Social Mobility Must Be A Conservative Priority

The report from Alan Milburn’s cross party panel on access to the professions is a well thought out, devastating and serious one.  It summarises one of the biggest challenges facing our country – and something that must be an absolute priority for us after the next election. 

According to the report, we live in a country, where after 12 years of Labour Government, the advantages of birth are now more, rather than less, important in determining life chances.  We live in a country in which the 7% of people who attend independent schools are massively over represented in all of the professions.  We live in a country where, according to the report, “access to the professions is becoming the preserve of a smaller and smaller part of the social spectrum.”  Put simply, this is just not good enough.  We have to (unlike some bloggers such as Iain Dale) treat the problem with the seriousness it deserves.

The decline of social mobility is one of the greatest failures of New Labour.  During twelve years of Government, their public service thinking didn’t move (apart from a handful of true believers on the Blairite wing) to reforming structures to enhance social mobility.  Twelve years of New Labour has failed to address the social and structural problems in the UK that hold people back.

This is why we need to hold firm on our proposals for reforming the public services, particularly education and welfare.  Opportunity for all and making EVERY career genuinely open to talent must be the slogans that should guide us.  Rightly, we will judged by our effectiveness in delivering a new wave of social mobility.  I have little doubt that we will deliver.

Related posts:

1. We Need Bold Action To Improve Social Mobility
2. Wasting time on things that aren’t a priority
3. Being the party of social justice
4. Yes, THIS is what social responsibility means
5. What have you been doing for the past 11 years, Mr Prescott?