By Conor RyanThe pamphlet recognizes recent improvements in education but highlights weaknesses. A quarter of children are unable to read and write adequately, there are problems with much teacher training, vocational education is still poor and there are still too many poor schools. Addressing the failure of schools requires radical reform and concrete change. 

A series of speakers will today examine the idea that plans for the reform of public services may be undermined by Britain’s cultural climate which sees fewer people wanting to become involved in service to others.The event in London has been organized by the Royal Society for Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce, under the title “Reform of Public Services; a cultural problem?”
Speakers will include Pippa Bagnall of the NHS Executive, Professor Ray Tallis of the department of geriatric medicine at Hope Hospital in Salford and Heather Rabbatts, chief executive of iMPOWER plc and former chief executive of Lambeth Council. 

A new funding formula for local health services to balance areas of high cost and high need will be introduced as part of a campaign to switch the emphasis in the National Health Service to prevention rather than cure.The Government’s Cross Cutting Review of Health Inequalities includes a series of measures which it is hoped will reduce the numbers of unnecessary deaths through ill-health to reduce health inequalities.