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While the beleaguered Conservative party meets in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its next steps. Doubt remains if a clear direction exists at all. These are tough times for a governing group that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to voters.

What Could Have Been

Things could have turned out so different if concrete steps had been made on an priority that is important for people throughout the UK: Social mobility. Yet Boris Johnson’s government lacked the first clue on how to convert the popular slogan on social mobility into actual implementation. For the two years after the 2019 election, it argued over what the concept even meant.

It seemed strange to me, because I’d already told Johnson what social mobility meant when we first spoke about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was a term I developed and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. It was our departmental mantra, and its definition is straightforward: social mobility is the approach by which we realize fair chances – not by taking opportunity away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by providing chances to those that don’t.

The Core Concept

An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly around the UK, yet chances are not”, served as a purposeful phrase, representing the dual components of a fairness agenda. To begin with, ability distributed uniformly but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Additionally, opportunities not spread evenly by businesses or our market. Therefore, education and business were key to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an agenda about the societal structure of our country – investing in human talent and providing access to chances.

The Actual Outcome

What did levelling up become under the previous government? A towns fund administered out of the the relevant ministry. Hanging baskets and redeveloped traffic systems. A government strategy was released nearly three years after Johnson became leader, which saw current strategies rebadged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the improvement that it could have inspired – in capital, business, financial planning, taxation and in local regeneration. Moreover, in schooling, including a university system that has become a target for politicians of all stripes – even though it remains the primary vehicle of social mobility for individuals from less privileged homes, including myself, this country has had in recent decades. Maybe the primary source of fair chances, working extensively.

Why Hope Matters

Aspiration is crucial for our country to succeed. To foster ambition, there needs to be a credible sense that dedication and outcome are related; that if people aim high, they can attain. For any government, being able to create a sense of optimism about the tomorrow is important. Analysis by the Institute for Policy Research at Bath University and others, newly available, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I established during my tenure – place-based approaches to improving education outcomes – led to students in those areas being up to nearly one-fifth more hopeful about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these programmes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an genuine beginning on equal chance initiatives can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their destiny.

Squandered Chances

Ignoring this evidence, and in the middle of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in autumn 2022, the Conservative government terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a organization that did that? The targeted programme is a clear case of what could have been a game-changing Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that opportunity was completely wasted. Methods such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. On the other hand, as the Tories learned, breaking the promise of fair chances is the most expensive error any government can make. The electorate penalized the government for its ineffectiveness but, perhaps most of all, for its broken promises on social mobility.

Present Circumstances

Currently the responsibility on life chances and equal chances has passed to a opposition party. The old slogan has been abandoned. Labour has its own policy language of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The organization that is gradually replacing the failing Conservative party, the challenger, also has its own terminology – “reindustrialisation”. The terminology to talk about additional chances in areas like the one I was raised in, in the region. It promises that an former economic strength can revive into an modern manufacturing sector.

For the public, it must feel like a repetitive cycle. Same issue, alternative phrasing. However, so far, no progress.

What Must Change

Should the current and alternative parties want to avoid the identical outcome, the respective organizations should take lessons from the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is simple terminology, but successful delivery of fairer outcomes is much harder. Our nation’s endemically weak equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with young people unable to get a good job beginning, those working hard in full-time jobs with minimal progress after the housing costs are covered, and individuals nationwide without any genuine belief their offspring will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can talk about improved access repeatedly. Yet where is the organization that has the complete plan on life chances? None appear to exist. The first to achieve this, prevails. Not just for their party, but, significantly, for a entire nation that has never needed equal access so urgently.