Less than two weeks into a new era of British politics, former Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s words remain enduring: a week is a long time in politics. Recent polling has revealed Labour ahead of Reform for the first time in more than a year, suggesting people feel more positive about this administration – at least for now.
A flurry of consumer-friendly announcements to cut or cap the cost of energy bills and bus fares, as well as a more positive, personable tone, will surely have helped.
Boosting consumer confidence will certainly help business, and time will tell what we see from the government on helping deliver the change organisations need to flourish and invest. So far, we have seen a small tax cut for pubs, social clubs and live music venues, which, whilst broadly welcomed, will have limited impact by itself.
For me, the real test is whether this early momentum can build into something more lasting – and whether policy matches the rhetoric, particularly on unemployment, skills and economic growth.
Some welcome signs of progress
In June, I reflected on Alan Milburn’s finding that nearly one million young people in the UK are not in education, employment or training. At the time, this underlined the urgent need for government and business to remove barriers to recruitment and ensure the education system equips young people with the practical skills and workplace readiness employers now expect.
That is why the Financial Times reporting this week on plans to bring schools, local employers and local authorities closer together was encouraging. Last week, we also heard calls from Oliver Coppard, the Mayor of South Yorkshire, to support regions in building on their existing strengths, rather than trying to ‘recreate Silicon Valley everywhere’.
For South Yorkshire, this includes Sheffield University’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, which is working with industry partners including Boeing and McLaren to develop cutting-edge materials and technologies that might just put the UK to the front of the next industrial era.
Marrying skills with service
Ultimately, the reform we need will only work if it reflects local needs and creates stronger links between skills, services and jobs.
At the Institute, we have always highlighted the importance of training and empowerment: giving customer-facing staff the tools, skills and discretion to quickly solve customers’ problems, rather than being hidebound by centrally prescribed rules.
It’s encouraging to see the government exploring a similar approach by empowering local governments, schools and employers to work together to deliver what’s best for their local areas.
We should, as service leaders, also be clear-eyed and vocal about what these skills are. Yes, they include technical education as an important, respected alternative to the university route. But whichever path a young person goes down, service skills are equally important.
This means being able to focus on both commercial and customer outcomes, whatever business you work in. It also means showing empathy and understanding when a customer needs that little bit more care, whether they meet the criteria of a vulnerable customer or are going through a tough period.
For organisations, it means instilling these skills, listening to customer-facing staff about what they are seeing on the ground, and empowering them to act. Increasingly, the intelligent deployment of better tech and access to data can help customer-facing staff assess systems in real time (for stock, current bottlenecks, etc), make personalised recommendations to customers and see off problems before they occur.
Equally, local authorities and schools need to work with employers to integrate the skills of the future into education and training programmes. If these are designed around the future needs of the economy – both nationally and locally – we may start to see optimism breaking out again across the whole of our country.
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