Blair came to power in 1997 with improving education as his declared passion, and believing he knew how to do it. He had tacitly accepted the major planks of Conservative reform – the national curriculum, national tests, regular inspections and financial delegation to schools – although his party had opposed all of them at the outset. But even so he believed there was a vital missing ingredient: the engine to drive up standards. And he thought he knew what it was. Governments had traditionally contented themselves with policy and legislation. He wanted his government to accept responsibility for ‘delivery’ as well, and he had been persuaded that targets and monitoring were the way to do it.

Within a week of the 1997 election, a Standards and Effectiveness (SEU) unit had been set up in the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE, as it was then). It had specific tasks including ‘improving and sustaining standards of attainment’ and ‘monitoring performance in education and intervening where necessary’, but it was intended also as a catalyst to change the culture of a civil service which ‘had little truck with the idea of delivery’. Within two weeks, ambitious national targets for the literacy and numeracy of eleven-year-olds had been declared and David Blunkett, the Secretary of State, was tempted into admitting ‘his head would be on the block’ if they were not met (which famously became reported as he would resign).