Goodwill unfazed by big brief

June's snap general election prompted a significant shake-up within the Department for Education.

Edward Timpson's electoral defeat in his Crewe and Nantwich constituency required his replacement as children's minister, while Caroline Dinenage, childcare minister since August 2016, was moved to a new role at the Department for Work and Pensions, just months before a major expansion of free childcare provision.

It had been assumed that the two briefs would continue to be held by separate ministers, so it came as something of a surprise when the DfE announced that former immigration minister Robert Goodwill would take on both roles.

Speaking to CYP Now shortly after his appointment, Goodwill dismissed the notion that the brief is too big for one minister.

"It is a big job, but as immigration minister, I had a massive portfolio - it is the biggest outside cabinet," he says. "My successor has been given a cabinet place, so while I find it definitely challenging, it certainly isn't as big a workload as I had in the Home Office."

"It means I'm taking a bit more time to get my head around all the things, but I'm pretty much up to speed now on a number of issues."

The rationale

So what is the rationale behind it? "I think Nick Gibb, the schools minister, has got a very big portfolio and early years does fit quite well with a lot of the other areas that I have," Goodwill says.

"I'm doing opportunity areas as well, and dealing with cadets, which is something that works well in certain parts of the country."

Although Goodwill is confident he can manage the combined role, the decision has received a mixed reception. Association of Director's of Children's Services (ADCS) president Alison Michalska says it should enhance the brief by lining it up more closely with the integrated offer of children's services departments. However, Kathy Evans, chief executive of Children England, says combining the briefs sends a "worrying" message about the government's priorities for children.

Goodwill used his speech at the ADCS conference last month to attempt to assuage any worries - setting out his intention to continue with the reform programme set out in the Putting Children First document, published in July 2016.

He also said that plans for a new assessment and accreditation system for children's social workers have been amended following consultation with the sector - with a scaled-back version now set to launch.

He gave initial details of DfE plans to design a comprehensive improvement system, which, in addition to identifying and helping struggling authorities, will be designed to maintain standards in good authorities and spread best practice.

However, his speech did not touch on a main concern within the sector - the shortage of resources.

In her conference speech, Michalska warned that cuts in central government funding since 2010, combined with rising demand, meant children's services departments are "enduring relentless pressure".

Those concerns will be heightened by the announcement that a large chunk of the £1.3bn in extra funding for schools from 2018-20 pledged by Education Secretary Justine Greening will come from as-yet-unidentified existing DfE budgets.

Speaking before the announcement, Goodwill indicated that councils will continue to be asked to do more with less.

School funding

"There are constant conversations between every government department and the Treasury about money, and certainly one of our manifesto commitments on school funding was that we all recognise that the schools formula is unfair," he says.

"Schools in my constituency have been saying for 12 years that a similar school in the middle of Bradford would get 30 per cent more money, so nobody would argue that the school funding system is fair at the moment. The problem is how we move to a fairer system and in the manifesto, we made it clear that no school would get a per pupil cut in funding.

"We continue to keep spending under review, but what is interesting - having looked at different local authority children's services up and down the country - is there does not seem to be a direct correlation between the quality of the service delivered and the level of funding.

"We found the same with policing in my previous job. Some of the most effective police forces were the poorest funded."

Reducing the use of agency social workers is also a target for Goodwill, due to the drain that puts on resources. "When I talk to local authorities in North Yorkshire that have no agency social workers, they tell me that their social workers are more effective, because you have that continuity and they are basing their career in the area."

"I have heard that social workers are in short supply, therefore you can have a situation where people are shopping around different local authorities for more money.

"There's a number of areas where, without sacrificing quality of services provided, savings can be made."

ROBERT GOODWILL FACT FILE

Elected Conservative MP for Scarborough and Whitby in 2005. Re-elected in 2017 with 3,435 majority

Previous positions include parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for Transport, immigration minister and a government whip

Graduated from Newcastle University with a degree in agriculture in 1979

Owns and farms 250 acres of land near Malton, and offers environmentally-friendly burials in the North Yorkshire countryside

Chaired the cereals and livestock committee of the North Yorkshire National Farmers Union