Government In England Research Articles

O. Sykes and J. Sturzaker (eds), Planning in a Failing State: Reforming Spatial Governance in England

O. Sykes and J. Sturzaker (eds), <b>Planning in a Failing State: Reforming Spatial Governance in England</b>

More open, more democratic or better at hiding? Two decades of local government transparency in the UK

ABSTRACT Local government has long been the site of experiments and innovation in transparency. Since the 1990s waves of reforms have sought to open up local government in Britain, from the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act in the 2000s to Open Data in the 2010s. This paper looks across the evidence to see how well these new transparency tools have worked, who is using them and why. It then moves to analyse what impact the changes have had on local government, in line with hopes of campaigners and fears of (some) politicians. Have reforms succeeded in making local government more open, more accountable and more participative, and in what situations? Or have they, as some claim, simply driven decision-making into other arenas, and made local bodies ‘better at hiding’? Finally, how does transparency sit with the fragmented and disjointed landscape of local politics today, from outsourcing and devolution to financial crisis?

Information, Institutions, and Local Government in England, 1550-1700: Turning Inside

Information, Institutions, and Local Government in England, 1550-1700: Turning Inside

What are the key predictors of international teacher shortages?

ABSTRACT Recurrent teacher shortages have been a long-standing problem for many countries. Popular strategies to attract and retain teachers, used over several decades across the world, include bursaries, scholarships, performance-related pay, professional development and reducing workload. Governments in England have invested heavily in such policy responses, but none have been shown to be particularly effective. Such policies have tended to be based on weak research evidence. Much previous research has not considered the many different factors that can explain teacher shortages, and so yields misleading results by focussing on a few factors only. In this paper, we present our ongoing research to advance understanding of teacher shortages by comparing 18 countries that reportedly have and have not experienced teacher supply issues, using a complex Qualitative Comparative Approach, and based on numerous international datasets with (initially) hundreds of possible determinants. The results suggest that wider economic issues, such as the employment rate of graduates in subjects like humanities, are key predictors of shortages, along with teacher reports of poor behaviour of students, lack of resources, and pay. This should be of interest to a wide range of stakeholders, including policy-makers, wanting to develop more effective and targeted interventions to improve teacher supply.

Trailblazer devolution deals: The next oxymoron in the policy litany of sub-national governance in England?

Trailblazer devolution deals: The next oxymoron in the policy litany of sub-national governance in England?

The Iron Wall Revisited: Utopian Paradigms in Jabotinsky's Conception of Zionism, Circa 1923

ABSTRACT: Jabotinsky's two Iron Wall essays of 1923–24 offered solutions to all sorts of problems: conflict with the Arabs of Palestine, refocusing Britain's government on attaining the goals in the Balfour Declaration (at least as Jaobtinsky understood them), and energizing the pace of Jewish emigration. Above all, after the violence in 1920 and 1921, Jabotinsky articulated a way to achieve peace. Although the most people perceive the essays as a prediction of the future—only naked violence will work—I believe the essays have their main importance as windows onto Jabotinsky's present and especially on his past, i.e. his political development since the Helsingfors Conference in 1906. This is because Jabotinsky changed, having fashioned himself from a subaltern representative of a small minority in the Russian Empire into a leader of an independent political grouping with specific needs to gain popularity in the present.

Publicly funded Steiner education in England–Beautiful anomaly? Missed opportunity? Or both?

This paper reflects on an educational policy initiative taken by the New Labour Government in England in the 1990s–2000s to extend parental choice in publicly funded school education, and to widen social access to different educational approaches. As such, the policy which led to the opening of a Steiner Academy School in Herefordshire contained elements of educational diversity and inclusion, a degree of parental choice that had not been considered previously, and an extending of social access to different and distinctive educational approaches. For example, in the case of the Steiner Academy Hereford, the National Curriculum for schools in England was set aside in favour of the Steiner Waldorf curriculum framework. The paper seeks to set out the main features of the negotiation that led up to the state funding of Steiner education in England, along with an exploration of the processes, compromises, achievements and setbacks that were encountered along the way.

Public acceptability of proposals to manage new takeaway food outlets near schools: cross-sectional analysis of the 2021 International Food Policy Study

ABSTRACT Global trends indicate that takeaway food is commonly accessible in neighbourhood food environments. Local governments in England can use spatial planning to manage the opening of new takeaway outlets in ‘takeaway management zones around schools’ (known sometimes as ‘exclusion zones’). We analysed data from the 2021 International Food Policy Study to investigate public acceptability of takeaway management zones around schools. Among adults living in Great Britain (n = 3323), 50.8% supported, 8.9% opposed, and 37.3% were neutral about the adoption of these zones. Almost three-quarters (70.4%) believed that these zones would help young people to eat better. Among 16-17 year olds (n = 354), 33.3% agreed that young people would consume takeaway food less often if there were fewer takeaways near schools. Using adjusted logistic regression, we identified multiple correlates of public support for and perceived effectiveness of takeaway management zones. Odds of support were strongest among adults reporting that there were currently too many takeaways in their neighbourhood food environment (odds ratio: 2.32; 95% confidence intervals: 1.61, 3.35). High levels of support alongside limited opposition indicate that proposals for takeaway management zones around schools would not receive substantial public disapproval. Policy makers should not, therefore, use limited public support to rationalise policy inertia.

Learning to govern: A typology of ministerial learning styles

AbstractA quirk of the Westminster system is that Ministers invariably have to “learn on the job”. Yet “learning” has been surprisingly understudied in work on executive government in Britain especially. In this paper, we offer a systematic account of Ministerial learning based on a comprehensive analysis of the Ministers Reflect archive—the largest dataset of research interviews with former Westminster ministers ever assembled. We identify six distinct learning styles—incremental, risk‐averse, managerial, creative, instrumental and instinctive—and assess the implications for how Ministers adjust to the challenges of high political office. We conclude by showing what an appreciation for this variety of Ministerial learning styles can offer the study and practice of executive government in Britain and beyond.

Health systems in the COVID‐19 crises: Comparative patterns of NHS satisfaction and preferences for public health action in Scotland and England

AbstractIt is often claimed Scotland is more social democratic in outlook compared to England, if this is the case then we might expect to find differences in public attitudes towards health and social justice, reflecting the growing health policy divergence between the two nations. Comparative attitudes towards healthcare in Scotland and England are worthy of close scrutiny here, given the different reform trajectories, with the running of the Scottish NHS based on professionalism and the English NHS structure built on market‐based principles. The Scottish Government also implemented stricter lockdown restrictions compared to the UK Government in England. However, the extent to which the policy responses to the pandemic reflect different attitudes towards collective public health action in the two countries remains under‐researched. In this article, public attitudes towards health in Scotland are compared with those in England. The comparative analysis relies primarily on survey data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) module on health and healthcare. This survey was fielded in Scotland and England in the autumn of 2021, during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Overall, Scotland is more solidaristic or ‘social democratic’ than England on key issues relating to public health action and social justice. The findings reveal some commonalities between the nations, confidence in the NHS during the pandemic, and a willingness to improve the health service via higher taxes for example, but also important differences in attitudes and preferences for state action exist that help set the scene for greater policy divergence in the UK.

The Regulating Act, 1773

The legislative branch of the British government passed a law called the Regulating Act in order to manage and supervise the operations of the East India Company's various businesses. Because the primary purpose of passing the act was to govern the activities of the firm, it was once designated as East India Company Act, 1773.1 The adoption of the regulatory act of 1773 was done for several important reasons, the most important of which were to control the mismanagement that existed in the regions of Bengal and to solve the problem of parallel systems. 2 By 1773, the East India Company had already been experiencing significant financial difficulties for some time. The fact that this organisation represented a monopoly trade enterprise in India and that many influential people were stockholders contributed to the significance of the organisation for the British Raj. 3 The Company spent £40,000 every year to maintain the monopoly; however, it has been unable to pay its obligations since 1768, which has led to a drop in the amount of tea that is shipped to the United States. Almost 85 percent of all tea that was ever drank in the U. S. was obtained through illegal importation of Dutch teas. The East India Company owed money to both the Bank of England and the government of England. The government owned 7 million kg of tea that was rotting in British storage, and more tea was on its way from India. This Tea Act of 1773, along with the Regulating Act of 1773, had the primary objective of reducing the significant amount of tea that was being stored in London, the majority of which belonged to the financially struggling British East India Corporation, with the intention of assisting the financially struggling corporation in surviving.

Ideology, statecraft and the ‘double shuffle’ of Conservative planning reform in England

This article explores the political implications of conflicts over new housebuilding for Conservative-led governments in England since 2010. Revisiting debates about the tensions between neoliberal and more collectivist traditions within the political ideology of the Conservative Party, we argue that rather than blocking change this internal conflict should be seen as a dynamic part of the politics of planning. This leads us to propose that Conservative planning reforms have been characterised by a distinctive ‘double shuffle’ through which the party has sought to progress neoliberalising reforms whilst managing these tensions and seeking to maintain their hold on power through statecraft. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/

An analysis of the codes of college governance in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and recommendations for improvement

The further education college sectors in each of the four jurisdictions in the UK have a code of governance that is intended to guide governing practice in the institutions in those countries. The paper reviews the governing codes and the governance arrangements of colleges in the four UK nations. We outline the methodology and literature that are used to underpin an analysis the content of the codes, and then draw out significant interlinked areas that emerged from the analysis. We make several recommendations concerning the purposes and processes of governing a college, relating to clarity, scope, expectations, and links to wider regulatory contexts. The paper concludes by highlighting implications for a wide range of audiences involved in the governing of further education colleges in the UK.

Party politics and the effectiveness of local climate change policy frameworks: green influence from the sidelines

ABSTRACT Are national-level party political drivers of climate change performance reproduced locally? Here, I explore whether Greens’ ability to influence climate commitment nationally via legislative presence and coalition partnership is translated into English local government, using Climate Emergency gradings of local authority policy frameworks as the focus of comparative analysis. Scholarship on English local authority policy-making and performance suggests that, on balance, we should expect to see Green legislative presence and governing coalition effects translate to this level of government. While the finding of a positive Green legislative presence effect adds weight to the characterisation of local climate governance in England as a relatively collaborative process, the null finding on the coalition effect raises questions over the ability of junior coalition partners to realise preferences rapidly. Given the importance of sub-national politics to successful climate change transformation, it is vital that the factors associated with strengthened local commitment be further explored.

Resilience to disruptions: the role of regional soft spaces

ABSTRACT A soft spaces lens enables a nuanced perspective on regional resilience governance to disruptions. Focusing on COVID-19, this article illuminates comparative insights into resilience governance in England and how the regional soft spaces of local resilience forums differentially experienced this momentous disruptive event. The pandemic has exposed the limited ability of these regional soft spaces to enhance resilience to disruptions and thus narrow the resilience implementation gap. This article contributes to theory and practice on the tensions and opportunities to progress resilience governance through regional soft spaces amid an evolving policy landscape post-pandemic.

THE INFLUENCE OF PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATIONS ON CITY GOVERNMENT INNOVATION

AbstractIn this study I examine the role of philanthropic foundations in stimulating city government innovation. Reduced budgets and rising consumer demands are challenging organizational capacity in government, prompting government officials to recognize the need for innovation to improve policies, programmes and practices. This empirical study draws upon qualitative interviews and policy reports to generate comparative case studies on three city governments in England: Bristol, Manchester and Newcastle. It builds on work in urban studies and policy mobilities that reveals how foundations can influence urban agendas, finding that philanthropic foundations engage with city governments through three different types of collaboration: direct provision of financial resources, exchange of non‐financial resources with city governments and indirect engagements. Philanthropic foundations are blending financial resources and less tangible provision of space and time to enable city governments to experiment with new ideas, policies and ways of working. The fusion of non‐governmental resources provides city governments with the capacity to act, and city governments often use non‐governmental funding for riskier projects and for projects that may not have taken place if public funding had been used. Through these different collaborations and by deploying a suite of interventions and methods, philanthropic foundations stimulate product, service, process, conceptual and governance innovation in city governments.

‘Untangling the entangled knot’: a critical and genealogical examination of Multi-Academy Trusts’ (MATs) ideologies, power and governance in England

ABSTRACT The reduction in local control and oversight of schooling represented by the growth of Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) in England raises critical issues for public policy. These include the articulation and exercise of power in the governance of MATs, the future of democratic governance of local services and accountability. Applying Foucault’s genealogical framework, the paper analyses the antecedents of current governance arrangements and highlights and reinvigorates suppressed, delegitimised and belittled knowledges. The authors argue that the threads of representation, community engagement and local control in school governance are important components of democratic renewal. The paper examines the play of historical and contemporary factors which have fostered a discourse that enables the subjugation of agency, self-governance and autonomy of MAT constituent schools and their communities. This discourse has wider significance for the centralisation of decision making and control away from communities, and the erosion of the polity.

:Sir John Fortescue and the Governance of England

:<i>Sir John Fortescue and the Governance of England</i>

The impact of price promotions on confectionery and snacks on the energy content of shopping baskets: A randomised controlled trial in an experimental online supermarket

Overconsumption of foods high in fat, sugars, and salt (HFSS) poses a significant risk to health. The government in England has passed legislation that would limit some price promotions of HFSS foods within supermarkets, but evidence regarding likely impacts of these policies, especially in online settings, is limited. This study aimed to determine whether there were any differences in the energy and nutrient content of shopping baskets after removing promotions on HFSS foods in an online experimental supermarket. UK adults (n = 511) were asked to select food from four categories with a £10 budget in an online experimental supermarket: confectionery; biscuits and crackers; crisps, nuts and snacking fruit; cakes and tarts. They were randomly allocated to one of two trial arms: (1) promotions present (matched to promotion frequency seen in a major UK retailer) (n = 257), or (2) all promotions removed from all products within the target food categories (n = 254). The primary outcome analysis used linear regression to compare total energy (kcal) of items placed in shopping baskets when promotions were present vs. absent, while secondary analyses investigated differences in nutrients and energy purchased from individual food categories. Mean energy in food selected without promotions was 5156 kcal per basket (SD 1620), compared to 5536 kcal (SD 1819) with promotions, a difference of −552kcal (95%CIs: −866, −238), equivalent to 10%. There were no significant differences in energy purchased for any individual category between groups. No evidence was found of other changes in nutritional composition of baskets or of significant interactions between the impact of promotions and participant characteristics (gender, age, ethnicity) on energy purchased. Removing promotions on HFSS foods resulted in significantly less total energy selected in an online experimental supermarket study.

‘You just need to work harder’: Misalignments between the rhetoric of social mobility and education for social justice

Examining the entanglement of democracy and social justice in education and the relationship to social mobility, this paper critiques the individualising nature of social mobility in policy discourse as inimical to human flourishing and education as a public good. The rhetoric of social mobility which responsibilises individuals for their success, without due regard to the systemic changes needed to enable this and the societal barriers to social mobility experienced disproportionately by some groups in society, is detrimental to social justice. A conception of education as a pathway to social mobility must be located in a wider vision of civic engagement in a more inclusive and fairer society. Yet civic engagement in education at the local level has been eroded, as illustrated in this paper by the example of an evolving model of school governance in England. As a corporatist, market driven reform, this model exemplifies how local democratic ties between schools and engagement with their communities can be undermined. Social mobility to enable opportunities, access and participation in democratic civic society becomes a fantasy when society is riven with systemic inequalities, lacks the necessary conditions to enable human flourishing and links to community engagement in education for democratic renewal are downplayed.