Dave’s wise words

November 5, 2009 by
Filed under: Public policy, The RSA 

Fresh from putting the icing on the cake of the final report of IPPR North’s Commission on the Future of Public Services (I’ll leave it to others to say whether cake or topping provided more nutrition), I am on the road again.

This time to the strangely old fashioned surroundings of Chesford Grange Hotel near Leamington Spa to speak to the education conference of the National Association of Head Teachers. In a desperate (and I’m afraid, at least, partially successful) attempt to ingratiate myself with the audience I told them I would blog about them later but only be complimentary if they gave me a good reception.

What a lovely, intelligent, attentive and generous audience! Before speaking I was rather nervous having decided yesterday, somewhere between Doncaster and Peterborough, that I couldn’t bear simply to repeat a version of my speech in July to SSAT. Also, the conference platform included the excellent NAHT General Secretary Mick Brookes who spoke here at the RSA on Tuesday. How could I match his eloquence without obviously filching half his material?  

Anyway, all seemed to go fine. Among the questions was a point which formed a nice but depressing link between two sections of my annual lecture last week  Someone called David put his hand up and, after asking whether if he said something nice about my speech I would mention him in my blog, (as if, Dave, mate, how cheap do you think I am?), he made a point about my advocacy of more imaginative efforts by schools to engage parents. He described a school which had taken the imaginative step of encouraging parents to join their children in school for twenty minutes before the start of the day and twenty minutes after the end of last lesson. There were no teachers in attendance as they had other duties to perform, but the system worked well, engaging parents and forming a good bridge for the pupils between school and family.

But the scheme is no more. The new ‘safeguarding’ requirements for child protection mean that every parent who might want to join their child would – because there would most likely be others children in the room as well as their own – have to submit themselves to a CRB check.

In my sympathetic response I referred back to the argument in my speech about how we have somehow to enable people to see that politics and democracy are about choices and trade offs not just about demanding what you think you want right now. Every time there is a child abuse tragedy the demand goes up for more and tighter regulations and it is only later – too late generally – that people understand what they might lose as a consequence of trying to take all risk out of out lives.

 It’s not a new point, I know, but a good example with which to make it.

Share

No related posts.

Tags: , ,

Comments

3 Comments on Dave’s wise words

  1. Joe Nutt on Thu, 5th Nov 2009 4:17 pm

    2. One of the genuinely saddest moments in my life, was the occasion when I happened to be walking past my daughters’ primary school at a break time when my youngest daughter spotted me and sprinted up the fence to shout “Hello!” in her inimitably exuberant style. The poor teacher on duty immediately rushed over and told me I was not allowed to speak to the children. For one split second I thought about curtly protesting but I could see the pained expression on her face which told me all I needed to know, having left the profession over a decade ago. What more need one say?

  2. ad on Sun, 8th Nov 2009 4:34 pm

    3. Every time there is a child abuse tragedy the demand goes up for more and tighter regulations

    Who demands these new regulations, and for how long do they demand them? The popular press, for example, will likely forget its urgent demand within a month, if not within a week.

  3. matthewtaylor on Tue, 10th Nov 2009 5:47 pm

    4. Fair point Ad. Our politicians should be more robust and less populist.

Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!