an ​“unprecedented programme of change to build a Home Office fit for the future”, while arguing that steps had already been taken to ensure that injustices like the Windrush scandal will ​“never happen

Blog
Scrapping Public Health England is the wrong way to shake up public health
Covid-19 shines a light on health inequalities, but scrapping Public Health England makes further inaction more likely.

By
Daniel Button
20 August 2020

The government announced earlier this week that it will scrap Public Health England (PHE) and replace it with a new agency – the National Institute for Health Protection – charged with protecting the country from pandemics.
The logic, on the face of it, is to merge the pandemic response remit that currently sits within PHE with the NHS Test and Trace System under one new