As the struggling Conservative party meets in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has much to ponder regarding its next steps. It’s not even clear if a clear direction is available. We are in difficult days for a governing group that now has almost nothing, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.
The Missed Opportunity
Things could have turned out so different if tangible progress had been made on an priority that resonates with people nationwide: Equal opportunity. Yet Boris Johnson’s government did not possess the first clue on how to transform the popular slogan on levelling up into concrete action. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it debated what the concept truly represented.
I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what social mobility signified when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about life chances. This became our departmental mantra, and its meaning is straightforward: social mobility is the approach by which we achieve fair chances – not by taking chances away from those who already have it, but rather by providing options to those that are without.
Fundamental Idea
An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, however access isn’t”, again was a purposeful phrase, embodying the two halves of a social mobility strategy. First, talent spread evenly but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Furthermore, access not provided uniformly by businesses or our economic system. As a result, schools and companies were essential to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This was an mission about the social fabric of our country – investing in people’s potential and linking them with prospects.
The Reality of Implementation
What did levelling up evolve into under the Tory administration? Local investment schemes overseen from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Street beautification and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A white paper was launched almost thirty-six months after the Prime Minister took office, which saw existing policy approaches repackaged under the recently branded agenda.
Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the reform that it could have inspired – in investment, commerce, financial planning, revenue and in local regeneration. Moreover, in learning, including a university system that has become a scapegoat for politicians of all stripes – although it remains the most powerful engine of upward movement for individuals from less privileged homes, including myself, this country has had in recent decades. Maybe the sole mechanism of equal opportunity, working extensively.
The Importance of Aspiration
Aspiration is crucial for our country to thrive. For hope to exist, there needs to be a realistic expectation that effort and reward are connected; that if people aspire, they can attain. For all administrations, being able to instil a outlook of positivity about the tomorrow is critical. Research by the research body at Bath University and others, published last month, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I launched while in office – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to young people in those areas being up to a significant margin more hopeful about their prospects than those in comparable communities without these programmes in place. The data shows: just making an authentic start on equal chance initiatives can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their prospects.
Squandered Chances
Unaware of these findings, and in the middle of its new leader election, in September 2022, the Tory administration ended the initiatives. Why should any person in those communities vote for a political group that made that decision? This specific initiative is a clear case of what could have been a game-changing Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that possibility was totally misused. Methods such as this can create belief and drive. On the other hand, as the Conservatives discovered, failing to deliver of fair chances is the costliest mistake any leadership can make. The electorate penalized the leadership for its ineffectiveness but, above all, for its failed pledges on social mobility.
Today’s Political Reality
Now the mandate on social mobility and fair access has been transferred to a opposition party. The previous terminology has been abandoned. The current administration has its own public messaging of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The political group that is gradually replacing the failing incumbents, the challenger, also has its own message – “reindustrialisation”. It’s a phrase to talk about new opportunities in communities like the one I come from, in the region. It suggests that an historical manufacturing base can reincarnate into an revitalized economy.
For the public, it must seem like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Same issue, different language. But – as yet – no results.
The Way Forward
Should the current and alternative parties want to prevent the same fate, the respective organizations should learn from the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is one thing, but successful delivery of fairer outcomes is much harder. Britain’s endemically weak life chances remains the key issue for our country, with young people unable to get a good job beginning, those putting in effort in employment with few results after the living expenses are met, and citizens throughout the UK without any genuine belief their children will be able to do improve in life than they have.
Elected officials can mention improved access however much they like. Yet where is the organization that has the complete plan on life chances? I see none. The first to achieve this, wins. Not just for their organization, but, crucially, for a complete society that has never needed equal access so urgently.
