Yes yes, long time since I last posted anything here... But I'm really excited to share a podcast I recorded last week! Take a listen to us discussing apprenticeships, young people and SMEs - including references to very 'overlappy' venn diagrams and plugging holes in leaky buckets...

Tom Richmond@tom-richmond.com · 12mo ago

🚨NEW PODCAST🚨 How do you get more young apprentices into small businesses? @annaambrose.bsky.social and Katy Dorman joined me to discuss two new reports from @edgeuk.bsky.social that set out the barriers facing young people and employers in the apprenticeship system. Listen here: insideyoured.com

Really @cyclingweekly.com, you're happy to publish a letter suggesting that women are less able to cope with a bit of swearing on telly than men??? Enough of the outdated misogynistic nonsense please! Really what I want to say is WTAF, but here's the more thoughtful version:

Please tell anyone who might want a late Mum/Mam/Mom on the list - it closes on Saturday night...

Ian Martin@ianmartin.bsky.social · 2y ago

Mothering Sunday next week. I'll be reading out the names of our #RememberedMums in church on the morning of Sunday March 30th. If you'd like to add your late mother's name, let me know. It can be oddly comforting to know her name will be typed out and said aloud once again. Reposts welcome. ❤️ 👑

‘Okay which one of you accidentally added Robert Cecil to the chat?’

So. Many. Questions! Super fascinating data, and always good to be made to look at the world a bit differently...

Laura Serra@lauraserra.bsky.social · 2y ago

I’m just a girl standing in front of a boy telling him it’s not true he has become more right-wing… it is me who has become more left-wing 🫠

Gripping account of lock down from @realgeoffbarton.bsky.social - brings it back so vividly. It is shocking how society has moved on, while the consequences of the pandemic remain so evidently with us www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

Geoff Barton: How the week that ‘changed education forever’ unfolded

Five years ago this week, Covid closed schools across England and Geoff Barton, then ASCL general secretary, was at the heart of the process. He explains how it happened and what it taught us

tes.com

Me, faced with a call from an unknown number: "urgh, who's calling me, they can talk to voicemail if it's even a real person at all." Me, calling someone who I really need to speak to: "urgh, why on earth does nobody ever pick up their phone any more?!" #Irony

Children cannot learn if they are not in school and are not engaged. Lost learning is impacting a large – and growing – group of children, with those living in poverty being hit the hardest. 📻#ICYMI: @efuapokuamanfo.bsky.social on BBC Radio 4 Today 👇

To reduce the #benefits bill, and get more people into work, the Government should make it easier for small employers to create jobs, with 51% of small employers having hired someone with a health condition in the last three years, FSB's @craigbeaumont.bsky.social tells BBC Radio 4 Today 👇

This looks like a) fascinating and b) hugely important research, to better understand inequalities in access to entry level professional roles.

Duncan Exley@duncanexley.bsky.social · 2y ago

How employer recruitment practices drive inequities in access to professional occupations by socio-economic background & ethnicity. Research published today by @cepeo-ucl.bsky.social #SocialMobility #DEI #HR www.linkedin.com/posts/ugcPos...

Last week, @workwhileuk.bsky.social brought together employers and policy makers to discuss how apprenticeships can support the government's opportunity & skills missions. TL;DR - if the apprenticeship system doesn't work for SME's, it doesn't work full stop. workwhile.org.uk/news/smes-th...

SMEs: the key to unlocking apprenticeships for growth and opportunity – News – Workwhile

Reflections from a private roundtable event held on Tuesday 25th February, supported by our event partners Multiverse.

workwhile.org.uk

With LFS caveats, seems a clear & worrying upward trend in % of young people not in education, employment or training. Now nearly one million, with rises seeming sharpest among young men. Reiterates importance of incoming Youth Guarantee in England, plus growing apprenticeships & investing in FE.

Had my first experience of ChatGPT summarising my own work back at me today, which is definitely some sort of salutary lesson in using AI...🤮

Happy National Apprenticeship Week to all who celebrate! First up for me this week, we've convened a some SMEs who @workwhileuk.bsky.social has supported, to meet the chair of DfE's Apprenticeship Ambassador Network. #NAW25 #NAW2025 #Apprenticeships

New: DWP research finds that most health & disability benefit claimants are open to receiving contact about offers of support for employment, benefits or disability services, but that ... www.rightsnet.org.uk/now/post/61192

This excellent from @sustrans.bsky.social. An important initiative to bring the voice of children and young people into transport decision making. Looking forward to seeing this report launched later in February.

Sustrans and Halfords to launch report into children’s walking and cycling

In early 2025 Sustrans will launch the first ever Children’s Walking and Cycling Index, designed to understand the behaviours, barriers and attitudes affecting children’s cycling in the UK.

sustrans.org.uk

Ooh lovely, I thought - there's something about Lichfield in the Guardian. ... Oh ☹️ - it's the local flytipping incident of horribly epic proportions. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘It’s like solving a murder’: who dumped 30 tonnes of rubbish on Lichfield?

The city is determined to solve the ‘whodumpedit’ mystery after a huge pile of refuse was discarded, blocking the road. But with fly-tipping across the UK on the up, will it be possible to find the cu...

theguardian.com

When is connectivity whilst travelling by train going to improve? I have a list of things to get done on my way home. Nope, not happening. 😡

It has been a day spent talking about economic growth, so feels apt to finish with a quick look back at the Dasgupta review. This argued: “Nature needs to enter economic and finance decision-making in the same way buildings, machines, roads and skills do.” This message doesn’t feel like it landed…

Final Report - The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review

Final Report of the Independent Review on the Economics of Biodiversity led by Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta.

gov.uk

Another Fabian policy adopted ✅ Great to see the Prime Minister talk about building more quality homes around train stations. This is something @thefabians.bsky.social recommended in our Commission on Poverty and Regional Inequality. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Keir Starmer: We’ll cut the weeds of regulation and let growth bloom

Labour’s policies will unlock investment, slash red tape and usher in a ‘big build’ era, the prime minister writes

thetimes.com

A lot to mull over from a good day out at @ox.ac.uk's SKOPE tertiary education system workshop. Key themes and lots of consensus about collaboration (and how to incentivise it) and coherence. Lots of discussion and less clear agreement on structures and levels of devolution.

Backed by a coalition of industry leaders, we are calling upon the UK government to go beyond the legislative proposals in the Employment Rights Bill to create practical partnerships with industry to speed up change. See more here: timewise.co.uk/article/endi... #EndTwoTierWorkforce #LabourMarket

Last day to take the 2025 Forecasting Contest! Last day for those who forecast high on Q45 to share and make their prediction come true! Whether you're a procrastinator or an information-maximiser, today is your day! www.edrith.co.uk/p/2025-forec...

2025 Forecasting Contest

A prediction contest for 2024, featuring UK politics and economy, global politics and world events and science, the arts and miscellany.

edrith.co.uk

If anyone's on the lookout for good vegan / dairy free / egg free recipes, I highly recommend this orange & cardamom cake. It's SO intensely orangey, it must be good for you... Ok, perhaps not, but it made this egg-alllergy sufferer v happy. #vegan #veganrecipe www.theguardian.com/food/2024/de...

Meera Sodha’s vegan recipe for whole orange and cardamom cake | The new vegan

Claudia Roden’s classic cake adapted and reimagined as an ideal Christmas dessert

theguardian.com

👩‍🔬 Testing Bluesky's reach and impact: I have space from early Feb for new projects - drop me a line if you need: ✨ top notch qual research and/ or policy advisory ✨ specialisms include tech & public sector, future of work & welfare, tech & society, digital exclusion 🖥️ www.abdconsultancy.co.uk

Here's a blog I've written on the @workwhileuk.bsky.social website, reflecting on a couple of news stories that have caught my eye this week - a former prime minister's thoughts on mental health and a new low in poor employment practices within the gig economy. workwhile.org.uk/news/tony-bl...

Tony Blair, the gig economy and renewing the positive link between work and health – News – Workwhile

A blog reflecting on employers' roles in the health of their employees.

workwhile.org.uk

We're delighted to welcome Harry Quilter-Pinner (@harryqp.bsky.social) as our new executive director, following a competitive recruitment process sparked by the departure of Carys Roberts, who joined the Downing Street Policy Unit.

Oh #Waitrose, please don't promote little plastic pots of ready prepped fruit because "they mean less mess at cocktail hour." Can we not all be smarter than this? There's enough plastic that's tricky to avoid, without adding to the problem like this.

I wouldn't exactly say I was glad to have an early dentist appointment, but Lichfield looking this stunning in the freezing cold certainty made it rather lovely to be out and about. #Lichfield #Cathedral #UKWeather #BigFreeze