Amelia Lockhart, Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Business, Transport and Social Mobility, addressed an audience at IPPR’s head office.
Ladies and gentleman,
Thank you Matthew for that introduction. Under your leadership, IPPR has continued to fly the flag for evidence-led approaches to public services that deliver real results for our country.
Tonight I want to set out a few things on the topic of a ‘new public services agenda’. But as I do, I am conscious that I am not who you expected to hear from. The Secretary of State for Education was going to make a few remarks on her ambitious agenda to drive up standards in our schools after delivering record investment at the most recent Budget.
However, as Deputy Prime Minister, I hope that a few remarks will make do for such a discerning audience. After all, the changes that we make to our public services matters hugely to my departmental focuses. As Secretary of State for Business, Transport, and Social Mobility, I am deeply conscious - and appreciative - of the role that public services have in supporting our economy and our businesses - they are also vital for driving up social mobility in this country.
It is through recognising this fact - that our economy and businesses cannot flourish without vibrant public services that deliver improvements in their work and lift up standards - that Labour since 1997 has focused so much on our public services. Let us take a few moments to remind ourself of what Labour inherited:
- crumbling classrooms unsuited to providing a modern education to our children
- a run down NHS with ever-lengthening waiting lists and times
- an approach to public services that neglected the need for investment and that put ideology above patients, pupils, and our country
- record levels of investment in our schools, including a £1.5 billion Future Classrooms programme
- a NHS on the up with falling waiting lists and times
- a focus on practicality and evidence when it comes to public services, focusing on outcomes and not ideology
Indeed, I believe that Sure Start is a far more powerful helping hand to all families than, for example, reintroducing the Married Couples Allowance will ever be.
But I know - and the Government knows - that there is so much more we can do to improve our public services, to ensure they are fully supportive of all our families, and to maximise the efficiency of every pound we spent. Our commitment to fiscal responsibility isn’t just about ensuring we maintain a surplus and pay down our debt; it is also about committing ourselves to public value - and ensuring we are doing the most good with public funding.
For improvements to be sustainable in our public services, it needs to research and evidence-led. That requires listening to the experts, not our ideological impulses. It means taking difficult decisions, as well as those that pay off over the long term. For too long, under the last few governments prior to 1997, our public services have been subject to the ‘rule of whims’, where politicians make decisions based on what is quick, easy, and attracts the headlines.
While Labour rejects that approach, I fear it is making a resurgence under the leadership of the Conservative Party. We cannot allow any government in the future to make policy choices based on vague notions, ignoring best practices and failing to take advantage of expertise. After all ideology and vague notions aren’t much use to a child forced to learn in an overcrowded classroom or a patient waiting months for vital care.
And it is important to remember that place is a vital part of any public service reform agenda. Too often, policymakers have forgotten the different challenges our communities face. Imposing structures or other one-size-fits-all approaches fails to recognise place and the different assets they have. We have seen that from the former Leader of the Opposition in recent days.
When it comes to City Academies, we recognise the value of place. There is no one-size-fits-all approach but advocates particular solutions for particular issues. Of course, there is a shared ambition: delivering high standards and being ambitious for every child in areas of significant deprivation, low social mobility, and low social disadvantage. But how those aims translate into practice is context specific, with the appropriate interventions made.
And the Government is committed to expanding the available policies to make those specific, context-related interventions that drive up standards in our schools and deliver the best possible education to every child. What this doesn’t require is a return to Grammar Schools and divisive rhetorical flourishes about parents being ‘chained’ to schools. These ideas may play well in the newspapers, but they don’t stack up when you consider the evidence.
I know the Education Secretary is looking at how we can utilise cooperative models in our school system. There is evidence to suggest that applying co-operative values in our schools would be beneficial, especially as it provides strong measures for accountability and democracy that parents can use. While it is up to the Education Secretary to make the precise announcements, I’m sure all of us welcome a willingness to support new and different ways to ensure our public services work well for the public.
Following a budget that delivered significant and sustainable new investment in our schools and hospitals, we must continue to be relentless in our commitment to ensuring every pound is spent effectively for the public and our families. A new public services agenda requires a bedrock of evidence and expertise as well as a mindset favouring reform. That is what this Government will deliver, and I look forward to working with you all.
Thank you.