Lord Blunkett: “We must not patronise and paternalise”

At this year’s Social Mobility Commission Symposium, the Rt Hon Lord David Blunkett gave a keynote address on how society and the state must work alongside young people to support them into work.

In response to the record number of young people Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEETs), Lord Blunkett opened up about his own life, growing up “as a living example of social mobility” that faced not one – but multiple disadvantages.

He expands on his speech in this exclusive op-ed.

As many social mobility stories often begin – I grew up on a council estate up North, in Sheffield. But for me, I didn’t even have the ‘privilege’ of attending the local state school. I was born without sight and so was sent to a residential school for the blind. I think the school already knew that myself and my fellow peers were not in for an easy life, opportunities were certainly not going to be landing on our laps, so instead of fostering an academic culture, they taught us simply – how to survive. 

Of course, survival is a great skill – not one some parts of society ever even need to consider, however the investment in survival came at the expense of academia and qualifications. It meant I was 16, without any qualifications or obvious pathway out of ‘survival mode’, into making something of my life.

Looking back now, this could have been a turning point. I could have decided to just focus on coping day-to-day. But I went to night school for further education and subsequently after six years went to Sheffield University – there is no sugar coating it, it was a long hard haul.

From there I started my path into politics. I wanted to stop youngsters like me having to struggle the way I had. I wanted to make sure every child had the opportunity to get on and find their way in life. That doesn’t mean hand outs – it means a hand up and a recognition that nothing is easy in life. We don’t need to, and we must not, patronise and paternalise. We should be there alongside and supporting at every stage.

One of my proudest accomplishments is Sure Start. And while it may be deeply personal to me having co-created it with the late Tessa Jowell, the IFS confirmed, after a decade long study, that Sure Start shaped children’s health, education and emotional development by bringing different services together under one roof. 

This means joining up support at every level, from regional and national governments to employers and communities. We need the government, regardless of party, to devolve, delegate and put resources into more community led solutions. For the rest of my political life – I simply want to try and get people to collaborate and work together.

What is special about early years is you can instil lifelong learning in a whole generation by bringing in the parents as part of the process. You can introduce people to all kinds of opportunities that they don’t even know about. You can give them a drive towards future careers. You can remind them the door is always open to come back and continue learning. When you transform the lives of those in the most deprived communities, this has the knock-on effect of breaking intergenerational poverty.

Alongside putting resources in and joining up departmental policies, as the leader of our country has said, the government needs to generate hope. We need a nation-wide sense of direction and momentum to re-energise us all. The inertia that exists throughout the systems that I come across at the moment is palpable.

The Social Mobility Commission provides us not just with a focal point, but a body that can draw together evidence and discover what’s taking place across the country, what’s working, what isn’t and how we might scale this up. There isn’t always a common narrative nor a common body within government that unites the different strands. So, an outside body supported, funded by government to bring forward the facts and inform policy is absolutely critical. 

–       Rt Hon Lord David Blunkett

Coming up:

For the first time, the Social Mobility Commission’s upcoming State of the Nation report will examine how disability, gender and ethnicity impact intermediate social mobility outcomes in the UK. This will provide a clearer picture on those in society facing multiple barriers of disadvantage.