Re:State's research and commentary is regularly featured in the media. You can find press coverage of Re:State's work here.
We are always happy to comment on policy issues relevant to our work. If you would like a quote, an interview, or a background briefing, please email press@test.helloknox.com.
Emilie Sundorph, Researcher at Reform, was quoted in an article by Verdict titled 'Fewer police stations are a problem but distrust between the public and the police is worse'. The article discusses new research by the Mail on Sunday, which found that over 400 police stations across the country have been closed in the last ten years.
The article also references research from a 2012 Reform report which found that around 2 people per hour visit police stations over the hours that they are open, based on Freedom of information requests on police stations in London. Emilie highlights that this shows an inefficiency of resources and is partially attributable to the changing methods of communication of the younger generation.
"People live so much of their lives online now. It’s very important the police keep up to date. And that’s not only about solving crimes that are committed online. Efficiency and being a good police service becomes about what kind of police service you are online".
Read the full article here
Danail Vasilev, Researcher at Re:State, wrote an article for Independent Age on the potential of housing assets being used to fund social care. If changes aren't made to social care funding now, costs will continue to rise and will fall hardest on the younger generation. The government needs radical ideas to find a solution. Danail Vasilev argued one option can be using older people's housing wealth as a medium-term option before moving into a pre-funded solution for working-age adults, which would be built up over this period. "
Reforming the social care sector requires hard decisions, but postponing them will only leave everybody worse-off."
Read the full article here.
On Friday 14 July 2017, UKAuthority held a conference titled 'Rise of the Bots: Can AI help transform public services'. The conference looked at how aritifical intelligence (AI), machine learning, robotic process automation and bots can be used to help transform the business of public sector service delivery. Alexander Hitchcock, Senior Researcher at Re:State, delivered a presentation on 'iGovern: AI in public services'. You can find the video below:
On Thursday 20 July, Reform were delighted to host a speech by the Rt Hon Jo Johnson MP, Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation, on delivering value for money for students in higher education. Media coverage of the event included the Daily Mail, Politics Home, FE News, The Times (£), BBC News, and TES.
On Tuesday 18 June, Reform published a report titled Gainful gigging: employment services for the platform economy. The report explores how the Government can help people make the most of the gig economy. Media coverage included Public Finance, Workplace Health, The Times (£), City A.M., The Times (£), CIPD and Chronicle Live.
Alexander Hitchcock, Senior Researcher, appeared on BBC Radio Kent and BBC Sussex to discuss Re:State's recent report on digital borders. He argued that the Government should install new technology at the border, such as e-gates, to increase security and enable quicker access to the UK. Listen to the full episode of BBC Radio Kent here. Listen to the full episode of BBC Sussex here.
Eleonora Harwich, Researcher at Re:State, was interviewed for Diginomica about the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for UK public services. AI offers great opportunities for public services, including personalised and proactive services, and assisting public servants to detect and identify social issues and create smart interventions. However, she argues that this can't just be rolled out enmasse across the system. This partly because the quality of available data is not unbiased and complete enough, and because there needs to be much more communication and engagement with the public about what it means, how it would be used and the possible positives and negatives.
"We just have not had a sufficient level of debate with the public on the issues of access, transparency and privacy that using data like this warrants. There’s also difficult ethical questions surrounding the use of algorithms in decision-making. Before we get the machines to make an ever-increasing number of decisions for us, we need to do a lot of thinking ourselves."
Read the full article here.
Louis Coiffait, Head of Education at Reform, wrote an article for Public Sector Focus titled 'With funding, there will only ever be one way schools can have their cake and eat it'. In this article, Louis outlines what a minority Conservative government and the "end of austerity" will mean for school funding. He argues that over the next few years an overall budget cut of minus three per cent and uncertainties about a National Funding Formula are not as important as what schools actually choose to do with their funds. Instead they should make the most of their freedoms to work together and determine their own, and their pupils' futures.
Read the full article here (page 66-67)
Re:State published a report on how technology could transform the UK's borders. In light of Brexit and the issue of the UK-Ireland border, this issue is now of critical urgency. Read the full report here.
The report was featured in the Daily Mail, The Telegraph, Daily Express, BT News, UK Authority, Sunday Express, Conservative Home, Belfast Telegraph, E&T, the Irish Independent, Irish Examiner, Digital by Default, Think Digital Partners and Yorkshire Post.
After the publication of Re:State's report, The future of public services: digital borders, Maisie Borrows wrote an article in Conservative Home on why a digital border would be a major boost to security and trade.
"The Chancellor is right to look to new technology to upgrade the UK’s border. Not only could this better facilitate trade and tourism in an ultra-competitive world, but it would improve security too. Ministers should see Brexit as the perfect opportunity to do this – for the UK’s benefit both during the negotiations, and beyond."
Read the full article here.
Danail Vasilev, Researcher at Re:State, wrote an article in Public Finance on why pre-funded care is an attractive solution to address the problem of the UK's ageing population. He argued that having a pre-funded funding model for social care would be better than the current pay-as-you-go system in the long-term. The benefits are twofold: it would be more cost-effective and fairer to young generations. In the short-term, whilst funds were being built up, funding for social care could be achieved through scrapping the winter fuel allowance, the triple lock and by tapping into the housing wealth of older people. "Bold, radical reform such as this can ensure better social care for generations to come."
Read the full article here.
Andrew Haldenby, Director, wrote an article for The Times Red Box on why reforming how the UK pays for social care is the "most urgent question facing the Welfare State". He argued that there are many options available but that introducing compulsory insurance, which working-age people and their employers would pay into, would build up funds to pay for future social care costs. In the short-term, as funds are being built up, funding towards social care could be gained by scrapping the triple lock and the winter fuel allowance.
"How to fund social care is now the most urgent question facing the Welfare State. After the Election debacle, for Theresa May to lead the country towards a new solution would be a superb achievement."
Read the full article here.
Reform published a report on Social care: a prefunded solution on Tuesday 27 June 2017. Coverage included The Times Red Box, Public Finance, The Sun, Local Government Association, Local Government Chronicle, WN, AOL News and FT Adviser.
Andrew Haldenby, Director at Re:State, appeared on Sky News to discuss how police can increase efficiency.
Eleonora Harwich, Researcher, authored a blog on biases in data, how these emerge and the negative impact of using algorithms based on such information as decision support tools.
"It’s because of the ubiquity of algorithms and AI in our daily lives that we should not become lazy and blindly or naively think that we should delegate all tasks to them. We need to be very aware of the limitations of the data we feed into these decision-support tools."
Read the full article here.