Introduction

A New Labour government was re-elected in June 2001 and continued to stress education as a major means of improving the nation’s economic competitiveness, while encouraging social cohesion and enhancing individual life chances. However, whereas from 1997 to 2001 it had continued the Conservative government’s pre-1997 reforming zeal – when every area of education from early years to higher education had been the target of criticism and legislation – and subjected the education system to further Acts, initiatives and regulations (Tomlinson, 2001, 2003) there was something of a slowdown post-2001. A White Paper on schools appeared two months after the election, with an Education Act incorporating most proposals from it passed in July 2002. A long-awaited White Paper on higher education eventually came out in January 2003, with a highly contested Higher Education Bill produced in January 2004. Lord Judd, a shadow Labour Education Minister, had sarcastically enquired in 1993 whether, after the Conservatives had introduced some 17 Acts in 13 years, “is it now a constitutional requirement that there should be an annual Education Bill?” (Hansard, 1993). New Labour had seemed set to continue the practice, but 2003 was a year blessedly free from education acts. The slowdown in legislation – although circulars, initiatives, guidance and advice continued to flow from the centre – was possibly because the contradictions and conflicts resulting from hasty legislation and unpiloted initiatives were gradually becoming more obvious, and the gaps between policy rhetoric and practical reality more evident. In particular, during the year 2002-03, inadequate funding caused immense problems for local education authorities (LEAs) and schools, and assessment problems, especially at A level, caused embarrassment for the government and were partially responsible for the resignation of the Education Secretary of State, Estelle Morris, in October 2002. Morris later explained her reasons for resignation in an article entitled ‘Why I said sod it’ (Ward, 2003).

On a deeper level there was profound unease that although public education was manifestly improving in terms of quantity – more early years’ education, staying on and life-long learning– and in terms of quality as measured by numbers achieving literacy targets and public examination passes, policies of competitive marketisation and part-privatisation under the rubric of diversity were helping to increase rather than diminish inequalities.