‘It’s a big loss’: what happens when a beautiful village loses its bus route? Mousehole in Cornwall once had a butcher, post office and general store. Now it doesn’t even have an ATM – and one of its crucial bus services has been cut. Can residents save this vital resource?

‘It’s a big loss’: what happens when a beautiful village loses its bus route?

Work and welfare: employment policy in Britain and beyond What's happening to employment policy in Britain and beyond?

Next Wednesday 29 April in London I'm discussing my new book on youth unemployment and devolution along with six other authors.

The event is free, hosted at the Resolution Foundation and is organised by the SPA Employment Policy Group.

Sign-up here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/work-and-w...

Work and welfare: employment policy in Britain and beyond What's happening to employment policy in Britain and beyond?

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭: 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝?

SPA Employment Policy Group

Resolution Foundation Office, London

Wednesday, 29 April, 2:30pm-5pm

Attendance free: register via Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/work-and-w...

Meet our expert panel: @sionedps.bsky.social, Lecturer in Social Policy at @cusocsci.bsky.social, completes our panel who will discuss what the 4 nations can learn from each other after 27 years of different approaches to issues around child poverty in our webinar. acss.civiplus.net/civicrm/even...

Meet our expert panel: @ruthpatrick0.bsky.social, Professor in Social and Public Policy (Urban Studies & Social Policy) at @glasgow.ac.uk, will also share her insights into how the 4 UK nations have dealt with the policy challenges of child poverty. Register➡️ acss.civiplus.net/civicrm/even...

Meet our expert panel: Dr Jed Meers, Senior Lecturer at York Law School @york.ac.uk, will also be joining our expert panel to discuss different approaches to social security for parents with dependent children, asking what the four nations can learn from each other. acss.civiplus.net/civicrm/even...

Meet our expert panel: Dr Ciara Fitzpatrick, Senior Lecturer at @ulsteruni.bsky.social and the Social Justice Institute, will also be joining our webinar on 28 April which has been organised with the @safetynetujc.bsky.social funded by @nuffieldfoundation.org. ➡️ acss.civiplus.net/civicrm/even...

Meet our panel: @haylesben.bsky.social, Senior Lecturer in Social Policy & Co-Director of the Centre on Constitutional Change at Uni of Edinburgh, will be joining our webinar exploring how the 4 UK nations have dealt with the policy challenges of child poverty. ➡️ acss.civiplus.net/civicrm/even...

📣The Social Policy Association’s Opportunity Grants programme for Spring 2026 is now open for applications!

💷Grants <£1K and £5K available to suppport social policy events and initiatives.

📅Deadline: Monday, 4th May 2026.

social-policy.org.uk/opportunity-...

Compliance with existing labour market rules is patchy; an estimated 445,000 jobs were paid below the minimum wage in 2025, while 1.4 million workers in 2023-24 reported not receiving a payslip. A new single body to tackle these labour market abuses will enable a more coordinated approach. And from next year, it will also enforce sick and holiday pay. But this is only a first step. To make the FWA a success, the Government must go further on three outstanding issues.

Funding of the bodies the FWA is replacing has flatlined in recent years. The announcement that FWA funding will be increased is welcome, but the Government should commit to keeping this under review to ensure it reflects what the agency needs to do its job effectively.

he FWA will have some additional powers, including bringing proceedings to a tribunal on behalf of workers. But there will be no change to the scale of financal penalties, which are currently too low to be an effective deterrent. The Government should couple its compliance support for businesses with higher financial penalties for firms that still do not comply. And receipts from this could also help to offset the cost to the public purse of any increase in enforcement funding.

Migrant workers who approach a labour market enforcement body currently risk having their details shared with the Home Office. To ensure these more vulnerable workers feel comfortable raising non-compliance, the FWA should establish a data firewall with immigration enforcement. This will both protect migrant workers, and give the agency a more accurate picture of labour market violations.

The establishment of the Fair Work Agency is an important step towards better enforcement of employment rights.

How can the Government ensure its success? ⤵️

Figure 1 shows estimates of three types of labour market violation that we can assess using survey data, which suggest that hundreds of thousands of workers are not benefiting from the rights that they are owed. An estimated 445,000 jobs were paid less than the minimum wage in 2025 (22 per cent of those covered by it), up from 382,000 a year earlier. In addition, new analysis based on the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) suggests that as many as 2.2 million jobs do not come with any annual leave.

Even as employment rights are becoming stronger, non-compliance with existing rights remains a concern.

Hundreds of thousands of workers do not benefit from the basic rights they are owed.

Read more about how the new Fair Work Agency can address this➡️ buff.ly/2cPqeAG

Figure 4 shows, almost half (47 per cent) of arrears identified in 2024-25 were ‘self-corrected’ and so attracted no financial penalty at all.[8] Labour market enforcement orders and undertakings are also used very rarely: in 2024-25, there were only 25 open LMEUs, and no LMEOs had been used since 2022-23.

Creating the Fair Work Agency is a welcome milestone; but other enforcement challenges remain.

There will be no change to the scale of financial penalties, which are currently too low to be an effective deterrent. In fact, almost half of minimum wage cases are self-corrected so incur no penalty.

Join the @spaemploysocsec.bsky.social for a Book Panel in London this month (29th April) at @resolutionfoundation.org

In-person and free to attend, details and registration are here: social-policy.org.uk/events/event...

It would be lovely to see you there.

Voters in Wales failed by inaccurate UK media reports on devolved issues, study finds Reports on English policies seen in Wales as relating to whole of UK contribute to widespread confusion, researchers say

Glad this is getting some real research behind it.

Anecdotally I've noticed that outlets are a little better at adding 'in England' in print but remain awful in formats where it's harder to call them out.
www.theguardian.com/media/2026/a...

Event details
📅 28 April 2026
⏰ 1pm-2pm
💻️ Online

Register now➡️ lnkd.in/epKZeEKr

One of Safety Nets’ Experts by Experience will also share their insights on this topic. There will be the opportunity for attendees to ask the panel questions following their contributions.

➡️ Dr Hayley Bennett, University of Edinburgh
➡️ Dr Ciara Fitzpatrick, Ulster University
➡️ Dr Jed Meers, University of York
➡️ Professor Ruth Patrick, University of Glasgow
➡️ Dr Sioned Pearce, Cardiff University
➡️ Professor Mairi Spowage, University of Strathclyde (event chair)

⭐New webinar⭐ As part of the Campaign for Social Science’s 2026 series on devolution our expert panel will explore how the UK nations’ four governments have dealt with the policy challenges of child poverty: Register now➡️ lnkd.in/epKZeEKr

FEA Cymru Annual Conference 2026 taking place in SPARK

Neil James, Cleide Correia, Derek Walker

Neil James

Neil James, Cleide Correia, Derek Walker

Delighted to be hosting the #FoundationalEconomy Alliance Cymru Annual Conference 2026 here in #sbarclspark today. Starting us off are Derek Walker @futuregencymru.bsky.social, Neil James from Deep End Cymru and Cleide Correia from Merthyr Cynon Foodbank discussing #foodinsecurity #MakeADifference

SPA Chair, Prof Ann Marie Gray is taking part in this event on how the four UK nations are approaching health policy:

Great to see this published: a truly insightful article on Labour’s employment policies since July 2024. Make sure to keep an eye out for more policy areas from this special issue on Labour and social policy.

Some of us in the @spaemploysocsec.bsky.social have written an article on Labour's employment and social security policies post 2024 for a Special Issue. Open Access here:

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Happy birthday Alexander! Love to you all Emily - enjoy Colin x

Research Training Programme 2026 12-week training programme February - April 2026 Westminster Applications are invited from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic graduates Apply by: 08:59 am Friday 30 January 2026 Full details can be found on the Opportunities page of the Resolution Foundation website

Applications for our Research Training Programme 2026 are now open.

Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic graduates are invited to apply for a 12-week training programme based in our Westminster office and paid at the London Living Wage.

Details here 👉 buff.ly/nHoxxJM

The scrapping of the two-child limit is a much-needed change to turn the tide on child poverty.

It is also the most cost-effective way of lifting children out of poverty.

Good riddance to the two-child limit! Reflections on Autumn Budget 2025

Some reflections from me on today's Autumn Budget statement open.substack.com/pub/rodhick/...

Looking forward to speaking here on Wednesday:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/spa-worksh...

Inside the 10-year battle to change the law and help renters feel secure in their homes

The Renters' Rights Bill is set to receive royal assent and become law. Generation Rent's Dan Wilson Craw explains how it happened.

Today, we attended a roundtable at the HoL hosted by Baroness Ruth Lister on the subject of the Child Poverty Strategy. CR participants, inc. Jo & Brian, delivered powerful testimonies, using the space to push for an ambitious Strategy that genuinely confronts the root causes of child poverty. ✊

Research Handbook on Social Policy and Employment ‘This Handbook has an extraordinarily comprehensive historical and global range, placing current developments in a strong perspective of historical development and including countries in the global so...

Now available: www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/res... co-edited by policy group member Elke Heins, with contributions from policy group members: @haylesben.bsky.social, @chrisgrover.bsky.social @heejungchung.bsky.social @katyjones.bsky.social