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As the struggling Conservative party gathers in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its path forward. It’s not even clear if a clear direction is available. These are challenging circumstances for a governing group that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

What Could Have Been

It could have been so different if concrete steps had been made on an priority that matters to people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. Yet the previous administration lacked the first clue on how to transform the trendy talk on levelling up into concrete action. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it discussed what the concept actually signified.

I found it bizarre, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what social mobility entailed when we first spoke about it during his leadership campaign. The phrase was a concept I originated and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. It was our departmental mantra, and its purpose is clear: social mobility is the means by which we attain equality of opportunity – not through reducing chances away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by extending chances to those that don’t.

Fundamental Idea

Another crucial education department term we used, “potential is equally shared throughout the nation, but opportunity is not”, represented another a intentional wording, representing the dual components of a social mobility strategy. First, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our schools and colleges. Additionally, chances not distributed fairly by the private sector or our market. Thus, schools and companies were essential to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This represented an priority about the community framework of our country – investing in individual capabilities and linking them with chances.

What Levelling Up Became

What did levelling up become under Johnson’s Conservatives? Local investment schemes managed by the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A white paper was released a significant period after the Prime Minister took office, which saw current strategies repackaged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

As a result, a broader social mobility agenda went unpursued, as well as all the improvement that it may have generated – in capital, commerce, economic policy, tax and in local regeneration. Additionally, in education, including a tertiary education that has become a target for leaders across parties – despite the fact that it remains the primary vehicle of upward movement for youth from modest backgrounds, personally, this country has had throughout modern times. Possibly the primary source of fair chances, functioning widely.

Why Hope Matters

Aspiration is vital for our country to succeed. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a believable feeling that effort and reward are related; that if people aspire, they can achieve. For all administrations, being able to instil a feeling of hope about the tomorrow is important. Research by the academic institution at Bath University and others, published last month, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I established during my tenure – locally targeted strategies to enhancing learning results – led to young people in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their prospects than those in comparable communities 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 future.

Lost Potential

Ignoring this evidence, and in the midst of its new leader election, in that period, the ruling party terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a party that took that action? This specific initiative is a single instance of what had the potential to be a game-changing Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that possibility was completely wasted. Approaches such as this can generate optimism and ambition. Conversely, as the ruling party found out, breaking the promise of social mobility is the costliest mistake any government can make. The electorate punished the government for its incompetence but, above all, for its broken promises on equal opportunity.

Present Circumstances

Currently the responsibility on equal opportunity and fair access has passed to a opposition party. The previous terminology has been cast off. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The political group that is gradually replacing the struggling Tories, the challenger, also has its own language – “reindustrialisation”. The terminology to talk about additional chances in areas like the one I come from, in South Yorkshire. It promises that an historical manufacturing base can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

For voters, it must seem like a repetitive cycle. Similar challenge, new terminology. But – as yet – no results.

What Must Change

Should the current and alternative parties want to prevent the same fate, the respective organizations should take lessons from the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that fair chance language is easy to say, but effective implementation of fairer outcomes is much harder. Britain’s chronically poor social mobility remains the key issue for our country, with youth unable to get a proper professional launch, those laboring in full-time jobs with minimal progress after the living expenses are met, and people across the country without any genuine belief their children will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Elected officials can mention improved access however much they like. But where is the organization that has the thorough strategy on social mobility? None appear to exist. The first to achieve this, succeeds. Not just for their party, but, more importantly, for a entire nation that has desperately requires fair chances so urgently.