Research Briefing
The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 provided for a new Vetting and Barring Scheme under which individuals who wish to engage in certain types of employment or activity involving contact with children or vulnerable adults will have to apply to be subject to monitoring by a government body: the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).
Research Briefing
This note explains the development of the uprating arrangements for the State Pension and Pension Credit.
Research Briefing
The Bill allows the governing body of each maintained school in England to apply to the Secretary of State to convert the school to an academy. The Secretary of State will also be empowered to convert schools that are ‘eligible for intervention’. The Bill also makes provision for ‘free schools’ - new schools set up by parents, teachers, charities, universities, business or community or faith groups where there is parental demand. Free schools will have the same legal requirements as academies. During the Bill’s passage through the House of Lords, a number of Government amendments were made, including those on special educational needs provision in academies, consultation during the conversion process and applying Freedom of Information legislation to academies. Many non-Government amendments were proposed, of which two were successful. One of these required the Secretary of State to publish an annual report on academies, which the Government welcomed; the other related to services for children with low incidence special educational needs, which the Government opposed.
Research Briefing
This Research Paper series summarises the main economic indicators currently available for the UK, along with comparisons with other major OECD countries. This edition includes articles on future growth in the UK economy, and the CPI and benefit indexation. [article:'Future growth in the UK economy' and 'The CPI and benefit indexation']
Research Briefing
This note outlines the responsibilities of the Department for Transport for school buses. It describes the pilot schemes recently carried out on the use of yellow school buses and touches on some of the other areas of concern such as vehicle safety and passenger behaviour.
Research Briefing
This note provides a summary of the main points of the 2010 Budget and the initial reaction to it.
Research Briefing
This note discusses how the European Convention on Human Rights affects UK planning law
Research Briefing
The evidence, as far as it goes, suggests that over the latter half of the 20th century there was little change in the proportion of university students from lower social classes. Their participation in higher education increased, but so did participation from all social classes and the gap that was apparent in the middle of the last century was broadly maintained to the end. Even the rapid expansion of higher education in the early 1990s had little impact on this. There now exists a wide range of indicators of disadvantage and looking across these over the past five years or so there is some evidence that this gap has started to close. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds have increased their participation in higher education at a faster absolute rate than those from more advantaged backgrounds. However, the gaps in participation remain very large and the rate of change is slow.
Research Briefing
This note gives an overview of recent changes to the funding of education and training for 16 -19 year olds. It provides general background and also covers the roles of the new funding agencies, the funding formula used to determine allocations and issues emerging from the transfer of planning and funding responsibilities from the Learning and Skills Council to local authorities.
Research Briefing
The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) replaced both the War Pensions Scheme and 'attributable' benefits payable under the old Armed Forces Pension Scheme (AFPS) for service personnel experiencing ill health, injury or death arising from service-related incidents on or after 6 April 2005. This note outlines the scheme and changes made to it since its introduction.
Research Briefing
National improvements on the headline GCSE attainment measure have quickened in recent years. This has been accompanied by a fall in the performance gaps between different groups of pupils. Some substantial gaps remain, especially by different levels of poverty or deprivation. Others, such as those for most ethnic groups have virtually disappeared. These patterns raise the possibility that this headline indicator is no longer an an adequate measure of performance gaps that still exist and are clear on other measures.
Research Briefing
This is an archived Commons Library briefing on university admissions, from 2010.
Research Briefing
By April 2011 most lone parents with a youngest child aged seven or over will no longer be able to claim Income Support but will instead have to claim Jobseeker's Allowance and be available for and seek paid work.
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