Review of the Papers, Thursday 14 June

Government

• The prospect of yet another reorganisation of the National Health Service will be raised today by Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, in a speech on how "independent" the NHS may become. In a lecture at the London School of Economics, she will rule out creating a single independent board for the NHS on the lines of the BBC, saying it could not conceivably be given respons-ibility for a £90bn business. "You don't solve the problem [of independence] by proposing that the NHS could be run like a 1960s nationalised industry," she is expected to say. But in a speech that her advisers believe is in line with Gordon Brown's thinking, Ms Hewitt will raise the idea - although not a firm proposal - for primary care trusts having elected members to increase account-ability, and even for well-run councils being able to take over the primary care trust's commissioning role. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/5a824e1e-1a14-11dc-99c5-000b5df10621.html
• Pupils will be barred from taking GCSE coursework home in a bid by government watchdogs to stamp out cheating. The proposal, outlined in a consultation document published by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) yesterday, is designed to stop children getting their parents to do the work - or using the internet to copy answers. Instead, pupils will have to complete their assignments in a supervised classroom, allowing teachers to monitor any aides that they use. They will still be allowed to carry out independent research but always with a strict time limit and with the condition that the work will be completed in the classroom. In addition, exam boards are urged to be stricter about setting out what should be covered in assignments and what resources pupils can use. The concept of coursework will be replaced by "controlled assessments" which Dr Ken Boston, chief executive of the QCA said would, "increase public confidence in the GCSE". http://education.independent.co.uk/news/article2656014.ece
• Childcare nurseries must open at weekends and in the evenings to cater for the demands of modern working life, according to a government-backed survey of parents. It found growing dissatisfaction with the restricted care on offer despite billions of pounds of investment in nurseries. Almost all nurseries open from 8am until 5.30pm or 6pm, with parents being fined if they turn up late to collect their children. Ministers immediately backed the survey's findings and said that they expected goverment-funded nurseries to cater for parents who needed to work outside traditional office hours. They also urged privately-run nurseries to do the same. Parents questioned for the survey said that their employment prospects were being damaged because they could apply only for jobs with traditional office hours. http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life-and-style/women/article1929315.ece
• Gordon Brown's flagship tax credits programme "brutally discriminates" against two-parent families and actively discourages single parents from forming stable relationships, a damning report says today. Frank Field, the former Labour minister, has produced findings that show how the Government's campaign against child poverty has "stalled" by making it more financially attractive for lone parents not to seek partners. His most telling conclusion is that a single mother working 16 hours a week, after tax credits, gains a total income of £487 a week, while a two-parent family on the minimum wage has to work 116 hours for the same income. The report is a serious embarrassment for Mr Brown, who has championed the role of means-tested tax credits in tackling poverty and helping low-income working families. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=UJWKS0IFQTXXBQFIQMGSFF4AVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2007/06/14/nbrown114.xml
• The number of people classed as "economically inactive" in Britain has risen to just under eight million, the highest level since records began in 1971. Official figures show the number of economically inactive increased by 77,000 over the past three months to reach 7.95 million.Critics said the sharp rise raised serious questions about Labour's claims that it has got unemployment under control. These doubts were fuelled by research which claimed that the true rate of unemployment is about 2.6 million, up to three times higher than the Government's figures. An academic study of the figures estimates there could be as many as 1.7 million "hidden unemployed" in Britain, on top of the 900,000 people who officially receive Jobseekers' Allowance each week. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/14/nlabour114.xml
• Gordon Brown's protracted coronation as Labour leader means the last few weeks in British politics have appeared frustratingly un-eventful. But senior government officials say that Mr Brown - and Sir Gus O'Donnell, the government's chief civil servant - have seized the opportunity of this six-week interregnum to reconfigure the way the Whitehall machine operates. The core of the reform is a return to a more traditional and collegiate form of decision-making by the prime minister, his fellow cabinet ministers and their departmental civil servants. Figures close to Mr Brown say that over Mr Blair's decade in power Number 10 Downing Street has grown into a large and unwieldy operation. The result, argue the Brown allies, was that dozens of special advisers were vying for the PM's attention and sending out conflicting messages to the media. Number 10 special advisers dictated orders to cabinet ministers on policy and often demoralised their departments. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/eaf1dc18-1a13-11dc-99c5-000b5df10621.html
• The Labour Party's ratings have risen since Tony Blair announced his departure date, according to the latest "poll of polls" for The Independent. Labour's average score in the surveys conducted in May was 33 per cent, a three percentage-point rise on the previous month. The Conservatives dropped one point to 36 per cent while the Liberal Democrats fell by two points to 18 per cent. It appears that some voters who have lost faith in Mr Blair are returning to Labour now that they know he is to leave office. The findings will raise Labour's hopes that the party will receive a further boost when Gordon Brown succeeds Mr Blair in two weeks. Labour also hopes the Tories' ratings will suffer because of the party's internal row about grammar schools. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2656020.ece
• A clown has had to stop blowing bubbles for children to chase after being warned it could be a safety hazard. Tony Turner, also known as Barney Baloney, will now stick to clowning and juggling after being refused insurance by several companies which feared youngsters might slip on the bubbles' residue. Mr Turner, 47, who is married with three children, said yesterday: "The fun is being taken out of children's lives by bureaucracy. "This whole health and safety business has gone too far. Kids eat jelly and ice cream and that gets on the floor and is slippy. Does anyone want to stop them eating that?" Equity, the actors' union, has now agreed to insure the Sheffield clown's act but, after taking advice, he will no longer be blowing bubbles. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/14/nclown114.xml

Conservatives

• Gordon Brown will today come under increased pressure to extend employees' rights to flexible working, with both political opponents and the frontrunners in Labour's deputy leadership race backing a change in the law. David Cameron is expec-ted today to reinforce his party's call for the right to request flexible working to be extended to all parents with children under 18. The Conservative leader will speak at the London launch of a report by the Equal Opportunities Commission criticising the UK for "lagging behind its European competitors" and calling for all workers to have the right to ask to work flexibly. The sense of gathering political momentum on the issue is reinforced by a pressure group, Working Families, which has obtained support from four of the six Labour deputy leadership candidates for extending the right to request part-time and other flexible working. Business reacted uneasily to the mounting calls for change. The right to request flexible working was exten-ded in April from 3.6m parents of children under six to 2.7m carers. Employers' bodies argue the impact of this change needs to be assessed carefully  before any further regulation is imposed. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/42415346-1a13-11dc-99c5-000b5df10621.html
• A Conservative government would cut back the Department of Trade and Industry's "rag-bag" remit but retain its business advocacy role, George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, signalled yesterday. The comments mark Mr Osborne's strongest indication of the Tories' stance on the DTI's future since his party recommended axing 80 per cent of its budget at the last general election and will serve to exacerbate the sense of uncertainty hanging over the department. Gordon Brown is expected to finalise his proposed reforms of the DTI shortly. The prime minister-elect is seriously considering moving energy policy from the department, as part of a wider shake-up of Whitehall when he takes over on June 27. Alistair Darling, the trade and industry secretary, conceded last month that the DTI needed "refocusing". The shadow chancellor reinforced the sense that the DTI should be a much leaner Whitehall unit, criticising the department as "not particularly well focused at the moment - it's a rag-bag of responsibilities". http://www.ft.com/cms/s/aec64250-1a14-11dc-99c5-000b5df10621.html