Liz Truss MP: We're looking at childcare French-style. More childminders. Fewer but better-paid staff

Elizabeth Truss is an Under-Secretary at the Department of Education and the MP for South West Norfolk. Follow Liz on Twitter.

Over Christmas on the Today programme, Warren Buffet, the stock market aficionado, claimed that working mothers would help rescue the US economy. He said: “Fifty per cent of the talent in the country, we’ve pushed off in the corner for almost 200 years. Now that we’re starting to use 100 per cent of our talent, it makes me very optimistic. Dual-earner families are now the norm in leading developed countries, according to the OECD. Changing technology, increases in returns to skills and the much greater education of women has meant that mothers are now an integral part of a country’s economic success.

Other countries are learning these lessons. Ten years ago, the German Government decided it could no longer afford the economic cost of half-day schools, as it prevented parents working a full day. Now children in Berlin are entitled to be cared for at their primary school until 6pm for a small parental contribution. Just before Christmas Tony Abbott, the leader of the Australian Liberal Party, told me that there is a similar issue in Australia, where childcare costs are almost as astronomic as they are in Britain.

Elizabeth Truss MP: Tackling the toddler achievement gap

Elizabeth Truss is Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Education and Childcare, and is the Member of Parliament for South West Norfolk. Follow Liz on Twitter.

Last week, at a seminar on the early years hosted by Frank Field, academic experts presented a compelling chart. It showed that significant educational gaps in England, far more so than other top-performing countries, emerge not at age 16 or even age 11. In fact, there is already a significant gap by the age of 5, before children have started school. This shows why a high quality early education is so important. And it is especially important for children from low-income families, who often don’t have the same chances growing up as children from better-off homes.

How do we raise standards and close the gap before the age of 5? The evidence is clear: it’s about people, not process. Professor Cathy Nutbrown has pointed out that people who cannot themselves master the basics in English and maths can hardly be expected to teach our young children to read, write and add up properly. Evidence from the government’s pilot scheme for the early education programme revealed that 2-year-olds in good or outstanding settings saw tangible benefits, yet those in poorer quality settings were no better prepared for school than if they had stayed at home.

Elizabeth Truss MP: It’s time Britain got a "Maths shock" and recognised the subject’s impact on our future prosperity

Elizabeth Truss is the Member of Parliament for South West Norfolk. Follow Liz on Twitter.

Britain is still in denial about its maths problem. Despite mounting evidence of its importance in the modern world, the subject hardly dominates the headlines. In 2000 Germany used national outcry about poor results in “PISA shock” to drive reform and leapfrog Britain in the league tables within ten years. Yet Britain’s dismal 28^th in maths rankings and outlier status in post-16 education provokes a whimper rather than an outcry. Britain needs a “Maths Shock” to address these failings which contribute to poor social mobility, the gender wage gap and sluggish economic growth.

Maths is the basis of the modern world, the foundation of many disciplines of daily life. The increased dominance of maths generates financial rewards for those who study it. It is the highest earning degree after medicine/veterinary science and those at our top institutions can reap even greater rewards. The average Oxford maths grad starting salary is £42,600, making them the top earning graduates in the country. This premium isn’t restricted to graduates. Those holding an A Level in maths earn ten per cent more than their peers who qualify in other subjects. But students are failing to master the basics. Research by King’s College London suggests that GCSE level maths is delivering less than it was in the 1970s and does not provide sufficient maths skills for the requirements of work or modern life. The proportion mastering basic maths skills by 14 has declined since the 1970s from 44 per cent to 36 per cent, with students failing to master the use of ratios and multiplicative reasoning.

Yet despite the financial rewards Britain has the lowest proportion of students taking maths at A Level in the OECD. Fewer than 20 percent of students take the subject, in most top performing jurisdictions it is near universal. Girls and those from low income backgrounds particularly lose out on the golden maths ticket. Girls are less likely to take A Level Maths and even less likely to do Further Maths. Comprehensive school students are half as likely to do the subject as their private school counterparts and a third as likely to do Further Maths. There is no difference in history or English. More maths wouldn’t just help growth; it would drive social mobility and reduce the pay gap between men and women.

Elizabeth Truss MP: Shared parental leave can be good for parents and for business

Liz Truss is Member of Parliament for South West Norfolk. Follow Liz on Twitter.

Yesterday on ConservativeHome Tim Montgomerie worried about pre Queen’s Speech rumours about “extended rights for paternity leave” as being “stuck in the pre-crunch era”. Journalist Gaby Hinsliff referred to it on Twitter as “worryingly fast becoming a policy with no friends”. Yet with “the promotion of a system of flexible parental leave” in the Coalition Agreement it is important Conservatives advocate change in the most flexible and business friendly way possible. This does not have to be anti-enterprise or pro-regulation. Enabling the current rigid and bureaucratic maternity entitlement to be shared between couples and be flexible can be good for both business and parents.

Britain is an outlier on shared parental leave, having among the highest levels of maternity leave and the lowest level of leave fathers can take in Europe. Under the previous Government maternity leave was increased vastly with high bureaucratic costs and little flexibility. Mothers getting time off only received ten “keep in touch days per year.” Developed in the years before Blackberry and working from home this is outdated and has a large cost to the economy in terms of lost skills. Under the Labour government, British women’s participation in the labour market was overtaken by Netherlands and Germany. Together with rising childcare costs and an inflexible labour market with few high skilled part-time jobs it has made life harder for families to cope. As the Resolution Foundation pointed out it is often difficult for families to get by on one salary. And whilst many parents choose to take time out of work to look after their children, flexibility in the system is helpful so that they can maintain skills and contact with the workplace.

Elizabeth Truss MP: Britain should go Dutch on childcare

Elizabeth Truss is Member of Parliament for South West Norfolk. Follow Liz on Twitter.

The British Government spends more on childcare for the under threes than the Netherlands, Germany, France or Canada. In fact the only countries that spend more are the Nordics. British parents contribute a higher proportion of income than anywhere in the world bar Switzerland. With some of the highest public and private spending, you would expect that Britain would be providing exceptional childcare. Yet Cathy Nutbrown’s worrying report suggests that we are not delivering quality for all the money being invested. Staff are not well paid and coverage is patchy. Some of this is down to poor structures and incentives. It is also down to flexibility. Many other Northern European countries are prepared to pay childcare workers more, have more training and supervision and allow them to look after more children. 

Take the Netherlands for example. They have a system of licensed "host-parent agencies" that train and monitor childminders. These agencies act as a gateway for parents, Government funding bodies and the regulator. They offer a convenient one-stop shop for childminders, who can focus their efforts on looking after children. One-step removed from the Government regulator the agency provides support, legal cover and insurance. They receive a monthly amount from the fees paid by the parent which gives them a strong incentive to recruit more high quality host-parents.

Under the English system, after initial training with the Local Authority is completed, Ofsted only visit childminders once every three years. This is expensive costing Ofsted nearly £400 per year per childminder. Childminders are expected to follow the Early Years Framework, fill in extensive paperwork and be a member of a Childminding Network, which vary considerably from area to area. In contrast, Dutch agencies visit childminders at least every six months and provide sixteen hours of training per year.  The agencies have websites outlining details about the childminders and the qualifications and training they have completed. The information provided is much richer than the UK equivalent, childminders on the Ofsted website are known by a number not a name. The result of the training, supervision and transparency is that parents rate the care by Dutch host-parents very highly. A recent study by Dutch economics group SEO rated host parents at 8.6 out of ten, higher than nurseries in every category including quality, affordability and flexibility.

Liz Truss MP: Respected universities should set the content of exams so that we can again trust the results

Elizabeth Truss is MP for South West Norfolk and founder of the Free Enterprise Group of Conservative MPs.

It is not just a few rotten apples. The so called market for A Levels is broken. Huge amounts of money have been wasted on the constructing a “suite” of qualifications and spin off products. A “teach to test” culture has emerged in schools. The fundamental mistake was to recast the market with schools as the consumer not universities. When universities set the exams up to assess entrants, high standards were the currency. Now that schools and education bureaucrats have the whip hand, a race to the bottom will always be the prevailing force. Sticking plaster will not be enough. In reforming the system, Michael Gove should insist on a single exam board for each subject with a respected university setting the content.

However noble a headteacher, there will always be an incentive to seek out easier exam papers to boost the schools results. Even far back in the 1990s, my teachers would discuss the merits of one exam board over another and they knew which were easier. That was before increased pressure on league table results. Who can blame a head who takes the decision to go with an easier board when there is so much riding on the outcome? This culture has permeated. Rather than the words of Shakespeare or Pythagoras’s theorems, school whiteboards now feature the criteria required to secure an A grade or B grade in the exam.

Elizabeth Truss MP: We need a childcare revolution

Elizabeth Truss is MP for South West Norfolk and founder of the Free Enterprise Group of Conservative MPs.

Rising childcare costs are affecting families and businesses. If parents are not able to afford to work, we lose skills in the long term. Highly educated women can end up on the “mommy track” later in their careers, taking on less responsible and less well paid positions than their male counterparts. Labour’s record on the issue is dire; since 2005 the number of childcare places has stagnated and in the last decade costs have almost doubled. The Government needs to instigate a revolution in childcare, like the free schools and academies policies in education that puts parents in the driving seat.

The left has made the running on childcare. They have perpetuated the myth that it’s all about Government spending, in fact British state childcare spending as a proportion of GDP is already almost twice that of other leading countries. The problem is the policy has been excessively rigid, focused on state provision and cost a bomb. Conservatives have shied away from the debate, partly due to divisions over the best ways of caring for children.  We should not confuse strong childcare policies with parental choice. The economic reality is that many low and middle-income families cannot afford long periods out of the workplace.  More than half of couples with children both go out to work.

Labour’s legacy to working parents has been rising costs and static supply, with the number of childcare places constant since 2005. In 1997, half of all childcare was provided by childminders.  This is hardly surprising given that childminders, like informal childcare provided by friends or relatives, are cheaper, more flexible and based in the home. Since then the number of childminders has dropped dramatically.  By 2010, only 15% of the total number of registered childcare places was provided by childminders.  The number of registered childminders fell by 45% from 100,000 in 1996 to 55,000 in 2010.

Elizabeth Truss MP: Maths, science and language A-levels are becoming the preserve of students at private and grammar schools

Elizabeth Truss is Conservative MP for South West Norfolk.

Yesterday I met Vice Chancellors and representatives of the Russell Group universities with other MPs about what they are doing to widen participation and promote access to their institutions. We heard about multi-million pound schemes, outreach events, summer courses and school visits.  There is no doubt a huge amount of effort and resource is being devoted to making universities as open as possible.

But what are universities are doing to change the culture in our schools? After all, universities are the leading academic establishments in our country and should be showing the way. In particular they should be challenging the culture that is tacitly encouraging students at comprehensive schools to do low value subjects. How can participation levels be improved if students are studying subjects that put them out of contention for top universities?

The evidence is stark. Department of Education data shows that half the proportion of A-Level students at comprehensives are taking rigorous academic A-Levels compared to those at independent schools.   The rigorous subjects are those defined as “facilitating” by the Russell Group – Mathematics, English Literature, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, Geography and Languages.

I have also collected data about the “non-preferred” subjects on the London School of Economics' list - Accounting, Art & Design, Business Studies, Communication Studies, Design & Technology, Drama/Theatre Studies, Home Economics, Information & Communication Technology, Law, Media Studies, Music Technology, Sports Studies and Travel & Tourism.

Elizabeth Truss MP: "Private sector" organisations that rely heavily on public subsidies are unaccountable and untouchable

Elizabeth Truss is the MP for South-West Norfolk

Network Rail relies on a huge amount of public subsidy and heavy government regulation to run its operation. Yet at a meeting in February, I was told by its executives that it was a “private” company and it could “do what it wanted” on the controversial local issue of the pedestrian railway crossing at Downham Market on the Fen Line to King’s Lynn.  The organisation has been true to its word. Last week after years of wrangling with local people who did not want a an ugly footbridge imposed on their station, the organisation simply decided that instead of making their barrow crossing safe they would simply close it and force pedestrians to walk on the road. I was told by executives that Network Rail simply had not worked on any innovations to pedestrian crossings for the last twenty years. After writing to the Chief Executive twice and raising the matter in Parliament, I still have not received a satisfactory answer. The speed of response is slower than any private sector company or government department I have dealt with.

Elizabeth Truss MP: An A-Level Baccalaureate would ensure more students attained academically rigorous qualifications

Elizabeth Truss is Conservative MP for South West Norfolk and author of Academic rigour and social mobility:  how low income students are being kept out of top jobs, which was published last week by CentreForum.

The hallmark of this Government must be meritocracy; that is what will drive social mobility and power economic growth. An engine is needed to propel the next generation of young people into high quality careers, much as grammar schools opened up opportunities in the 1950s and 1960s.

To do this we should offer a “college track” through the education system specifying rigorous academic GCSEs and A-Levels in key subjects like Maths, English, languages, sciences, History and Geography. This would light a route for bright students from all backgrounds to good universities and would show how many “Russell Group Ready” students schools are producing. We will broaden entry to good universities by improving schools rather than punishing universities.

Too often those on the Right of politics avoid getting involved in the battle of ideas in education content. Many free marketers believe that supply side reforms such as academies and free schools will sort out the system and that ultimately parents and students will demand the best education. It is certainly true that accountability and freedom are vital.

However, many schools are still in the grip of a pervasive education culture that has promoted mediocrity at the expense of excellence and quantity at the expense of quality. This culture and those who resist academic excellence and rigour in teaching unions, university education departments and local authorities need to be challenged head on.

Once it was possible to obtain a basic education and expect a decent standard of living in clerical and skilled manual work. Technological change has automated many such jobs, with numbers reducing by a tenth in the past fifteen years and pay stagnating. Meanwhile professional, managerial and scientific jobs have increased by a third over the same period. The hourglass economy of expanding opportunities for the highly-skilled and a bulk of low-skilled workers with a “squeezed middle” is evident.

Elizabeth Truss MP: The Government’s proposals on the English baccalaureate (EBACC) and the curriculum are the most important element of our education policy

Liz Truss is Conservative MP for South West Norfolk.

I am a believer in the “and” theory of education. It is possible and desirable to give secondary students both academic and vocational education; students should not have to make an “either” choice at 14. Most leading developed countries are already of this school of thought. Germany, which previously had an either/or system and produced a large mid-skilled workforce has had a major rethink. Driven by concern over low rankings in reading, mathematics and science in the 2000 OECD PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) table, Germany increased the academic requirements for technical schools and apprenticeships. The country realised that they had been failing to educate the workforce for the modern economy the country faced, where automation is reducing the number of skilled trades and clerical jobs available. Technical jobs now require a much greater degree of academic training.

This is a global trend. Virtually all leading developed countries insist on a core of academic examinable subjects until 16, such as history, modern foreign languages and sciences. Many require English (or equivalent) and mathematics until 18. In this respect England is an outlier. A lower proportion of Britain’s 16-18 year olds study mathematics than any of our leading competitors.

Britain is now in a similar position to Germany in 2000. As a country we have fallen in the league table to 28th for mathematics, 16th for science and 25th for reading, from much higher positions only a few years ago. Under Labour we witnessed the numbers taking a modern foreign language at GCSE falling from 79 per cent in 2000 to 44 per cent in 2009. Britain has an appalling skills record (according to the CBI 40 per cent of the population only have basic skills, compared to 34 per cent in the US, 28 per cent in France and 22 per cent in Germany) and is being held back by a tail of low achievement.

That is why I believe the Government’s proposals on the English baccalaureate (EBACC) and the curriculum are the most important element of our education policy. This gives long overdue recognition to studying key subjects – humanities, science and foreign languages and strengthening the rigour of the subjects. They are also the most popular (with an 69 per cent approval rating against 11 percent disapproval in a recent Sunday Times/YouGov poll), because the British public recognise what Labour don’t, that an increase in rigour and standards and more people obtaining credible qualifications is vital for the future of Britain. I have had many e-mails from constituents asking how their sons and daughters can obtain the EBACC.

Elizabeth Truss MP: Universities must have a role in ensuring that A-Levels remain academically rigorous

Elizabeth Truss is Conservative MP for South West Norfolk.

Modularisation has been creeping into the education system for many years; parcelling up education into bite size chunks, making it more easily digestible for students. Universities have had modular courses since the 1990s and before. Modularisation was put into A-Levels in 2000, which squeezed subjects like Mathematics into blocks and led to a catastrophic fall in numbers studying the subject - as well as worsening it as a preparation for University.

Despite all of this failure, progress appears relentless. Labour’s QCDA (now being abolished) was responsible for the introduction of modular GCSE Mathematics this September. In primary schools, children are taught in “blocks” which are then split into “units”.

Some will argue that modular examinations are not inherently bad. They can be designed so that subjects like Mathematics are taught in a sequential way and that builds on the previous knowledge.  However, this is not the way that it has worked in practice. Subjects are sliced up, making it harder for pupils to grasp the fundamental concepts. Layered subjects like Mathematics build on previous knowledge. One cannot learn and forget and move on to the next module, and the “one piece jigsaws” that are studied bore pupils and make it less interesting. The beauty of an academic discipline is the “eureka moment” when all of the hard work comes to fruition.

Modularisation has been introduced to “motivate” and “encourage” pupils, to provide stepping stones to the final result. The subtext is that knowledge for its own sake is not enjoyable or fun, a series of tests must be passed for learning to have any meaning.  There has been an attempt to fix problems in the education system, for example a shortage of qualified Mathematics teachers or unaccountable schools, by adjusting the qualifications system. Like printing money to promote economic growth, the number of exams taken has been increased to stimulate intellectual growth. This has resulted in grade inflation and weakened the underlying discipline required to make genuine progress.

What should have been tests of a student’s performance have been used to judge schools and the government. This has created all sorts of perverse incentives such as focus on borderline students and pushing all A-Levels to be equivalent to each other (for example Further Mathematics should be no harder than Mathematics).

We need to take the opposite approach.

Elizabeth Truss: Universities should be put in charge of A Levels

Elizabeth Truss is Deputy Director of the independent think tank Reform, and co-author of its new report,  A new level, which is published today and concludes that today’s students are being badly let down by the A-level system.

The relationship between politicians and academics has not always been an easy one. However, a reforming Government should view universities as allies in the battle for intellectual integrity and the starting point in abolishing the ersatz academic qualifications that are emerging from government quangos. This reform should start with the A-Level, which is the most popular choice at 16 (46% do it), the entrance exam for university (76% go on to higher education) and the pace-setter for all of school qualifications.

Reform’s new report published today, shows that an absence of academic authority has led to “sat-nav” A-levels that fail to make students think and do not prepare them for university. We present analysis by academics in English, Mathematics, Chemistry and History. It finds that the imposition of six separately examined modules in 2000 created a “learn and forget” culture where holistic subjects have been balkanised. Like using sat-nav rather than a map, students no longer have to think about what they are doing and examiners are prohibited from exercising judgement.

Hollow exams containing “nonsense questions” are prescribed by bureaucrats, not academics. In the sciences, many parted questions direct students through each part of a problem. In the arts, prescriptive marking guidance running to many pages prohibits examiners from rewarding originality, creativity and flair. Students are obliged to use “somebody else’s mind”.

Elizabeth Truss: How to cut public spending by £30 billion and pave the way for a smaller state

Elizabeth Truss is deputy director of Reform, the independent, non-party think-tank, and is co-author of its pre-Budget paper, Back to Black. Published today, it contains a number of proposals that would enable public spending to be cut at a stroke by £30 billion, which Elizabeth previews here.

George Osborne has indicated he will focus on restraining spending as opposed to increasing taxes. Even Alistair Darling has acknowledged that Britain cannot go on spending on the never-never. This is huge progress from a government which advocated fiscal stimulus only six months ago. The next hurdle for politicians has to be making the right reductions.

There is a danger of top down spending cuts, for example reducing budgets by 10%, rather than changing what government does and determining which parts of government need to be removed altogether. The history of austerity cuts that took place in the 1960s and the 1970s was that once the corset was loosened, public spending shot back up again. Years of stagnation followed. Only the Conservatives in the 1980s succeeded in entrenching cuts for any period of time, but there was still upward pressure some years later.

The economy cannot support a triffid-like state that exceeds its proper remit and encroaches on private individuals and businesses. The education department has failed to improve standards whilst trying to “ensure economic growth”, take over child protection and interfere in family life.  Extra spending on welfare has increased benefit payments to the well-off and entrenched a culture of low aspiration.

Judicious reductions in the right places are needed to entrench reform in the system and ensure the present keeps on giving. In Reform’s new report, Back to Black, we propose £30 billion of spending reductions that will not only deliver in the short term but will help achieve long term reform.

Elizabeth Truss: A new police force for England and Wales

Elizabeth Truss is deputy director of Reform, the independent, non-party think-tank, and is co-author of its new paper on police reform, A New Force, which is published today. Here she previews that paper.

Tuesday’s announcement that police forces will be obliged to cut officer numbers going into recession to get the budgets into shape puts a spotlight on how effectively and efficiently we police as a country.

Despite having the most expensive police service in the developed world per capita - costing 20 per cent more as proportion of  GDP than the US - Reform’s new report, A New Force, shows that there are major gaps in provision, particularly in tackling organised crime. The street price of drugs is falling – cocaine costs half as much as a decade ago. People-trafficking is rising. The recent SOCA Threat Assessment showed that criminal gangs are importing ever larger quantities of fire arms, fuelling gun crime in London, Manchester and Birmingham.

The 43 forces of England and Wales are neither fish nor fowl. They are not accountable locally or nationally and can be run like fiefdoms – ordering their own IT, uniforms and equipment. Chief Constables are nominally accountable to Police Authorities but they lack a direct electoral connection.