Are England’s youngest children getting the best possible start? Or are too many beginning school already behind?

One of the government’s five ‘missions’ is to break down barriers to opportunity by tackling inequalities in early childhood. Its ‘Best Start in Life’ strategy aims for 75% of children to reach a ‘good level of development’ by age five - but with only 68% meeting that bar today, how ambitious is that goal, and what will it take to get there?

In this episode of IFS Zooms In, Helen Miller is joined by Christine Farquharson (Associate Director, IFS) and Carey Oppenheim (Nuffield Foundation) to discuss:

• Why the early years matter for long-term outcomes
• The role of childcare, parenting and home environment
• What the evidence says works to close development gaps
• How government policy can (and can’t) deliver change

📩 We want your questions for our final Q&A episode! Send them – voice notes welcome – to podcasts@ifs.org.uk or comment on the episode.

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Is the UK heading for a fiscal crisis? Or can policymakers still steer the public finances back to a sustainable path?

The Office for Budget Responsibility’s latest Fiscal Risks and Sustainability report warns that, without action, UK government debt could climb above 270% of GDP by the 2070s - driven by rising borrowing, an ageing population, and the fiscal impacts of climate change.

In this episode of IFS Zooms In, Helen Miller (Director, Institute for Fiscal Studies) is joined by Richard Hughes (Chair, OBR) and Ben Zaranko (Associate Director, IFS) to explore the forces shaping the long-term outlook for the public finances, the 50 risks highlighted by the OBR, and what can be done now to avoid a crisis later.

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Has Keir Starmer’s Labour government really brought in a “new way of doing government”? Or are its five missions more rhetoric than reality?

To mark the one-year anniversary of Labour’s 2024 general election victory, the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Institute for Government held a joint event exploring the government’s approach to governing – and whether its decisions, trade-offs and spending priorities reflect a genuinely mission-driven approach.

In this episode of IFS Zooms In, we bring you the recording of that event, hosted by Hannah White (Director, Institute for Government), with panelists Helen Miller (Director, Institute for Fiscal Studies), Stephen Bush (Columnist, Financial Times) and Gemma Tetlow (Chief Economist, Institute for Government).

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Find out more: https://ifs.org.uk/podcasts-explainers-and-calculators/podcasts

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