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As the beleaguered Tories convenes in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a clear direction exists at all. We are in difficult days for a governing group that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

What Could Have Been

The situation might have been vastly better if concrete steps had been made on an policy focus that is important for people throughout the UK: Social mobility. But the former leadership did not possess the first clue on how to turn his zeitgeisty rhetoric on social mobility into concrete action. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it discussed what the concept actually signified.

It seemed strange to me, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what levelling up signified when we first spoke about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was a term I developed and used at the DfE to talk about life chances. It was our core mission, and its definition is straightforward: social mobility is the means by which we realize equal access – not through reducing prospects away from those who already have it, but rather by extending options to those that are without.

Essential Principle

An additional vital education department term we used, “potential is equally shared throughout the nation, however access isn’t”, again was a intentional wording, embodying the dual components of a equal opportunity plan. Initially, ability distributed uniformly but not cultivated evenly through our schools and colleges. Second, chances not distributed fairly by businesses or our market. Thus, schools and companies were crucial to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an agenda about the societal structure of our country – supporting people’s potential and connecting them to prospects.

The Actual Outcome

What did the social mobility agenda become under Johnson’s Conservatives? A towns fund managed by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Street beautification and rearranged intersections. A government strategy was released almost thirty-six months after the Prime Minister took office, which saw ongoing initiatives repackaged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the improvement that it may have generated – in capital, enterprise, economic policy, tax and in community development. And, of course, in learning, including a higher education sector that has become a target for elected officials – even though it remains the primary vehicle of social mobility for young working-class people, like me, this country has had throughout modern times. Possibly the primary source of social mobility, functioning widely.

Why Hope Matters

Ambition is essential for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, there needs to be a realistic expectation that effort and reward are related; that if people aspire, they can achieve. For any government, being able to instil a feeling of hope about the tomorrow is crucial. Research by the academic institution at the academic establishment and others, recently released, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these programmes in place. The research confirms: just making an authentic start on equal chance initiatives can quickly and positively change how people perceive their destiny.

Squandered Chances

Oblivious to this, and in the midst of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in that period, the Conservative government terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those regions vote for a organization that took that action? This specific initiative is a clear case of what might have become a game-changing administration strategy on levelling up, but that chance was hopelessly squandered. Methods such as this can create belief and drive. Conversely, as the Conservatives discovered, failing to deliver of social mobility is the most expensive error any government can make. Voters punished the government for its incompetence but, above all, for its failed pledges on equal opportunity.

Present Circumstances

Currently the baton on life chances and fair access has been taken up by a opposition party. The old slogan has been discarded. The new government has its own policy language of “removing obstacles to success”. The organization that is gradually replacing the hapless incumbents, Reform UK, also has its own message – “economic renewal”. The terminology to talk about fresh prospects in communities like the one I grew up in, in South Yorkshire. It suggests that an historical manufacturing base can revive into an industrial future.

For voters, it must seem like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Identical problem, different language. Yet, currently, little improvement.

What Must Change

If Labour and Reform UK want to escape the identical outcome, the respective organizations should understand the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that fair chance language is one thing, but effective implementation of fairer outcomes is much harder. Our nation’s endemically weak equal opportunity remains the key issue for our country, with the next generation unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in full-time jobs with minimal progress after the living expenses are met, and citizens throughout the UK without any real hope their next generation will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Politicians can mention fairer opportunities however much they like. Yet where is the party that has the thorough strategy on equal opportunity? None appear to exist. The first to achieve this, wins. Not just for their organization, but, more importantly, for a entire nation that has desperately requires equality of opportunity so urgently.