Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction
- 1 What Drives Children’s Services Reform?
- Part I Children’s Services Reform Under the Labour Government (1997– 2010)
- Part II Children’s Services Reform Under the Coalition and Conservative Governments (2010– 19)
- Conclusion: the Politics of Children’s Services Reform
- Appendix: Chronology of key Reports
- References
- Index
7 - The Priorities of the Coalition and Conservative Government Leaders
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 March 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction
- 1 What Drives Children’s Services Reform?
- Part I Children’s Services Reform Under the Labour Government (1997– 2010)
- Part II Children’s Services Reform Under the Coalition and Conservative Governments (2010– 19)
- Conclusion: the Politics of Children’s Services Reform
- Appendix: Chronology of key Reports
- References
- Index
Summary
Introduction
We will significantly accelerate the reduction of the structural deficit over the course of a Parliament, with the main burden of deficit reduction borne by reduced spending rather than increased taxes. (HM Government, 2010b: 15)
People in troubled families aren't worthless or preprogrammed to fail. I won't allow them to be written off. So, we must get out there, help them turn their lives around and heal the scars of a broken society. (Cameron, 2011)
[The government] is understandably focused on Brexit and does not seem to have the necessary bandwidth to ensure that the rhetoric of healing social division is matched with the reality. (Milburn, 2017)
The formation of the Conservative– Liberal Democrat Coalition government after the 2010 election created a great deal of uncertainty regarding the future direction of children's services policy. On the one hand, it was clear that, following the global financial crisis, reducing the UK's budget deficit would have major implications for spending on public services. Yet, party leaders continued to emphasise the importance of social policy. Cameron claimed that he was still committed to improving social justice, and the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, had campaigned to improve social mobility during the election. In 2016, after taking over from Cameron following the victory for the Leave campaign in the EU referendum, Theresa May (2016) promised to ‘make Britain a country that works not for a privileged few, but for every one of us’. Thus, this chapter focuses on the interest and involvement of the Coalition and Conservative governments’ leaders in the development of social policies affecting children and families, complimenting the discussion of Blair's and Brown's involvement in Chapter 2.
The first section of the chapter considers the approach taken to tackling the UK's budget deficit. The way in which spending reductions were tied to government efforts to restructure public services is discussed in the second section. The third section considers the extent to which improving social justice and/or social mobility remained a priority under the leadership of Cameron and Clegg. The influence of the Treasury over welfare reform is discussed in the fourth section. Policy developments since May succeeded Cameron as Prime Minister in 2016 are discussed in the final section.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Politics of Children's Services ReformRe-examining Two Decades of Policy Change, pp. 109 - 126Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2020