Academic science faces two major issues:

• Research productivity appears to be declining. Scientific progress appears to be fairly constant, but maintaining this rate of progress is becoming increasingly costly. If the trend continues, we may face a choice between devoting increasingly large proportions of our national income to maintain technological progress, or accepting slower technological progress and a corresponding decline in economic growth.
• There are issues with the replicability, reproducibility, and robustness of large parts of the academic scientific literature. The same incentives push scientists towards pursuing more incremental and less potentially transformative research agendas that encourage bias, hype, fraud and negligence.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Create shared research infrastructure, such as shared repositories for data, code and papers.
• Enforce UKRI’s Open Research policy, publishing data on the accessibility of publicly-funded research and setting a deadline for full compliance.
• Diversify UKRI funding mechanisms, exploring innovative approaches such as:
  • Funding people not projects, with fellowships to promising young researchers
  • Giving reviewers ‘golden tickets’ to fund radical ideas
  • Run trials of funding mechanisms, such as assigning funding by lottery
• Establish the ‘National Institute for Scientific Replicability’, which would sponsor replication projects and develop tools to predict replicability
• Establish the ‘Atlas Institute’: an organisation which maps scientific progress and encourages scientific productivity and interdisciplinary research.

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• Nearly 140,000 Londoners that live in a household relying on a public sector wage, are in poverty. This equates to nearly 1 in 10 ‘public sector households’ (i.e. households where they depend (to some extent) upon a public sector wage) in the capital, compared to about 1 in 13 such households across the UK.
• Pay rates were at the heart of the reasons why those we interviewed were suffering from in-work poverty. The problem of pay was exacerbated by uncertainty over and inadequacy of working hours
• Employers’ attitudes to participants’ economic situations varied. Some had found their managers indifferent, while others did get some support. However, that support tended to be limited.
• The impacts of in-work poverty are manifold. Persistent stress and anxiety about their situation was widespread. Unsurprisingly, the cost of living crisis was a recurring topic in the interviews. Participants reported struggling to pay bills and afford food.
• The public service ethos helped to maintain motivation among some of those we interviewed, whilst others were keen to move to higher-paying private sector alternatives as soon as they could.
• All interviewees suggest ways in their employers could help make a material difference to their economic circumstances. Steps included: increased and more certainty of hour of work a week, more training opportunities to help with progression into higher paying more secure jobs and specific support for some of the unavoidable costs (e.g. travel) associated with working.

To help the public sector do more to support workers in the most vulnerable economic circumstances, the SMF is working with Trust for London to establish a new in-work poverty benchmark, one that encourages London-based employers to do more to tackle this stark problem. The design of our benchmark is well underway.

Previous SMF work on in-work poverty among Londoners includes:

1. Capital concerns: Poverty in London and the role of business in helping tackle it
2. Working lives: Experiences of in-work poverty in London

The post A duty of care: In-work poverty in London’s public sector appeared first on Social Market Foundation..

• Work experience can bring a range of benefits to school students, in terms of future employability, insight into the world of work, self-confidence, emotional development, and even academic outcomes.
• Work experience for all is achievable and affordable: we estimate it is likely to cost around £75 million a year to deliver
• Universal work experience is a good aim, but pushed through hastily, it could have negative unintended consequences – potentially becoming a ‘tick box’ exercise, or crowding out placements for T Levels students
• The role of local brokerage organisations is crucial. They should be tasked with engaging employers, with a single organisation assigned responsibility for coordination in each local area.
• The government should support participation in work experience for employers by standardising bureaucratic requirements.
• It should also establish a single platform to collate work experience opportunities available to young people across the country, with a particular focus on digital placements
• Working up to universalism means that work experience can be rolled out to prioritise the disadvantaged,
  • Beginning rollout in a variety of ‘pathfinder’ areas with existing strong careers infrastructure, with progress being assessed using the ‘What Works’ framework

Achieving rollout of a high quality universal work experience programme will take time, but the work must begin today to prevent another generation missing out.

The post Learning from experience: How to make high quality work experience for all a reality appeared first on Social Market Foundation..

• In the past decade, in-work poverty has been a growing problem – especially in London, where in-work poverty is a structural challenge mainly due to the nature of many of the jobs available, the wages paid to those working in them and the high cost of living.
• In-depth interviews with those in work and living below the poverty line reported some common problems and drivers. These included low earnings, insufficient hours, high and rising living costs, and caring responsibilities. The interviews focused primarily to the pivotal position of employers in worsening/alleviating poverty.
• All participants said that businesses could be more understanding, caring, and proactive, particularly towards employees that earn less and are in greater need of support. Participants cited the need for better provisions for sick pay, flexibility, in-work progression and upskilling, sufficient hours and subsidies to cover the high cost of living in the capital.
• The key takeaway from this report is that employees want – and need – their employers to do more to help tackle London’s in-work poverty problem.

The SMF is working with Trust for London to establish a business standard, one that encourages London employers to do more to help their staff and tackle working poverty. If you’re interested, do reach out to us at director@smf.co.uk

Our previous report as part of the project – Capital concerns: Poverty in London and the role of business in helping tackle it

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• The shape and quality of IAG services is patchy, varying substantially across and within schools and colleges
• Support for those pursuing vocational options tends to be weaker, with students carried towards university by inertia
• People tend to favour anecdotal information over hard data, but even those using formal information make limited use of government sources
• There is a mismatch between the grand ambitions of IAG, and what users expect from it. Careers professionals view it as long-term career planning and skills development, whereas receivers tend to just want help with the next step.
• Adults are largely unaware of IAG services and face significant barriers to accessing them

Six actions policymakers can take:

1. Ensure every school leaver receives a minimum level of personalised careers support by offering an entitlement to three one-to-one sessions.
2. Add careers provision to the four ‘key judgements’ on which schools are graded in Ofsted inspections.
3. Set the Careers and Enterprise Company the objective of tackling inequalities between schools in the level and quality of information, advice and guidance.
4. Aim to ensure all apprenticeship opportunities are listed on the UCAS system, perhaps by establishing and integrating local platforms.
5. Partner with trusted private apps and websites to ensure official government data and information is easily accessible.
6. Engage in a large-scale outreach programme promoting adult education and careers services.

The post Fulfilling its potential? How well does the careers information, advice and guidance serve the people it is meant to support in England? appeared first on Social Market Foundation..

For the installers themselves, fitting a heat pump requires a significantly different set of techniques to fitting and maintaining a gas boiler. And so, meeting the Government’s ambitious net zero targets will rely heavily on recruiting and training a new workforce of Climate Hero installers.

Much of this will require a skills transformation amongst existing home heat workers, many of whom are self-employed or sole-traders and therefore face, amongst other barriers, significant opportunity costs from time spent on retraining. SMF analysis has previously pointed out that the Government’s Heat and Buildings Strategy (HBS) largely overlooks this vital element of decarbonising home heat.

In this report, we recommend policymakers should act without delay to address these barriers or put delivering net zero at risk and consider the following:

• Launch an engaging and attractive Climate Heroes recruitment campaign for new heat pump installers using lessons from other sectors.
• Launch a clear national information campaign on the phasing out fossil fuel heating for installers and consumers.
• Give installers confidence to retrain for heat pump installation by stimulating consumer demand through a boosted Boiler Upgrade Scheme, including a committed ringfenced pot for lower-income homeowners.
• Consider providing vocational tax relief for the loss of earnings of sole trader and self-employed SME installers when training for new green skills.
• Set out clear training standards and an accreditation badge for all heat pump training providers and installers.

The post Installing for time? New evidence on the attitudes of home heat installers towards decarbonisation and heat pumps appeared first on Social Market Foundation..

Poverty in the UK

• There were estimated to be 14.4 million people – including 8.5 million working-age adults and 4.5 million children – in poverty in the UK before the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The events of 2020 and 2021 are expected to have added more than 600,000 working-age adults to the poverty total.

In-work poverty in the London

• In-work poverty has become particularly acute in London where, for example, the proportion of London households in poverty – where at least one adult works full-time – has risen by 50% in a decade. The data suggests that three-quarters of the children in poverty in the capital – more than half a million – are living in working households.
• This growth has been driven by a range of factors, including:
  • Slower wage growth for poorer workers in the capital compared to those in other parts of the country.
  • Substantial numbers of the London workforce being employed in low-wage, low-skill occupations
  • Poor terms and conditions of employment, including inadequate protections and limited access to additional “workplace benefits” such as adequate sick pay and pensions.
  • A high cost-of-living due – in no small part – to housing costs, although transport and other financial factors linked to being in London contribute, too.

London-based businesses care about poverty

• 79% of London employers agree that “poverty is an issue that impacts the people in the capital”.
• 39% estimate that half or more of their workforce are “directly affected” by poverty.
• 84% say that “in-work poverty (among their own workers) should be a concern to London businesses”.
• 70% say they are motived to help tackle in-work poverty in the capital by taking voluntary measures above and beyond legal minimums – such as paying the National Living Wage.

Why firms in the capital care about poverty

The most frequently stated motivation for employers caring about poverty among their own workforce for example, and professing a willingness to take steps to help alleviate it, was that such actions would be “doing the right thing”. However, there is copious evidence that many of the measures enterprises can take to reduce the incidence of poverty among their staff can also generate multiple commercial benefits for such enterprises. The key ones are illustrated in Diagram 1.

Diagram 1: Commercial benefits from tackling in-work poverty

Source: SMF

Public opinion on how business should treat workers

• There is substantial public support for companies that prioritise looking after their workers. For example, 65% of the public said that “poor treatment of employees” was the kind of business behaviour that “concerned them”.
• The same proportion of the public said that “staff pay and conditions” should be a key priority for managers in big companies.

The Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) focus of large London-based employers

• 97% of larger businesses in the capital say that ESG issues are “important” to their business.
• 61% of those bigger firms in London who said ESG is “important”, report that the “environment” is a “focus of their current ESG efforts”.
• 26% reported prioritising in-work poverty in their own workforce as one of the focusses of their ESG activity.

The ESG focus of FTSE 100 firms

• Analysis of the latest annual reports of the FTSE 100 found an even starker difference in the amount of emphasis placed on governance and the environment compared to poverty, by the UK’s biggest companies. Diagram 2 illustrates that difference by highlighting the average number of times key ESG terms appear in the most recent annual reports of FTSE 100 corporations.

Diagram 2: Average number of mentions of key ESG terms, in FTSE 100 annual reports

Source: SMF

A new benchmark can help incentivise London businesses to prioritise poverty

• Two reasons why workforce poverty isn’t a topic many businesses focus upon as part of their ESG activities, are:
  • The immediate incentives to encourage such interest are not in-place.
  • The potential longer-term commercial benefits of implementing measures (which can directly help reduce in-work poverty) have not always been clear and widely understood.
• ESG standards, kitemark, codes of practice and benchmarks can help incentivise change in business behaviour, in positive ways. London-based businesses acknowledge this, with 68% holding or adhering to at least one ESG standard, code of practice, kitemark or benchmark and 90% agreeing they “add value”. The popularity of such tools – among London businesses makes the development of a poverty-focused one a potentially useful mechanism for encouraging employers in the capital to help in the fight against poverty.
• Over time, the widespread take-up of such a tool could help shift the current ESG focus of many businesses towards poverty.

Towards a New Benchmark

The SMF is looking to design a new poverty benchmark that will enable businesses to demonstrate what measures they are taking to help reduce poverty among their own workforces, in the communities around their main London business operations and by those working in their local supply chains.

The SMF welcomes the ideas and observations of businesses, relevant civil society groups, academics, practitioners, and others on this research, the wider project, and its objectives. We encourage those who are interested in this issue to contact us via director@smf.co.uk to be part of this conversation.

The post Capital concerns: Poverty in London and the role of business in helping tackle it appeared first on Social Market Foundation..

1. Riders are as happy as other members of the workforce. Three-quarters of current Deliveroo riders say they are satisfied with their work, broadly in line with the rest of the economy.
2. Riders choose Deliveroo in preference to other work. The majority came from employment, with only one in five unemployed, on furlough or looking for work before starting on the platform. Most believe they could have found other forms of work if they wanted.
3. Riders prize flexibility more highly than those in other sectors. 40% of current riders put the ability to choose their hours in their top five criteria for choosing work, compared to 20% of the general workforce
4. Riders are motivated by money, just like the rest of the workforce. Most riders say they are satisfied with their earnings, and 57% believe that they earn more riding with Deliveroo than they could do in comparable work. 23% of riders say they are dissatisfied with their earnings, the same proportion as in the general workforce.
5. Riders favour their current legal status, recognising the trade-offs it entails. Most riders would be unwilling to sacrifice flexibility or earnings for more generous benefits. The vast majority (91%) do not want to become employees, though most would like to combine self-employment status with more benefits.
6. Riders can see Deliveroo as a primary source of income. While 60% of riders have other forms of work, nearly a quarter say over 70% of their income comes from riding with Deliveroo
7. Riders see Deliveroo work as a long-term option. One in three current riders say they intend to still be riding with Deliveroo in five years’ time: one in five in a decade.

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• The UK’s Net Zero plans mean decarbonising the heating of buildings, including homes, which account for 14% of carbon emissions. This will mean replacing millions of domestic fossil fuel-burning heating systems with new ones, including heat pumps.
• The Government’s Heat and Buildings Strategy (HBS) is meant to address this challenge, but it largely overlooks a vital element of decarbonising heat: training the workers who would carry out the installations and modifications required.
• Evidence around this workforce – plumbers, installers, heat, and gas engineers – is worryingly thin. Neither government nor industry even know how many people are currently trained to install heat pumps, for instance.
• Many of the workforce are likely to be self-employed sole traders, responsible for their own skills and training. Such workers may face greater costs than others from undertaking training, so heat policy needs to address the financial barriers to training.
• The HBS largely fails to do this, leaving the delivery of training to the market and trusting that growing demand for heat pumps will incentivise workers to pay for their own training.
• This approach is unlikely to succeed, since the HBS does not provide adequate stimulus for consumer demand for pumps and creates uncertainty about their future and the adoption of hydrogen as a potential alternative.
• Ongoing SMF work with the workforce suggests that without further policy intervention, many workers will hold off spending time and money on training for heat pump installation.

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