#david laws

Academy trusts 'no better than councils'

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Image copyright PA

Image caption The average school performance of academy trusts and local authorities was ‘almost identical’

Academy trusts are no better than local authorities at raising school standards, researchers have found.

The Education Policy Institute think tank has produced a league table of academy trusts and…

Academy trusts 'no better than councils'

[ad_1] Image copyright PA Image caption The average school performance of academy trusts and local authorities was ‘almost identical’ Academy trusts are no better than local authorities at raising school standards, researchers have found. The Education Policy Institute think tank has produced a league table of academy trusts and councils in England. David Laws, former schools minister and the…

22 Days in May p. 106: “we broke for some rather uninspiring sandwiches of chicken, tuna, beef and cheese, and a few biscuits. The age of public sector austerity seemed already to have arrived” (in the same book, he enjoys “some rather dull sandwiches”).

Coalition p. 193: “Nick was doing all the cooking- lamb and some rather unimpressive couscous”

Coalition p. 315: “rather average chicken”

Coalition p. 362: “an unusually second-rate meal out on the Saturday night”

Coalition p. 411: “as usual, there was foul coffee, packets of dull biscuits, and nothing vaguely resembling breakfast”

Coalition p. 445: “fish and chips in a rather uninspiring cafeteria in Glasgow Airport”

Downing Street 'Leant On' NHS Boss Over Funding

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Downing Street “leant on” the NHS England chief to get him to reduce the amount of funding he said the health service would need, a former Liberal Democrat minister has said.

David Laws said Simon Stevens was told by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor that unless he revised down his request for £15bn to run the NHS properly it would be “discredited”.

He said that Mr Stevens was told to…

Downing Street 'Leant On' NHS Boss Over Funding

[ad_1] Downing Street “leant on” the NHS England chief to get him to reduce the amount of funding he said the health service would need, a former Liberal Democrat minister has said. David Laws said Simon Stevens was told by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor that unless he revised down his request for £15bn to run the NHS properly it would be “discredited”. He said that Mr Stevens was told…

Health

Downing St 'leant on NHS boss to cut funding demand from £15bn to £8bn'

Downing Street "leant on" the chief executive of the NHS to ask for less money to fund the health service, a former cabinet minister claimed today. No.10 told Simon Stevens that unless he revised down his request for £15bn it would be discredited, according to David Laws. As a result, he scaled the request down to £8bn – a figure which later became a Tory election manifesto pledge in 2015. "I'm not criticising Simon. I think he was leant on," Mr Laws told BBC's Andrew Marr. Shadow health secretary Heidi Alexander said: "These are damning revelations."

We now therefore as a consequence have the NHS needing to make in this parliament three times the rate of efficiency savings that it has made over the last 20, 30 years. I think that's undeliverable

David Laws

The funding row dates back to 2014, when Mr Stevens suggested the NHS needed a £30bn shot in the arm. He reckoned half could be found through efficiency savings but wanted the Treasury to provide the rest. Mr Laws said: "The problem seems to be that when he then took that figure to the Conservatives in No.10, they said 'you must be kidding, there is no way the chancellor and the prime minister will sign up to that figure, you better get that figure down if you want it to be taken seriously, you better increase the efficiency savings'."

We stand by this analysis and were not 'leant on'. David Laws was not part of these discussions, and has no first-hand knowledge of them.