Research and analysis

The closures of childcare providers to most families during the COVID-19 crisis have underlined the importance of access to childcare, both to support

Now is not the time to raise taxes; the economy is still weak and the recovery only just starting. But that time will likely come.

Millions of children will be returning to school this week. For many, it will be the first time that they have been in five months. The consequences of this loss of schooling will be profound, persistent and socially unjust.

From today, the first 18-year-olds will be able to access Child Trust Funds (CTFs) set up over a decade ago by Tony Blair’s Labour government. When first announcing the policy, the government pointed to the fact that ‘people without assets are much more likely to have lower earnings and higher unemployment, and are less likely to start a business or enter higher education’. But how much difference might these accounts make to the finances of 18-year-olds?

In this observation, we use data from an online survey of parents with school-aged children – funded by the Nuffield Foundation and collected during June and July 2020 – to document the patchwork of in-person schooling that children had before the summer. We also explore parents’ concerns about sending their children back to school at the end of the last term.

The COVID-19 crisis is increasing councils’ spending and reducing their incomes. This report analyses councils’ forecasts of these pressures and poten

On Monday, the government performed a dramatic U-turn on how A Level grades are assigned to students this year. The most pressing issue now is what will happen to university places.

You cannot fairly assign grades to a cohort of students who have not done the exams. A Levels "didn’t need to be this much of a mess", writes Paul Johnson.

Prior to the crisis there was no gap in the average amount of time spent learning between children from better and worse off families, but during the lockdown a sizeable gap emerged.