Keeping young people in learning until the age of 18 – does it work?
This report from UK think tank the Institute for Policy Research presents evidence from the raising of the participation age (RPA) in England. Implemented ten years ago in England, the Raising of the Participation Age (RPA) placed a duty on young people to remain in learning (although not confined to staying on at school) until...
Going it alone
This report from UK think tank the Institute for Policy Research examines the experiences of self-employed Universal Credit claimants. When Universal Credit (UC) is fully rolled out in 2026, the proportion of claims with one or more self-employed earners is expected to reach around one in ten, equivalent to around 700,000 households. Self-employed people therefore...
Costs and benefits of improved leave for fathers in the first year: Too good to ignore
This report from UK think tank the Institute for Policy Research recommends reforms to the UK’s current parental leave policies. The policy brief, written by Dr Joanna Clifton-Sprigg, Dr Alistair Hunt, Lily Zelezetskii and James Bailey, evaluates a reform to UK paternity leave, and finds that expanding paternity leave to six weeks (taken flexibly in...