IPPO Newsletter No.4: Action On Inequalities follow-ups and news of two more education-focused IPPO events

Welcome to the latest newsletter from the International Public Policy Observatory (IPPO).

Since our last update, we’ve hosted our first Action On Inequalities event, during which more than 270 policymakers, academics and other experts from all over the UK met to discuss priority needs and actions to ensure that pandemic recovery strategies are as inclusive and meaningful as possible. Find out more about this event and our follow-up plans below.

This newsletter also gives details of two upcoming IPPO events relating to (i) the many impacts of school, college and university closures during the pandemic, and how best to respond to these; and (ii) how the future of online learning has been affected and enhanced by COVID-19.

As ever, we’d love to hear from you, whether you are a policymaker in need of more evidence to inform difficult decisions, or a researcher seeking to inform that decision-making process with your work. Please get in touch via the links provided, or by emailing us at ippo@ucl.ac.uk.

Action On Inequalities

IPPO’s focus on the many complex and intersecting social impacts of COVID-19 led us to host our biggest virtual event yet in mid-June. A wonderfully diverse range of attendees included plenary speakers such as Will Hutton (President of the Academy of Social Sciences), Danny Dorling (Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford), Hetan Shah (Chief Executive of the British Academy) and Professor Alison Park (the ESRC’s Interim Executive Chair).

Our main focus was on practical actions, and a key message that emerged was that COVID-related social policy responses need to better address intersectionality – a concept closely related to older ideas about multiple disadvantage, complex needs and social exclusion.

The event’s chair, Professor Sir Geoff Mulgan, offers his thoughts on the event in this IPPO report, which makes the case for social multipliers as one way to guide the policy prioritisation – by ‘identifying policies or actions that will have the most impact across multiple kinds of inequality, ideally in a dynamic way that has growing impact over time’.

Working group follow-ups

Our Action On Inequalities event also included seven working group sessions, covering the following topic areas:

• jobs and precariousness;
• Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities;
• gender-sensitive recovery;
• how to include disabled voices in recovery planning;
• spatial and regional inequalities;
• recovery needs of young adults; and
• data inequalities, gaps and deficiencies.

In all cases, the working groups will continue to develop and build on these discussions, whether through blogs, evidence reviews or further events. If you would like to know more about a particular group’s findings so far, or have questions or insights that you would like to share, don’t hesitate to email us at ippo@ucl.ac.uk

Upcoming IPPO events

The Future of Online Learning: What have we learned about emergency remote education during COVID-19, and what do we take forward?

On Tuesday 27 July (11am-12.15pm), we will be hosting a virtual roundtable to discuss the initial findings from IPPO’s ‘deep dive’ systematic review of evidence relating to issues including: the motivation and engagement of secondary-age students during school closures; emerging online assessment practices; new approaches for peer collaboration; and impacts on parent engagement. Above all, we are seeking to answer the question: What emerging uses of online and blended learning approaches in secondary schools could continue to be implemented going forward?

The event will feature a presentation by the review lead, Dr Melissa Bond. To reserve a place, you can register now using this Eventbrite link. If you have any questions about the event, email the team at  ippo@ucl.ac.uk . You will receive joining instructions and information a week before the meeting.

IPPO Rapid Evidence Reviews: What harms did closing educational institutions during the pandemic cause, and how should these harms be mitigated?

The findings from four IPPO Rapid Evidence Reviews assessing the impact of the pandemic on children and young people in education, commissioned by the UK Department for Education, will be presented at a special IPPO event on Thursday 9 September (11am-1pm).

These reviews synthesise the best-available research evidence on the impact of the pandemic on children and young people in education and their parents by age group: primary years and lower-secondary (reception to year 11); sixth form, colleges and further and technical education; and higher education. Parents/carers are covered in their own review. The reviews will help policymakers better understand the short- and longer-term indirect harms of COVID-19, and how these can be mitigated.

Further reading: recent IPPO blogs on tackling inequalities

Here’s a summary of blogs and case studies that IPPO has published recently as part of our work to better understand the relationship between COVID-19 and socioeconomic inequalities, and how best to address these in any pandemic response plan.

• COVID-19 has made the case for addressing inequality more compelling than ever. We cannot afford to ignore it – Ian Goldin
• For the ‘COVID decade’ ahead, the UK’s intersecting inequalities demand interconnected solutions – Molly Morgan Jones, Joanna Thornborough and Alex Mankoo
• The inequality of trust – and why addressing this issue is crucial to a meaningful recovery from COVID-19 – Joanna Chataway and Molly Morgan Jones

Gender

• Northern Ireland’s Feminist Recovery Plan: why COVID-19 recovery requires a gender-sensitive approach – Jayne Finlay
• Gender inequality and COVID-19: why ‘building back better’ can’t just mean a return to pre-pandemic ‘normal’ – Clara Fischer
• How COVID-19 widened the gender research gap as women were left juggling caring and career duties – INGSA case study

Black, Asian & minority ethnic communities

• To address ethnic inequalities in COVID-19, we must acknowledge the multifaceted influence of racism – Saffron Karlsen
• Watch this IPPO-Conversation webinar on the truth about racial inequalities and COVID-19 – and what should be done to address the long-term impacts?
• The value of keeping ethnic ties: why adherence to recommended COVID-19 health behaviours differs among young adults – Angus Holford, Renee Luthra and Adeline Delavande

Other IPPO inequalities blogs

• How should we use algorithms to tackle, not widen, social inequalities as part of the COVID-19 recovery? – Zeynep Engin
• Which housing inequalities have been amplified by COVID-19, and what can be done to make the situation fairer for renters? – Amy Clair
• Danger at work: tracking the multi-layered risks of being a casual worker during COVID-19 – INGSA case study
• How to boost UK jobs and skills after the pandemic: four priority areas for action – Geoff Mulgan

Join IPPO’s specialist network

And finally, a key element of IPPO’s strategy is to develop a network of topic specialists who can advise on, review and even author our various content streams. If you are interested in joining this network, please fill in this short survey and we will get in touch with more details.

IPPO is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the UK’s largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. Read more about the ESRC’s Observatories programme here.