It’s a matter of principle
Plans to review the cost of administering education in Wales are welcome, but the promised ‘quick wins’ mustn’t involve a narrowing of the purpose of education or a further move away from the Welsh Assembly Government’s principled commitment to social justice, argues CERYS FURLONG
R
ecalling the referendum result which delivered the National Assembly for Wales at an event marking 10 years of devolution, former First Minister
of Wales Rhodri Morgan described the ‘deep ambivalence which runs through our national psyche. We are a top-sliced country, used to years in which we had no decisions to make, but all the time in the world to complain about decisions made about us by others’. A lot has happened in 10 years and there are now decisions to make, important decisions at that. Perhaps the ambivalence described has been replaced by a renewed certainty and direction. That seems to be evident in the first actions of the new Minister for Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills in Wales, Leighton Andrews. Having backed the right horse for the Labour leadership in Carwyn Jones (now First Minister of Wales), Andrews was promoted from Deputy Minister for Regeneration to his first full cabinet post. With apparent enthusiasm, he has quickly taken steps to stamp his mark on both his new department, and the sector more broadly.
It has been widely reported in the Welsh
press that the new minister has a whiteboard in his office on which is written: ‘Better implementation, fewer initiatives, keep it simple’. He openly refers to this as his mantra for the job, and this is apparent in his first major decision, to commission a review of the cost of administering education in Wales. The first stage of the review is an internal exercise looking for ‘quick wins’ from the costs of administering education. Senior civil servants are scrutinising every
budget line to identify potential savings. The minister is looking for recommendations to move resources to frontline services, saying:
We want to see more funding going to schools, colleges and universities … To achieve this we must review the real cost of administering education across Wales. It is imperative that we reduce the bureaucracy and streamline the education system to make it lean and effective to benefit our learners.
It is an objective few can argue with, and, in the current economic climate, an under- standable statement of intent. It is worth remembering that under the current Government of Wales Act there is limited scope to ‘flex’ public finance and zero opportunity for income generation. The Welsh Assembly Government budget for 2010-11 is only £16 billion in total (smaller than many UK government department budgets, for example that of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which stands at £22 billion), and despite winning praise in many quarters for its ProAct and ReAct schemes, the Welsh Assembly Government cannot hope to match West- minster in new initiatives responding to the economic downturn. It can, however, attempt to achieve a bigger bang for its buck. So, the review of the cost of administering education is welcome. However, quite how it will find the ‘quick wins’ or longer-term efficiency savings the minister calls for without impacting on frontline services is more difficult to see, particularly given the short timescale (the review is due to report by May). There are clear reasons to be
concerned that in looking for quick wins, the recommendations will centre on a further narrowing of the purpose of education, particularly for adults.
Social justice
Since the inception of the National Assembly for Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government has proudly asserted its concern for social justice, describing it as at the heart of policymaking. It was particularly evident in the policies of the first two terms of the Assembly. However, it remains the overarching theme across all policies in Wales, writ large in One Wales (the coalition agreement between Labour and Plaid Cymru) and reflected in political rhetoric. Assembly Government policies and strategies consistently intimate that ‘meeting the needs of the people of Wales’ will lead to social justice. However, what is less clear is how to identify, measure and address these needs. The drive for social justice is clear in what Rhodri Morgan calls ‘progressive universalism’, and can be seen in policies in the health service (free prescriptions); culture (free swimming and free access to museums and galleries) and transport (free bus travel). It is less clear how the drive for social justice manifests itself in the policies relating to education, particularly adult learning. Skills that Work for Wales is the strategy for skills and employment (and the overarching strategy for post-16 education in Wales). Published in 2008, the ministerial foreword explains that while the ‘focus here [is] on economically valuable skills, we recognise that learning has a broader role’. The strategy is certainly explicit in its focus on
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