ABSTRACT
Ministers since 1997 have often made policy announcements which suggest they will find ways of leveraging private funding into state schools. Perhaps no observation of Crewe and King is more apparent in education policy than the problem of 'cultural disconnect'. They observe that policy-makers often struggle to understand that people have different attitudes, values and views. When David Blunkett entered Sanctuary Buildings, the new administration quickly introduced two key changes which significantly reduced the quality of deliberation in policy-making within the Department for Education (DfE). When the education profession looks with incredulity at an obviously flawed policy proposal emerging from DfE, education policy-makers often assume that there are reasons why the flaws have been accepted. The DfE used to be a conduit for the views of various expert groups – subject associations, SEN groups, teacher unions, academics, Heads etc.
