A Class Act

While both Labour and Conservative parties talk about the value of parental choice in education, other countries are actively encouraging it. "All state schools could become independent." says the reports author, former Fabian society research chief Stephen Pollard. Examples are given where the public funding private provision model is successfully being used. In America charter schools, which have been set up by local parents receive tax funding, are non selective and are exempt from much of the regulation imposed on state schools. New Zealand has copied the charter school model, replacing the old district bureaucracies with new boards of trustees for each school and has abolished zoning. 82% of New Zealanders now claim to be satisfied with their children's education, and 97% of low income families being satisfied. Equality and educational standards would both rise if the government stopped running schools and paid others to do it instead.

You can read it here.

Paying for Medicines

A new ASI report suggests that Britain should follow Sweden, Norway, Holland and Belgium in asking people to pay the first £60 of their annual prescriptions bills. This would bring an extra £2 billion into the NHS, cut the waste of 'free' medicines that are never taken, and would allow patients to weigh up whether expensive new medicines – unavailable on the NHS today – were really worth paying for. Is £60 too much? It's only a sixth of what the poorest families already spend on booze, betting and baccy, says author Ian Senior.

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The NHS Plan: A view from 30,000 feet

Professor Alain Enthoven is one of the world's leading health policy analysts. In this paper for ASI, he reflects gloomily on the prospects for real improvements in NHS delivery unless there are more radical reforms than the politicians are contemplating.

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Medical Savings Account

Neither the NHS nor private health insurance plans run efficiently because neither adequately reflect demand of medical services. In both schemes there is no connection between usage and cost of services to the consumer, creating an over-demand for services. Attempts have been made to curb this problem by private insurers in the use of co-payments or other means of sharing service costs with consumers. This paper contends that independent Medical Savings Accounts, paid into by the employer but under the control of the consumer will sovle this problem by providing resources for care, but creating incentives for patients to use only the services they require.

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Facing the Future

The British appear to face he newly unfolding century with mixed feelings. They think Britain will survive, but may be less influential. It will be closer to the Unites States. They are skeptical about many of the predictions made for scientific advantage, but confident about general advances achieved in living standards and life's opportunities. Broadly speaking they expect better times, unmarred by world wars. They expect the welfare state and most public services to wither and die, replaced for most people by private alternatives. About 3 in 5 of them expect this to happen to the NHS and state welfare, and 2 in 3 expect it of state pensions.

Where the young differ from their elders, they tend to be more optimistic. The notable exception to this is that more of them think a world war is likely. They do not, however, think that the British will regard themselves as Europeans first or expect Britain to lose independence or influence.

Read the full paper here

Unitary Medical Regulation

The regulation of clinical practice must focus on the clinical service standards that are delivered to patients, and not on protecting professional self-interest. It must be accepted and trusted as such by the public. We envisage therefore a single regulatory authority that is independent of the healthcare professions. It should be dominated by lay representatives, and perhaps chaired by a lawyer rather than a clinician.

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Respectable Trade

'Respectable Trade' is a critique of what the author calls the 'dangerous delusions of corporate social responsibility and business ethics'. Should we ask more of our business people than that they conduct their affairs as openly and honestly as anyone else?

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The Big Turn Off

'The Big Turn Off' analyses the attitudes of young people to government, citizenship and community. It shows that only a small proportion of young people share the government view that citizenship means volunteering to do things, challenging the law if they think it wrong, or being active in the community. They have little time for government, be it local, national or European, thinking it largely irrelevant to their lives.

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Privatizing Access to Justice

Up to now, access to justice has been the privilege of the wealthy and the minority who are sufficiently poor to qualify for civil legal aid. Most other people had no access to civil justice, a factor which has brought the civil justice system into disrepute. The government is presently undertaking a major and long-overdue reform of the civil legal aid system in accordance with the Access to Justice Act 1999. Reforms enacted on 1 April 2000 abolish legal aid for most civil claims. Instead, it is expected that cases will be funded by the conditional fee system - popularly known as "no win, no fee". In this system the lawyer agrees with his client to charge an additional success fee if the claim is successful, but may charge nothing if the claim fails. It is an example of payment by result. These reforms effectively represent the privatisation of access to justice. The civil courts are increasingly accessible to anyone with a meritorious claim.

Read it here.