At last, the so-long-awaited-it-had-almost-been-forgotten Government response to the Milburn Panel’s report on Access to the Professions was launched on Monday. The September due date came and went, the need for cross-departmental agreement having given the secretariat trying to coax this out a serious run-around. They got there in the end though, and despite the sense of anticlimax that the delay had brought, the launch itself was an interesting experience.
The photo opportunity needed for the TV news was gathered at the always excellent St George’s Medical School (whose Taste of Medicine website was launched later in the week). Unsurprisingly given the social mobility theme of Labour’s election campaign the Prime Minister was there, along with Alan Milburn, and Pat McFadden, the Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills.
So far, so unsurprising. The real surprise came at the evening launch. This was a low-key affair, hosted by the Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors. Their members and DBIS staff seemed to outnumber invited guests 2:1. Where hard copies of the original report are now changing hands on eBay for ridiculous amounts (well, sort of…) the beautifully arranged and plentiful displays of the response remained relatively unsullied by human hands on this occasion.
All in all you’d have been forgiven for thinking that the Government wasn’t terribly serious about this – until you scanned the room and played ‘count the politician’. Alan Milburn of course, Pat McFadden, David Lammy, but, hang on a minute, it seems that Lord Mandelson himself is going to make a speech, and I’m damned if that’s not David Blunkett…
We shouldn’t really be surprised; we’re within shouting distance of the election, a key theme of which will be social mobility. Nevertheless it did feel a little incongruous, and some of the asides during the speeches suggested the politicians thought so too.
One has to remain hopeful, though, that this will remain above party politics, and that the new Social Mobility Commission will keep everyone to task, whatever colour the government. A lot hangs on the delivery of the Information, Advice and Guidance strategy, Quality, Choice and Aspiration, that formed the basis of the DCSF’s response to Milburn, and on whether Connexions can become the engine of social mobility that a national IAG service needs to be. But that really is a topic for another day…
