With the polls showing a likely defeat for the Conservatives at the forthcoming general election, the party’s record in government is coming under scrutiny more than ever before. During a period that came in the aftermath of the global financial crash , took in the Brexit referendum , a worldwide pandemic and the first war in Europe for a generation it has been a tumultuous period for the UK. In the first of a series of pieces looking at the Conservatives’ record on since winning power in 2010, i examines how both education and health have fared after 14 years of Tory rule .
Education Coming into the election in 2010, no policy area outside the economy was given as much prominence as the Tories’ plans for the education system. As the self-proclaimed “heir to Blair”, it was fitting that Lord Cameron, at that time David Cameron, had identified schools as his party’s main focus of reform, following the former Labour prime minister’s mantra of “education, education, education”. Led by one of the party’s great political reformers Michael Gove , the Conservatives sought to shake up the state schools system with a back to basics approach, that began by renaming the old Department for Children, Schools and Families the Department for Education taking the emphasis firmly away from the wider support services that were offered for children.
Mr Gove took a two-pronged approach to the reforms, simultaneously overhauling both the curriculum and the assessment system, wh.
