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While the struggling 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 viable path remains open. These are challenging circumstances for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

An Alternate Reality

The situation might have been so different if real advances had been made on an policy focus that is important for people nationwide: Social mobility. However Boris Johnson’s government hadn’t got the basic understanding on how to convert his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into concrete action. For the two years after the general election, it argued over what the term actually signified.

It seemed strange to me, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what social mobility signified when we initially discussed about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was language I created and used at the DfE to talk about life chances. This became our departmental mantra, and its purpose is unambiguous: social mobility is the method by which we achieve equal access – not through reducing prospects away from those who possess it, but rather by providing options to those that don’t.

Fundamental Idea

Another crucial DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly around the UK, yet chances are not”, represented another a deliberate expression, reflecting the two parts of a social mobility strategy. Initially, talent spread evenly but not nurtured uniformly through our education system. Second, access not provided uniformly by employers or our economic system. Thus, education and business were key to achieving stronger social mobility. This was an priority about the social fabric of our country – investing in human talent and providing access to prospects.

What Levelling Up Became

What did the social mobility agenda become under the previous government? A towns fund overseen from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Street beautification and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A white paper was published almost thirty-six months after Johnson became leader, which saw existing policy approaches repackaged under the new levelling up banner.

Therefore, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went undeveloped, as well as all the reform that it could have inspired – in funding, business, fiscal strategy, tax and in community development. And, of course, in schooling, including a tertiary education that has become a target for elected officials – despite the fact that it remains the strongest driver of social mobility for youth from modest backgrounds, personally, this country has had over the past 30 years. Possibly the only engine of fair chances, functioning widely.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is vital for our country to thrive. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a believable feeling that hard work and results are linked; that if people dream big, they can succeed. For all administrations, being able to foster a feeling of hope about the tomorrow is critical. Research 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 youth in those communities being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their future than those in comparable communities without these initiatives in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on equal chance initiatives can rapidly and effectively change how people perceive their destiny.

Lost Potential

Unaware of these findings, and in the middle of its successor selection process, in autumn 2022, the Conservative government ended the initiatives. Why should any person in those communities vote for a organization that took that action? This specific initiative is one example of what might have become a transformative Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that opportunity was hopelessly squandered. Methods such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the Tories learned, failing to deliver of social mobility is the biggest blunder any government can make. The public penalized the administration for its incompetence but, perhaps most of all, for its unfulfilled commitments on equal opportunity.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the responsibility on social mobility and fair access has passed to a Labour government. The old slogan has been cast off. The current administration has its own public messaging of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The organization that is steadily supplanting the failing incumbents, the challenger, also has its own terminology – “reindustrialisation”. This expression to talk about new opportunities in communities like the one I was raised in, in the region. It claims that an historical manufacturing base can reincarnate into an industrial future.

For the public, it must feel like a déjà vu experience. Same issue, new terminology. However, so far, no progress.

The Way Forward

Whether the government and opposition want to escape the same fate, the respective organizations should learn from the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is simple terminology, but successful delivery of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. The UK’s persistently low social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a decent career start, those putting in effort in employment with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can discuss fairer opportunities as much as they want. However, which party has the organization that has the thorough strategy on life chances? None appear to exist. The first to achieve this, succeeds. Not only for their organization, but, significantly, for a entire nation that has urgently needs equal access so urgently.