Lucy Powell outlines education priorities, defends vocational routes

Lucy Powell has said she wants to be an ambitious “tiger mum” for all young people, whatever their route through education, after the government was accused of dumbing down England’s schools with plans to create more vocational routes.

The new education secretary said secondary pupils should be able to pursue academic excellence as well as high-quality vocational training, and it was a “false trade-off” to suggest schools could not provide both.

In an interview with the Guardian, Powell said she did not have “lower ambition” for those children following technical routes, and her critics – including Michael Gove, the former Tory education secretary – should recognise that their approach had left too many behind.

Andy Burnham told schools across England this week to adapt their curriculums to the needs of local businesses, as part of a drive to make technical and vocational skills as valued as academic qualifications and help tackle the jobs crisis for young people.

Powell said: “I absolutely don’t want schools to dumb down. My kids might say I’m a tiger mum. You know, I’m a tiger mum for all our kids – every single child that’s in our education system achieving excellence, achieving what they can do.”

Powell said those arguing against a focus on vocational education were making a “false trade-off” by framing Labour’s plans as a choice between knowledge and skills. “What I’m not going to oversee is some kind of lower ambition for some kids. It’s about ambition for everybody.”

Most of the criticism of her approach has come from Tory politicians who oversaw the system for years. “They have to take some responsibility for creating … a system that has left over a million young people now not in education, training or employment. The current approach has left too many behind,” Powell said.

However, she acknowledged that headteachers were concerned about extra pressure on their budgets to provide vocational routes, saying she was “very conscious” of school funding, which took a hit during the austerity years. She insisted any specific new proposals would be fully funded.

With many teachers struggling, and strikes potentially looming, Powell said she wanted a constructive relationship with the unions, and the government was already making changes to help ease the pressure. “What I’ll say to teachers is ‘work with me’,” she said.

Powell has been under pressure since she took over the brief to row back on plans made by her predecessor, Bridget Phillipson, to overhaul the special educational needs and disabilities system (Send), in particular limiting education, health and care plans (EHCP) to pupils with the “most complex needs”.

Powell signalled that she would stick to the plans, while accepting that the issue was creating worry and anxiety for many parents. “We can reassure them, because this is about tilting the system so that you don’t have to fight tooth and nail. That you get much earlier help,” she said.

Pressed on Labour’s election pledge to recruit 6,500 teachers, which has since been watered down, she suggested the government was doing well against a lower target, and that a sharp drop in primary numbers reflected falling rolls in schools.

Asked about private schools, Powell took a less adversarial approach than her predecessor, saying it was up to parents to make their own decisions about where they sent their children. “I’m not here to worry about private schools. I’m here to worry about state schools,” she said.

Powell added that she would be spending a significant amount of time at the No 10 North outpost in her central Manchester constituency. The DfE’s third biggest office, housing 1,100 civil servants, is also based in the city.

She batted away suggestions she was unhappy not to have been appointed deputy prime minister by Burnham, saying they had agreed she would continue to play a central role in Labour’s political direction as education secretary.

There had been no purge of the Starmerites, she added, saying the new cabinet was representative of people from across the party, and that, in contrast, the last cabinet had been too narrow. “That was one of the issues for Keir towards the end. His government wasn’t necessarily one of all the traditions.”

Powell also criticised Starmer’s government for focusing too much on the Reform threat rather than Labour’s own plan for the country. “What most people wanted to know was not what we thought about other political parties, but what were we doing? What were we about? What has been refreshing over the last week or two, is being on the front foot. Every day you’re on the front foot is a day you’re winning.”

She insisted that despite multiple spending pledges in Burnham’s first fortnight in office, all policy announcements were funded, with the prime minister and his chancellor, John Healey, “quite prudent and careful” about this.