I WAS delighted when the First Minister asked me to take on the Education portfolio. It was the job I wanted. In his manifesto, Carwyn Jones made a significant commitment to education, promising to increase education spending by 1% above the block grant we receive from the UK Government from the 2011-12 financial year. Carwyn’s manifesto put flesh on the bones of commitments already being delivered by the Welsh Assembly Government under the One Wales Agreement, promising support for the Foundation Phase and Welsh Baccalaureate, developed by my predecessors as Education Minister, Jane Davidson and Jane Hutt, parity of esteem between vocational and academic routes, continuing support for Welsh medium education, and greater support for the transition from primary to secondary. Carwyn also has a big agenda for Wales’ children, including more affordable childcare, which will be taken forward by Huw Lewis, the Deputy Minister for Children. The new First Minister has not shrunk from the difficult questions either, recognising the challenges of surplus places and the need for action to address unnecessary competition between schools and further education colleges. So there is an important agenda ahead. And also, judging from the messages I have had since my appointment was announced, plenty of people anxious to have early conversations. I look forward to them. Shortly after being elected to the Assembly in 2003, I was appointed to the Education Committee. I felt at first like I had wandered into an alien world with its own language – without the benefit of Doctor Who’s universal translator machine. It was a lifelong learning experience all of its own, with a strategy for this and a strategy for that. I have already made it clear to my officials that I want to see fewer strategies – and I want to reduce the burden of paperwork as well. The strategy and consultation development industry doesn’t need any more government subsidies. I don’t need more glossy documents landing with a thud on my desk. Nor does anyone else in education. Jargon is the comfort blanket of the specialist. It excludes ordinary people and intimidates them. In my view, clear language and clear messages help decision-taking. In Government, we can do that too. Wales is a small country – and we should be able to take decisions smartly and simply. Our strategy should be clear and simple to understand – like the higher education strategy recently published – and we should focus more on the delivery and implementation side. The same goes for how we distribute funding. Nobody would have invented 22 Education Authorities if we already had a National Assembly for Wales. Of course, as Carwyn said in his manifesto, we want to avoid wholesale reorganisation, but we do want to see greater co-operation across Wales. To use his words, “local democratic accountability is about priorities and the frontline services delivered to citizens, it is not about IT systems, payroll departments or how invoices are paid”. I will be working closely with my colleague, the Social Justice and Local Government Minister Carl Sargeant, to drive forward the sharing of services in education between local education authorities, and between local education authorities and the Welsh Assembly Government. However, if we simplify funding, we must ensure that it gets to the front line. Carwyn’s manifesto also made a commitment to “a re- focusing of educational investment to ensure a greater proportion reaches the frontline schools, colleges and universities”. That won’t happen overnight, but it sets a clear direction of travel for the future. I have already asked officials to look at how we implement this in practice. I am sure that we can eliminate duplication in the system. I am also sure that with goodwill, we can move a greater proportion of investment to the frontline – but as Carwyn said “we need to push further, faster, to ensure better services that are value for money”.
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