It's a long and lonely road for over 100,000 young people in care throughout the UK. Local Authorities and foster carers do everything possible to help with their journey through adolescence, but disrupted education and insecurity often leads up to a cliff-edge entry to adulthood at 18. In a stable family setting, parents provide resources and life skills, and help build the attitudinal transformation necessary for a forward-looking approach with which to start adult life. In its work for the DfE on behalf of young people in care, The Share Foundation helps to build that same strong foundation. Background music: 'Everything Has a Beginning' by Joel Cummins
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Original Broadcast: Thought for the Week
Outcome assessment is vital for all new initiatives, particularly political, but traditional academic research, which is sequential in character, is not good at responding to the speed of change in our modern world. This is particularly the case in tackling Child Poverty, for which a UK-Government Task Force is due to report later this Spring. If we are to break the cycle of deprivation with inter-generational rebalancing, we need a new sense of dynamism and responsiveness. Background music: 'Peony Morning' by TrackTribe
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Original Broadcast: Thought for the Week
Gordon Brown and Ruth Kelly set out a comprehensive plan to tackle child poverty with the Child Trust Fund. We've learnt a huge amount from putting it into practice over the past two decades, and we're now ready for a more focused 'Mark 2' which will embody all of the lessons learnt. But will our new Labour Government have the strategic determination to follow their example? Or will it fall to today's philanthropists, walking in the footsteps of people like Andrew Carnegie, to take up the baton? The encouragement to make significant charitable endowments remains intact in inheritance taxation arrangements, and can support 75% of the commitment necessary to deliver a new scheme. Background music: 'Generations Away' by Unicorn Heads Image source: Telegraph Newspapers
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UK Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson describes our current system for financing higher education as 'the worst of all worlds', and she's right. The combination of loan funding and universality has generated chronic problems for both students and universities. We need to apply inter-generational logic to address both this problem and the challenges faced by other disadvantaged young people from low-income backgrounds. The Times placed this story on its front page last Saturday, and re-introduction of maintenance grants for these young people will be part of the solution: this issue will clearly get some focus in the UK Budget on 30th October. Hopefully it will also include those other areas where focused help is needed for disadvantaged young people, including starter capital accounts and incentivised learning, with funding to be drawn from IHT receipts. Background music: 'Generations Away' by Unicorn Heads
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Original Broadcast: This is Money
Do you feel financially confident? When it comes to budgeting, saving, investing, and building your pension, are you clueless, comfortable, or cracking on? A piece of research this week by Moneybox claimed that being financially confident could add £67,000 to your lifetime wealth – on average those with confidence were worth £145,000 on average, compared to £78,000 for the unconfident. But what does being financially confident actually mean and how can you get there? Georgie Frost, Tanya Jefferies and Simon Lambert look at how to boost your financial confidence and whether the tips to do so could work. Plus, a week into a new government and with a planned pensions review looming, the team look at what Labour could mean for our retirement savings. Meanwhile, investors seem to be cheering Labour taking charge and this week investment giant BlackRock flagged Britain’s ‘relative political stability’ and cheap stock market, so does that mean good future returns? Investing a large sum was on the mind of a reader who asked This is Money an unusual question: I’m inheriting £10 million, should I set up an investment trust? So, what is the answer to that? And finally, a new report has revealed Britain’s best places for customer service – did your favourite make the list?
Guests: Tanya Jefferies
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As GCSE and 'A' Level exam season sets in across the nation, students will no doubt be contemplating their futures. Given that it's Learning at Work Week — and there’s an ongoing rise in those seeking university alternatives — it’s probably time we chatted about apprenticeships. Joining Adam Cox now to do just that is Matt Butcher from New College Swindon and Darran Marks from the Swindon and Wiltshire Institute of Technology.
Guests: Matt Butcher,Darran Marks
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Original Broadcast: Thought for the Week
Individual achievement is recognised in many walks of life, and that recognition spurs people on to achieve even greater things. With education, good exam results and university entrance are celebrated, but this doesn't do much for those who find it difficult to get started in the first place. That's why The Share Foundation's introduction of incentivised learning is so important for young people in care, achieving an attitudinal transformation as they progress through the six-step Stepladder course. We need acceptance of incentivised learning to break the cycle of deprivation. Background music: 'Everything Has a Beginning' by Joel Cummins
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As the Party Conference season draws to a close, we check out last week's rather lacklustre Conservative event and add some thoughts to Sunak's agenda for education. Meanwhile, for those more focused on how to invest and still meet the net zero targets, don't miss the Sustain:Social Investing Conference on Saturday 21st October! https://sustain.social Background music: 'Communicator' by Reed Mathis
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Original Broadcast: Thought for the Week
Last week Jerome Mayhew MP drew attention to the dire state of financial education in the UK: a recent survey for Parliament suggested that 62% of young people had no recollection of being taught about finance in school. But how can it be given proper recognition among teaching staff when there's no Financial Awareness GCSE? Meanwhile King's College Entrepreneurship Lab has launched an inaugural essay competition for Year 12 and 13 students, designed to encourage UK Sixth Form students to pursue entrepreneurial aspirations and to understand better how to launch an enterprise. Great idea — let's give it the oxygen of publicity! Background music: 'The Plan's Working' by Cooper Cannell.
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Original Broadcast: Thought for the Week
Dame Meg Hillier is Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, which has published its 25-page report into Child Trust Funds following the recent National Audit Office analysis. HMRC is asked to follow a series of recommendations to link young adults to their unclaimed accounts, including getting account providers to take more action. Young adults from disadvantaged households are most in need of the c. £2,000 waiting to be claimed in their Child Trust but an estimated one million 18-20 year-olds are not claiming their money because they don't know anything about it. As we said on 22nd May, don't waste the Child Trust Fund harvest! Background music: The Plan's Working - Cooper Cannell Image by Richard Townshend
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