Election result should provide policy clarity
Derren Hayes
Monday, May 11, 2015
The general election result looks set to be a defining one.
The Conservatives' surprisingly comprehensive triumph, against all the pollsters' predictions of a long, drawn-out and messy hung parliament, will have significant implications for the functioning of government, not to mention the future of public services.
There are few children's services leaders who will see much to cheer about in the Tory manifesto pledge to slash £13bn from departmental budgets over the course of the next five years. This will almost certainly mean more financial pain for England's 152 local authorities, particularly for those children's services that are not ringfenced against cuts.
However, it was highly questionable whether Labour's plans to meet the Tories' austerity commitments while at the same time raising public spending through wealth taxes would have generated the kind of money to prevent cuts to local services on the ground.
In addition, this election has shown us that Labour has lost its mandate in its traditional heartlands north of the border to the Scottish National Party (SNP). Winning that back will be a huge task for the party's new leader and one that could take a generation to reverse. Where it goes from here is unknown, although some will call for a return to the centre-ground policies that served it so well under the Blair years. Such a move would distance it further from the SNP and serves to highlight why a minority Labour government propped up by the SNP would have created a potential policy soup.
A Conservative government, with its parliamentary overall majority of 12 seats, now has a mandate to push through reforms to public services that it was sometimes unable to do when in coalition with the Liberal Democrats. It should offer consistency in policy making for those at the sharp end of children's services, putting the Tories' vision into effect.
The Conservatives' election win should also mean some of the alliances forged over the past five years can be resurrected. This could be important for pushing through policies that didn't make it during the last parliament - such as extending Staying Put rights to residential care - more likely if some former Conservative coalition ministers at the Department for Education return to their old posts. Natasha Finlayson, chief executive of the Who Cares? Trust, illustrates why continuity could be important when she refers to being "nearly there" to getting backing for the Staying Put reforms from coalition government ministers and officials.
There are of course major challenges for children and young people that the new government must confront: tackling the rise in child poverty, creating highly-skilled jobs and training opportunities for school leavers and improving access to affordable housing, to name but three. But there are also exciting opportunities for the sector, assuming the Tories follow through with their pre-election pledges to double the free childcare entitlement, overhaul child and adolescent mental health services, and offer every young person the chance to participate in the National Citizen Service. Implementing these policies won't be easy, but, just like the cuts to public spending, will offer a clear way ahead for children and young people, and sector leaders.