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Public Services for All > Published by James Mills, January 6th 2010 at 10:15 am

Cameron U-Turn on Education Maintenance Allowances

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By James Mills of the Save EMA campaign

David Cameron last night reversed the Conservative party’s position on the future of Education Maintenance Allowances at a Cameron Direct event in Hammersmith. He outlined his support for the scheme at odds with the position of senior Tories Chris Grayling and Michael Gove.

EMAs are means-tested allowances of between £10 and £30 paid to 16-to-19 year olds who stay in education and come from families where annual household income is below £30,000. They have come under sustained attack from right-wing groups.

david-cameronMr Cameron has previously refused to give a “straight answer” on EMAs. He told Sky News in November 2007,

“Well we’re in a state of quite severe flux on this whole area of 16 to 18 education, so I can’t give you a straight answer on [EMAs] because we’re currently examining the government’s bill on effectively raising the school leaving age or saying that people have to be in education, employment or training until 18, we think there are some really practical problems and issues with that sort of compulsion and the EMA and the future of the EMA is going to be linked to that, and so I can’t give you an answer on that today I’m afraid. We have to wait to see what the government is going to propose before we can respond.”`

But when asked to clarify his position at the event last night, Mr Cameron said:

“We’ve looked at Educational Maintenance Allowances and we haven’t announced any plan to get rid of them. They do often if you go to schools and ask people what they think of them and ask young people themselves, they get quite a mixed reception actually because some people can see them as a bit divisive, but no we don’t have any plans to get rid of them.

When pushed to answer whether he supported EMAs, Cameron responded “Yes”. After the event CCHQ spokespersons refused to comment on the matter.

Previously the Conservative party and those on the right have held a highly negative opinion of EMAs. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling described them as doing “absolutely nothing to help solve this country’s chronic skills shortage.” Michael Gove, the Shadow Children’s Secretary, has called the EMA a flop.

Rightwing think-tanks have been even more disparaging about the EMA in the last year. Policy Exchange called for it to be axed in their publication ‘School Funding and Social Justice‘. Reform advocate scrapping the scheme with senior researcher Dale Bassett telling the Guardian last October that “this is not an effective way of spending over half a billion pounds of the education budget.” The Institute of Directors and TaxPayers’ Alliance called for the EMA to be axed late last year in their joint publication ‘How to Save £50 Billion‘.

Could the u-turn be in response to the weight of evidence which supports the success of the EMA?

For example, research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows attainment at GCSE and A-level by recipients of EMA has risen by 5 to 7 percentage points since its introduction, and by even more for those living in the most deprived neighbourhoods. In addition, RCU Market Research Services carried out research on the national scheme and published a report called Evaluation of the EMA National Roll-out 2007, which concluded:

“Overall, the analysis of learner data seems to provide evidence that EMA has had a positive impact on the retention, achievement and success of certain groups of learners. Those benefiting most appear to be from groups that are traditionally associated with lower levels of achievement such as: male learners; learners from minority ethnic groups; those with backgrounds of high deprivation and learners on lower level and vocational courses.”

Ipsos MORI published a report in 2008 called Evaluation of Extension of Education Maintenance Allowance to Entry-to-Employment and Programme Led Apprenticeships. This report reached similar conclusions to the RCU research:

“EMA is reducing NEET and also motivating learners to work harder. Where the bonus system is being used alongside attainment criteria there has been achievement/attainment of learner outcomes. The data also suggests that behaviour targets are useful, being reported as more effective at reducing NEET than other criteria (despite being less frequently used as targets and coursework incentives)”

If you want to keep up with the Save EMA campaign you can join the Facebook group or follow it on Twitter.

Update I: 1216hrs

Gordon Brown must be reading Left Foot Forward. He just used Cameron’s comments from yesterday evening on Education Maintenance Allowances in Prime Minister’s Questions.

Update II: 1827hrs

Earlier today we reported that David Cameron said, “Let’s just say I’m not uncommitted to it.” In light of a video made available to Left Foot Forward, we accept that this is not the form of words that Cameron used at the event and have amended the story accordingly. Nonetheless, the substantive point remains that David Cameron’s comments last night amounted to a U-Turn on his and his party’s previous statements.

  • http://twitter.com/jamesmills1984/status/7437815113 James Mills

    RT @ChukaUmunna @JohnPrescott @Kevin_Maguire Cameron U-turn on Education Maintenance Allowances at Cameron Direct event http://bit.ly/5x26rR

  • http://twitter.com/jamesmills1984/status/7437852697 James Mills

    RT @pickledpolitics Cameron U-turn on Education Maintenance Allowances at Cameron Direct event http://bit.ly/5x26rR

  • http://www.ubervu.com/conversations/www.leftfootforward.org/2010/01/cameron-u-turn-on-education-maintenance-allowances/ uberVU – social comments

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by leftfootfwd: Cameron u-turns on Education Maintenance Allowances at Cameron Direct event http://bit.ly/5x26rR...

  • http://www.policyexchange.org.uk Neil O’Brien

    It’s probably worth pointing out that in the Policy Exchange paper we suggested spending the EMA money on a pupil premium – improving resources for schools in deprived areas. You say we are in favour of “axing” it which sounds a bit different.

    The EMA is, in effect, a massive dead weight cost – providing payment to 46% of learners, the vast majority of whom would have been in post-16 education in any case.

    We find it would be far better to spend the money on earlier intervention which will be more cost effective, and more focussed on the poorest.

    The question is *not* whether it does any good – for £550 million we should get certainly see some positive results. The question is whether it is the best use of the money.

    A recent analysis published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests that there may have been an increase of just 2% in the number of female participants post-16 and no increase at all in the number of male participants. Just 400 extra children on FSM have stayed on to do A-levels since 2004.

    For the (huge) sum on money spent on EMA we suggest that we could achieve much more with earlier and more focussed intervention.

  • http://twitter.com/wdjstraw/status/7438891872 Will Straw

    Brown uses evidence on EMAs from @leftfootfwd in #PMQs http://bit.ly/5x26rR

  • http://twitter.com/nextleft/status/7439271225 Sunder Katwala

    RT @leftfootfwd U-turn on Education Maintenance Allowances at Cameron Direct event http://bit.ly/5x26rR

  • http://twitter.com/shanechowen/status/7441317186 Shane Chowen

    David Cameron finally throws the Conservative Party in support of EMA! I wonder if Gove knows… : http://tinyurl.com/yevnjfj

  • http://twitter.com/richardvreeves/status/7449362748 Richard Reeves

    What the Tories really think of Educational Maintenance Allowances? Cameron warming to them it seems http://tiny.cc/HL46C. I'd cut them.

  • http://twitter.com/gedrobinson/status/7487847645 Ged Robinson

    RT @SaveEMA: RT @leftfootfwd U-turn on Education Maintenance Allowances at Cameron Direct event http://bit.ly/5x26rR

  • http://twitter.com/mohammedmahmed/status/7487983078 Mohammed Ahmed

    RT @gedrobinson: RT @SaveEMA: RT @leftfootfwd U-turn on Education Maintenance Allowances at Cameron Direct event http://bit.ly/5x26rR

  • Anon

    Whilst I know that the plural of anecdote is not data, I just thought it worth mentioning that, as a sixth-former, none of the people I know who receive EMA spend much of it on educational materials.

    Also, it may interest you to read this blog post:

    http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2010/01/is-left-foot-forward-really-evidence.html

  • http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/01/a-reply-to-iain-dale/ A reply to Iain Dale | Left Foot Forward

    [...] David Cameron, November 2007: “we think there are some really practical problems and issues with that sort of [...]

  • http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/01/look-left-the-week-in-fast-forward-08-01-10/ Look Left – The Week in Fast Forward | Left Foot Forward

    [...] Left Foot Forward has reported, the Conservatives this week u-turned on Educational Maintenance Allowances, marriage tax and scrapping NHS targets, with the Independent today revealing further volte-faces [...]

  • http://saveema.co.uk/?p=80 09/03/10 It’s time for all parties to be clear on EMA funding » Save EMA

    [...] the Conservative Party’s position on EMA is confusing, or confused. The Save EMA campaign has managed to get David Cameron on record to say he will not axe the [...]

  • http://twitter.com/younglabourite/status/13427615463 YoungLabourite

    @EricPickles perhaps you ought to read this article on Left Foot Forward on EMA and your constant u'turns: http://alturl.com/kmyg

  • Daniel Harley

    EMA – nice to see the left is scare mongering students. I come from a working class family and I had EMA. I saved my EMA because I really didn’t need it. I got a job. Shouldn’t we encourage students to get a part time job rather than learn to rely on the state before they have even left full-time education?

  • Steph

    I went to college but was unable to get ema as it went on parents earnings the year before and the year before my father had a job the year after he didnt so i was left struggling to get to college and get the things i needed for college. i watched while the people who did get it spent it on computer games and music cds as often there parents were also on the dole and therefore had enough money back home anyway! also people who got EMA had a part time job too which meant they got alot more money on top of that, i found this rather unfair as i struggled to get a job no matter how much i tried. i found that with me not getting EMA i wasnt motivated to go to college as if i went to the classes there would be other people there who worked often a lot less harder than me but still got £30 a week for being there. I understand some people do deserve it, these are the people from one parent families, people with parents who are made redundant, people who have to travel a large distance everyday since the train i got was £8:40 for a return for a journey of 3o mins! I agree that EMA could be better spent unless it is equally shared between the population of post secondary educated people

  • http://twitter.com/jnapdr/status/13931902984 Jenna Pedder

    @Heaatherrr @Sadie_Marie the funny thing about all the shit in your year is Cameron doesn't even want to get rid of EMA http://bit.ly/5x26rR

  • http://clairefrench.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/are-fe-grants-coming-for-the-cut/ Are FE grants coming for the cut? « plurality. an alternative political and social thought.

    [...] it will be removed as a “waste” in the structural deficit repayment cuts. According to Left Foot Forward earlier this year, David Cameron commented: We’ve looked at Educational Maintenance Allowances [...]

  • http://twitter.com/kodiakjak/status/14244771451 Jessica Waugh

    @konstantines ah, okay. I googled it, no news yet. Also, http://bit.ly/5x26rR this says they have no plans of getting rid of it, from jan10

  • http://www.james-mills.co.uk/?p=75 It’s time for all parties to be clear on EMA funding | James Mills

    [...] the Conservative Party’s position on EMA is confusing, or confused. The Save EMA campaign has managed to get David Cameron on record to say he will not axe the [...]

  • http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/11/protest-violence-distracts-from-tory-u-turn-on-education-maintenance-allowances/ Protest violence distracts from Tory U-turn on Education Maintenance Allowances | Left Foot Forward

    [...] a single mention of cuts to EMAs and the Coalition Programme was also silent. But as reported by Left Foot Forward in January, David Cameron told a Cameron Direct event in Hammersmith: “We’ve looked at Educational [...]