Background: Policy, research, and people's own experience in the UK consistently highlight the central importance of a home of choice for people with learning disabilities. Yet attention is mainly focused on the development of specialist as opposed to generic housing options for people with learning disabilities. Methods: This article reviews the…

Background: Academic researchers are occupying more varied roles as both knowledge producers and knowledge brokers in policymaking spaces beyond the national level. As the local arena presents different dimensions to the knowledge-policy-practice nexus, an assessment of the interaction of evidence and policy at this scale is warranted. Aims and…

Background: Local authorities (LA) are key in improving population health, and LA public health decision makers need support from appropriately organised research capacity; however, few models of LA research systems are known to exist. Aims and objectives: To explore potential and existing models of LA-based research systems. Methods: This mapping…

The United Kingdom (UK) is facing a series of long-term economic challenges. To confront increasing regional inequality, flagging productivity and an ever-widening skills gap, universities and local businesses need to work together better. University Enterprise Zones (UEZs) offer a promising solution. The report, "Our Universities: Generating…

This paper reports a study of permanent secretaries who served at the Department for Education (DfE) from 1975 to 2011. Located within a context of theories that explain how government bureaucracies operate, it focuses on Michael Bichard. Appointed in July 1995 when attempts were being made to open Whitehall to non-career civil servants, he…

A National Education Service has to fix the multiple problems created by a fragmented and fractured system which has been completely undermined by academisation. This article argues there can be no ambivalence about bringing academy schools back into a local authority system, but that a future Labour government must also reinvigorate what…

Joseph King (1860-1943), known as the "Mad Hatter" because of his appearance and eccentric manner, was a man who cared very much about education in a wide range of arenas. He was a founder of Mansfield House University Settlement in London and of the peasant arts movement, both philanthropic organisations which aimed to improve the lot…

This article draws on findings from the first cross-national study of school exclusions in the four jurisdictions of the UK. It sketches factors associated with the past research with reductions in exclusions. It then reports interview data gathered in England in 2018 from five specialist officers working in two Local Authorities and a senior…

The post-incorporation further education (FE) sector has experienced a number of quasi-markets over the past 23 years designed to incentivise college agents (managers and lecturers) to meet government objectives. To create such quasi-markets principal-agent (P-A) solutions have been introduced in the form of a series of funding incentives and…

During his quest for leadership of the English Conservative Party, David Cameron declared his intention to turn Britain into a Big Society. In May 2010, having gained office as Prime Minister, he unveiled a string of policies to bring his vision to fruition. After five years, however, talk of the Big Society has withered in public debate such that…

As part of the international debate about new forms of governance and moves towards decentralization and devolution, this article discusses the increasing interest in the concept of "localism" in the UK, marked recently by the publication of the UK Coalition Government's "Localism Bill". A distinction is made between three…

In the United Kingdom higher education environment, government may make efforts to encourage institutions to engage in governance structures to secure policy objectives through a steering approach. In this article connections between skills governance structures and the recent Higher Education Funding Council for England workforce development…

The case for conversion to academy status is being made in a number of arenas, not least on the Department for Education website. As a matter of balance, school governors considering conversion need to take into account a range of factors. How does this fundamental shift in the ownership of schools fit into a discernible historical pattern?…

Communities are at the heart of the government's vision for the Big Society. And it's the author's strongly held view that skills should be at the heart of each and every one of those communities. If one grows the skills of an individual then the community will flourish. There is a job to be done in building skills to build communities--skilled…

The Local Government Association (LGA) commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to undertake an initial scoping study into safeguarding post-Laming, with a view to undertaking further work if relevant. The purpose of the study was to identify research and literature produced since the Laming report was published in…