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As the beleaguered Conservative party meets in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has plenty to consider regarding its next steps. Doubt remains if a clear direction is available. We are in difficult days for a governing group that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

The Missed Opportunity

It could have been markedly improved if tangible progress had been made on an policy focus that matters to people across the country: Social mobility. Yet the former leadership did not possess the first clue on how to convert the popular slogan on social mobility into policy reality. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it debated what the term truly represented.

I found it bizarre, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what social mobility meant when we initially discussed about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was language I created and used at the education ministry to talk about life chances. This became our core mission, and its purpose is unambiguous: levelling up is the means by which we attain equality of opportunity – not through reducing prospects away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by extending options to those that lack them.

The Core Concept

The other key education department term we used, “ability is distributed uniformly throughout the nation, however access isn’t”, again was a intentional wording, embodying the two halves of a social mobility strategy. Initially, talent spread evenly but not cultivated evenly through our learning institutions. Additionally, opportunities not spread evenly by the private sector or our economic system. Therefore, education and business were key to achieving better life chances. This represented an agenda about the societal structure of our country – investing in individual capabilities and providing access to chances.

What Levelling Up Became

How did the social mobility agenda become under the Tory administration? Local investment schemes managed by the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and redeveloped traffic systems. A white paper was released almost thirty-six months after the Prime Minister took office, which saw existing policy approaches repackaged under the new levelling up banner.

Consequently, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went unpursued, as well as all the improvement that it could have inspired – in funding, business, fiscal strategy, taxation and in community development. And, of course, in schooling, including a higher education sector that has become a punchbag for leaders across parties – although it remains the primary vehicle of life improvement for young working-class people, including myself, this country has had throughout modern times. Possibly the primary source of social mobility, operating at scale.

Why Hope Matters

Hope is crucial for our country to succeed. For hope to exist, 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 foster a outlook of positivity about the years ahead is critical. Studies by the academic institution at the university and others, newly available, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I introduced as education secretary – locally targeted strategies to boosting academic achievement – led to students in those areas being up to nearly one-fifth more hopeful about their prospects than those in similar areas without these initiatives in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on fair opportunity strategies can rapidly and effectively change how people view their prospects.

Squandered Chances

Ignoring this evidence, and in the middle of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in autumn 2022, the ruling party ended the initiatives. Why should any person in those communities vote for a political group that took that action? The targeted programme is a clear case of what had the potential to be a game-changing administration strategy on social mobility, but that chance was totally misused. Approaches such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. On the other hand, as the ruling party found out, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the biggest blunder any political party can make. The electorate punished the administration for its ineffectiveness but, above all, for its broken promises on social mobility.

The Current Landscape

Now the responsibility on life chances and equal chances has been transferred to a new administration. The old slogan has been cast off. Labour has its own policy language of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The party that is increasingly displacing the failing incumbents, Reform UK, also has its own message – “economic renewal”. This expression to talk about additional chances in areas like the one I come from, in South Yorkshire. It promises that an industrial past can be reborn into an modern manufacturing sector.

For voters, it must appear as a Groundhog Day-style loop. Same issue, alternative phrasing. But – as yet – no results.

What Must Change

Whether the government and opposition want to escape the identical outcome, the respective organizations should learn from the Tories’ mistakes on social mobility; that fair chance language is one thing, but effective implementation of fairer outcomes is significantly more difficult. Our nation’s persistently low social mobility remains the key issue for our country, with the next generation unable to get a good job beginning, those working hard in full-time jobs with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any genuine belief their children will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Leaders can talk about improved access however much they like. However, which party has the organization that has the thorough strategy on life chances? None appear to exist. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not just for their party, but, more importantly, for a complete society that has desperately requires equality of opportunity so desperately.