Hettie Burn

📢 We’re hiring at CeMPA @ISERessex!
Join our cutting-edge research team to work on dynamic microsimulation (SimPaths) & tackle key policy issues: inequality, ageing, health & more.

Apply now:

Loved working in the intersection of heath and edu policy for this one.

In recent years many LAs have restricted the opening of new fast food outlets near schools. However more evidence is needed to inform these policies and (🤞) to defend them in the courts. So we're working on that evidence!

It’s great to now have this evidence. It also shows why ministerial/HMT demands for more evidence before approving spending can be misguided. As @instituteforgovernment.org.uk previously argued it takes at least 5yrs to gather evidence for big preventive programmes. Ministers need to show leadership

I'm back! Helping to deliver policy training here definitely my favourite side hustle

There are some real positive signs in the latest ITT recruitment data of improvement vs last year, especially in secondary. I will hold off updating the forecast until tomorrow, when targets are published.

But it's interesting to see where the growth is and isn't coming from...🧵

A level of uncertainty: How to resolve the debate over the future of Level 7 apprenticeships - Social Market Foundation. former government adviser Tom Richmond's analysis challenges the view of high-level apprenticeships are beneficial for social mobility

My new report with @smfthinktank.bsky.social shows that 1 in 6 ‘apprentices’ are now university graduates, while the number of entry-level apprenticeships (aimed at school and college leavers) has collapsed from 260,650 in 2017 to 70,840 in 2024.

Find out more here:
bit.ly/3DXrd2S

Fascinating paper by Claudia Goldin on drivers of low fertility in advanced economies.

Countries where economic progress outstrips social progress (in particular, gender equality in household division of labour) see the most rapid falls in fertility..

www.nber.org/papers/w33311

Proposed post-16 policy options include looking again at maths & English, improving employment links in schools and colleges, and specific funding to reflect the multifaceted challenges faced by learners in general FE

Also the room was INCREDIBLE! Just look at those murals 😍

Happy to have been invited to the University of Westminster today! Some strong challenges to the 2014 Wolf reforms posed by Pete Urwin: potentially negative employment effects for the ~10-15% lowest attaining

Thank you Tom! Your insight was so valuable.

Lastly - given my usual wheelhouse is policy evaluation - if you'd like some quantitative evidence about the impact of the policy and the difficult position that teachers were put in, check out my paper (with @rabe-b.bsky.social & Laura Fumagalli) here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... 💛

The wider book explores the ethical dilemmas teachers face daily. Such discussions are vital, given the hundreds of decisions educators make, often balancing individual students' needs against their peers'. Yet, ed-ethics remains sidelined in our training. This project provides tools to change that.

Called "a real-life prisoner’s dilemma" by @samfr.bsky.social. The starting point of @sammywright.bsky.social’s critique of our obsession with grades. Here's my take, enriched by a transcribed discussion with the incomparable @dylanwiliam.bsky.social, @tom-richmond.com, Diana Beech and Josiah Isles.

Educational Equity in a Global Context How do we reconcile individual student needs with the demands of school, district, and national education programs? What are school-based professionals to do in…

In 2020 and 2021, the Department for Education in England implemented widely controversial policies on student grading, and in-so-doing laid bare some of the deep tensions and inequalities in our existing system. This week I published a book chapter on it: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/education....

Treatment effects of Universal FSM on bodyweight outcomes

🚀🌤️ New paper with Angus Holford out in Journal of Health Economics! Switching to universal free school meals reduces obesity in kids in England. Larger effects for younger children, but benefits seem cumulative over time.
Paper here 👇
tinyurl.com/yc7y2azm