As a young evening newspaper editor in 1993, I once campaigned to get extra money for more local police officers under the somewhat naff banner of “Lobby for a Bobby”. We trumpeted and loudly gathered signatures, all of which won a meeting with the (now long-departed) police minister, the Earl Ferrers, in his rather nice Home Office quarters (now the Ministry of Justice, opposite the BSA office).
Ultimately, we were successful, and it was with some pleasure that I was able to ring the Chief Constable of Northamptonshire to tell him the good news about his new constables.
Stomp and be noisy
This story suggests that the way to get policy change or Treasury money is to stomp and be noisy, to criticise and cajole. And of course, Greta Thunberg and her Extinction Rebellion followers are perhaps the best contemporary example of shaming world politicians into action.
But Greta is, I believe, the exception to the rule, as shown by the 750,000 people who marched against the UK’s involvement in the Iraq War in 2003 — to no avail.
“Diplomacy is always far better than war of course, but there are also times when actions do speak louder than words.”
It is of course fallacious to try to prove which works best, on-the-street public chanting for complete change or behind-the-scenes private lobbying for policy position tweaks. Diplomacy is always far better than war of course, but there are also times when actions do speak louder than words.
Over the past year, the BSA, alongside the Independent Schools Council and a clutch of fine education associations, has kept open a near-constant hotline to the government. Not to Boris Johnson of course, nor Gavin Williamson or Priti Patel, although occasionally to Baroness Berridge, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System.
The real connection has been not with politicians, although several MPs and members of the House of Lords have been very helpful, but the civil servants who work out policy detail.
At one level this has involved regularly asking a whole stream of questions of multiple civil servants across government, including the Department for Education, the Home Office, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Department for International Trade and the devolved administrations.
A long rally
This sort of work is fairly transactional — we ask questions for our members, civil servants reply, rather like a long rally in a tennis match with the ball going over the net and up and down the court.
“The process is long, complex and not necessarily as swift as we would like it to be.”
Alongside this though is the genuine human relationships, the getting to know real people trying their best in difficult circumstances to help you and your members while they in turn try to get “sign off” on policy within their own and other departments.
The whole process is long, complex and not necessarily as swift as we all would like it to be. There can be moments of silence and emails unanswered — times when it’s easy and tempting to press the red button, contact the newspapers and make angry calls to politicians.
This sort of “something must be done” gesture politics can be satisfying in the heat of battle, but its effectiveness is largely illusory. Getting angry with politicians is one thing and they are well used to it. Getting angry with civil servants however is a fools’ game and very unfair too.
“In my limited experience, 99 per cent of civil servants are not keyboard-tapping jobsworths.”
In my limited experience, 99 per cent of civil servants are not keyboard-tapping jobsworths taking delight in spinning more miles of red tape to wrap up you and your members. They want government policy to be sensible and fair and reasonable and workable, just like we all do.
Squeaky moments
There have been some squeaky moments in BSA’s dealings with the government and civil servants during the Covid crisis. There were the times when boarders were technically trapped at school unable to go home or others in foreign climes were unable to enter the UK without being whisked to some government-run hotel to be watched over by complete strangers (contravening safeguarding rules).
At these moments, it is easy to kid yourself that you have some power and influence —
just because you are lucky enough to have a very cheap ringside seat with the chance to lobby the Government on policy points that in turn may affect hundreds of schools and thousands of children and their parents.
In truth you don’t at all, because I have used the same methods of persuasion and unarguable logic with civil servants and failed to achieve my goals as I have when I have been successful. Identical technique but different outcome, which begs the question as to what, if anything, really makes a difference.
“The scales, broadly, have tipped in our favour most of the time.”
BSA and other associations have won more things than they have lost over the past year to the benefit of their members and boarding students. The scales, broadly, have tipped in our favour most of the time and I am as certain as I can be that is because we have not ranted and raged (except for the odd letter to the Prime Minister and the Times), but rather maintained polite relations with the hard-working policy and delivery teams within government departments.
It would be very easy indeed to shoot down my assertion that slow, steady-as-you-go relationship building with officials is just as effective as shouting. Can I truthfully say that Number 10 or the education secretary for England has the first clue what the BSA is or whom it represents? Probably not, even though Boris was of course a boarder at two BSA member schools.
Proof of the pudding
But there is a reason why we have the phrase the “proof of the pudding lies in the eating”. Because most of the time BSA, the ISC and other associations have managed to walk away with a palatable pudding which will not poison their members. Not a pudding anyone has heard of and certainly not one to post on Instagram, but a reasonably decent policy pudding none the less.
Of course, if we have to, we will still chant loudly and gather signatures if we believe that’s the best way to get politicians to sit up and take notice. We won’t do that however instead of maintaining our open lines with senior civil servants but as well, because when it comes to the policy detail it all lands up in their inboxes to sort out. With us, hopefully.
Quietly banging the boarding drum is probably our 2021 equivalent of 1993’s “Lobby for a Bobby”. A different message for a different time and one we will stick with for the time being.
This article first appeared in the latest edition of Independent School Management Plus magazine, out now.