The coalition government has embraced much of New Labour’s approach to public service reform but ditched the targets and direction that made its policies work
David Cameron’s closest coalition colleagues are said to follow a ‘cult of Blair’ on domestic reforms. They proceed with pace, avoiding Tony Blair’s lament that he acted too slowly. They proudly display the scars on their backs from opposition to their changes.
And they are extending some New Labour initiatives in health and education. But they have parted company with its ‘investment and reform’ approach in important ways – and that might be their downfall.
The first relates to targets, which helped Labour to drastically reduce hospital waiting lists and the number of secondary schools with low test scores. In 1997, there were 1,600 secondary schools where fewer than 30% of pupils gained five good GCSEs, including English and Maths. This year, there are only 82.
Education Secretary Michael Gove has extended such floor targets for schools – he calls them ‘floor standards’ to avoid the ‘T’ word. But his Cabinet colleague Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has stopped enforcing the NHS waiting time limits of 18 weeks for treatment and four hours for Accident and Emergency. Already, waiting lists are rising, with a 12% increase in those waiting longer than 18 weeks since June. The horror stories of long A&E trolley waits – which prompted Blair’s targets – are likely to return too.
The second and no less important lever is money. This is not about increasing the overall pot – fiscal restraint precludes this – but ensuring that resources are focused where they can best secure improvement. Gove and Lansley are both ignoring this lever.
In Labour’s first term, literacy and numeracy targets were accompanied by earmarked money for books and teacher training. School sports partnerships were launched to target money on employing teachers to increase participation and competition. Specialist schools were funded to develop networks with local schools, helping preserve language and increase science take-up. With all such funds came expected outcomes. All these have fallen to the coalition’s axe, despite a temporary sports reprieve.
Contrast this with the new government’s much-vaunted pupil premium. Schools will receive an extra £430 for every child claiming free school meals but can spend it as they wish. So, as they try to balance their budgets this month, some will simply use the cash to plug other funding gaps.
And that’s the biggest problem with the coalition approach, and where they lose sight of New Labour’s practical focus on end results. Blair certainly wanted more independence for schools, promoting trust schools as well as academies, and would support extending academy freedoms to other schools.
But he never lost sight of the social mission of academies. Replacing failing schools in disadvantaged areas helped to regenerate poorer communities, raise expectations and change the mindset of teachers, pupils and parents in the process.
By contrast, the coalition has seemed more obsessed with a crude numbers game, bragging about the number of academy conversions – which require only modest legal changes – rather than establishing more good schools.
The Public Accounts Committee said recently that, as a result: ‘It cannot be assumed that academies’ performance to date is an accurate predictor of how the model will perform when generalised over many more schools.’
But it added: ‘If well directed, however, a policy of combining high-performing schools and greatly improved sponsored academies into one programme has the potential to drive further substantial improvements, and create opportunities that would also benefit the majority of schools that sit outside the programme.’
And that’s the point. Decentralisation can allow real innovation and reduce needless bureaucracy. But improvement in the Blair years was not simply about letting go: there was direction as well as devolution. Gove’s recent appointment of Liz Sidwell as schools commissioner and his decision to continue earmarked school music funding suggest he has at least begun to recognise this.
Unless the coalition provides strong targets and well-directed support, as well as diversity and independence, its reforms will fail – especially with money tight. But if it gets it right, it can make a difference to the quality of public services.
Conor Ryan was senior adviser on education to David Blunkett and Tony Blair
