Social Market Foundation

🚨 OUT TODAY: A ‘New Deal for 5G’ needed to close glaring investment shortfall There are multiple factors driving the 5G infrastructure investment shortfall (of £20-37bn), which ultimately prevents it from being widely available in the UK by 2030. There are multiple causes of the investment gap. The most salient ones are: - Uncertainty over demand for 5G services - Structure of the mobile market - Current approach to spectrum policy - The supply of land and property - Planning system Only a suite of measures can close the investment gap. It's imperative that each of the barriers is addressed, as the lack of high quality 5G is holding back UK growth. And we remain far behind the global frontier when it comes to high-speed internet - getting 5G only 10% of the time. We have laid out a new deal for 5G in the UK - looking at necessary reforms in the planning system, higher public sector involvement and clearly defined 5G investment guarantees from mobile network operators. Read the full report, kindly sponsored by APWireless Infrastructure Partners, LLC:

🚨 OUT TODAY: UK skills crisis to worsen as small businesses unable to take on apprentices Our latest report shows how to fix the apprenticeship pipeline to ensure small businesses can address acute skills shortages. The main challenge for small trades firms is that they often lack necessary relationships. The majority of businesses surveyed said that they have little to no interaction with local colleges (52%), schools (69%), independent providers (60%), or universities (90%). This makes it hard, often impossible, to navigate the complex process of recruiting and training apprentices. Other disincentives to taking on apprentices included: - The cost and administrative burden - For green skill trades, shortage of relevant courses - Perception of young apprentices Skills England - the new body positioned to lead the UK’s skills landscape - will have decisive role to play, as an intermediary system and provision of relevant courses will have to be overseen by it. We also note that our proposed system would “complement, not complicate” employment reforms that will revamp Jobcentres. Read the full report, sponsored by Reed in Partnership, with support from TrustMark: https://lnkd.in/ete8Kw7N

👍Good to see government looking to tackle Britain's late payment culture through the Fair Payment Code But without it being a stronger measure, it is unlikely to help small businesses invest more and unlock growth, responds Senior Researcher Richard Hyde 👇 Richard previously wrote about how a more strategic policy approach towards SME investment is needed – to help close UK's investment gap with other economies. Read the briefing: https://lnkd.in/eRDQXXSt #smallbusinesses #investment #ukpolicy #investmentgap

A flurry of big numbers and speeches on immigration to the UK. Apparently we've been doing immigration all wrong, and need a reset. Maybe we should start by better using what we've already got in place. https://lnkd.in/eSZtBVma

Today’s Social Market Foundation report highlights the inconsistencies in support that care-experienced learners receive when accessing and succeeding in higher education. With recommendations including reintroducing grants, a £1,000 ‘pupil premium’ for universities, and a role for TASO in evaluating these initiatives, the report presents us with a significant opportunity for progress. We welcome the report’s focus on evidence-led change, and the recommendations for how TASO can support the sector, and we look forward to working with partners across the sector to improve outcomes for care-experienced learners. Find out more: https://lnkd.in/egvFSiSJ Read Social Market Foundation's report (PDF): https://lnkd.in/egfvc4k7 TASO also published research on supporting access and student success for care-experienced learners, with another report due in early 2025. Read TASO's report: https://lnkd.in/eawW5rT6

🚨 OUT TODAY: 'Invest in higher education for care experienced and estranged students' Currently, flat funding support across universities means those better at taking on more care experienced and estranged students are forced to spread their resources more thinly. Although poor attainment at 16 is a significant barrier to the reaching HE, care experienced and estranged students face specific challenges if they make it, including: 👉 issues securing affordable housing 👉 financial insecurity 👉 switching from local authority care to uni support SMF analysis found that in the current system, support is inconsistent between universities. Essentially, care experienced and estranged students that do make it to HE often have to choose their uni based on the financial support offered, limiting their chances of success. Our recommendations include: 🟢 Universities should receive a guaranteed minimum of £1,000 per estranged or care experienced student per academic year. 🟢 Standardise and extend statutory support from local authorities for students up to graduation, provided they enrol before the age of 25. 🟢 All Higher Education providers should be signatories to the Care Leaver Covenant to solidify their sense of responsibility for care experienced and estranged students 🟢 Student Finance England should offer non-repayable grants, equivalent to an average parental contribution, for care-experienced and estranged students Read the full report, commissioned by Unite Students and Unite Foundation, at: https://lnkd.in/eDhY-VqJ

🚨 OUT TODAY: ‘Beat the 8 AM GP rush, get AI to book GP appointments’ AI could help allocate over 90% of GP appointments and reduce caller volume, helping solve the ‘8 AM rush’ crisis Artificial intelligence and automation are ideally suited to take on many of the tasks that public servants in user-facing roles currently spend hours managing, leaving them to focus more on complex cases. We looked at dozens of case studies to evaluate the benefits of further AI use to consumers of the public services. The case studies included were from public sectors across the world as well as UK. We found significant savings across DVLA, DWP, HMRC and GP services - some of the largest user-facing services. But this is only if current use can be scaled up. the civil service and public sector must deal with structural impediments currently impeding uptake including - risk aversion - difficulty scaling pilots - institutional capacity/expertise which we made recommendations to resolve Read the full report, sponsored by ServiceNow: https://lnkd.in/eSRX9Hdb

My latest oped for the Daily Express covers the debate on assisted dying, and why policymakers in Westminster shouldn't be basing their vote this Friday on the experiences of my home country. That's based on three key reasons: - There are clearer eligibility restrictions already built into the bill - England and Wales have very different judicial systems, with less room for judges to overrule Parliament - We have opportunities to add more safeguards following the 2nd reading this Friday For more, check out the oped on the Express' website: https://lnkd.in/eqCTGsp5

🚨 OUT TODAY: 'Labour's skills plans won't bring down immigration, but it can still be a political success' Migration expert Jonathan Thomas explains why the government needs to show immigration as supporting local skills development Joined-up immigration and skills policy is framed as key to reducing employer demand for immigrant workers, but this looks doomed to failure in the light of the government’s growth mission. Public attitudes to immigration are deeply conflicted, but it is clear that when opportunities for overseas workers feel like they come at the expense of local people, this drives political polarisation and fracture in the UK. Through this paper, Thomas urges the government to position a key tool, the Immigration Skills Charge, as doing exactly that which the public want. It exists, and it is just a matter of demonstrating the effectiveness to the public. Read the briefing: https://lnkd.in/esmKRsBZ