Social Policy Welfare

Introduction

Education is a very crucial part of human beings since it helps in providing different people with the opportunities of contributing to their societies and fulfilling their potential. However, there are noticeable differences existing in the level achievement of education among different social classes and in some research documents. Such interconnected problems that have had great influence on both young and mature adults. The social background of an individual also affects the social mobility and the opportunities brought by education. This, therefore, means that a poor child who is very bright will eventually be affected and may not gain much knowledge compared to that who is just average in class but rich. The solution to such a complicated issue may not be simple but the stakeholders should look into the social policies provided within the sector of education. The United Kingdom has had several solutions to the issues affecting the education sector and the Great Office Cabinet strategy Unit of Britain did accept after conducting different research that the social mobility had not risen in the recent past despite the implementation of different education policies (Ball, 2008).

The United Kingdom government and other stakeholders have created other education policies to ensure that they manage and reduce the problems affecting the education sector. This essay will look into and analyse these different government policies. One example of a policy that will be analysed I this essay is the Act of the academies that were chosen by the UK government official and other stakeholders to help young children in ensuring that they get a better education compared to what they used to get in the past. This policy is very important since it presents a national improvement of education, which is totally different from the previous structural solution that some schools implemented in their primary schools. First, this essay will examine the concept of the policies and describe its importance to the current system of education. The essay will then go on to provide different ideas, factors and drivers making the policies to be much appreciated in the current education system. Also, the essay will analyse these different policies employed by the people of United Kingdom. The analysis will be done in a form of evaluating and critically analysing the policies. Finally, the essay will give the usefulness of the analysis and future recommendations to help improve the education sector even further (Beckmann & Cooper, 2004).

Policies are always put in place to affect the rules, guidelines, principles, laws directions and even regulations. The concept of policies has always existed in different levels i.e. from the ground level like the rules applied in the schools up to the policies gave by the government. What all the policies have in common is that they express the idea of authorities and power in all the places they are applied, be it by the government or by the head of schools. Some people see the term policy as a frightening term even though that is not the case. Some of these people think that the term policy will always come with some restrictions. The policy has always been done from the top and from the ruling party to the down level and that is the people being ruled or the subjects. This, therefore, means that whenever the term policy is used then the responsibility starts from the top down to the bottom where the subjects are (Adnett, 2004).

Even though policies have their operations at different levels, different individuals have still got a huge role to play during the implementation thus they have got impact in the policies being made. The proposal of different education policies and changes of the same policies are influenced by the level of consultation, specifically with the rapid changes I the same policies. If there are any complaints during the implementation of the policies, the complaints are then magnified by the exclusion consultation. This is the direct opposite of what people think of where they expect the changes to be made according to the scale and nature of the policies. This, therefore, means that not everyone will view different education policies as good and some individuals will always look at the policies in a negative way thus in this case the policies being implemented risk being weakened (Martin & VanHaeringer, 2011).

Every policy should always be evaluated and analysed for its specificity, affordability, desirability and feasibility while creating them, for the losers, beneficiaries of the policies and even the costs of implementation. There are several concerns concerning the implementation of the policies. There are few available pieces of evidence provided by the policy makers when they make different decisions. It is very important for every stakeholder in the education sector to appreciate the education policies in order to help shaping of the participants learning and professional activities. This will eventually help and improves the outcome of educational strategies. Also, various concerns have been raised in the recent past over how the policy makers make different decisions in the education sector (Adnett, 2004).

Some of the people opposed to this have often disempowered and silenced the system that is critical to both the students and academics. Another issue affecting the education policies is the fact that there are inadequately grounded reforms of research and the fact that most people do not accept different rhetoric as realities. On the other side, researchers and policymakers have to recognise the need of a systematic checking of various evidence to ensure there are a concrete relevance, reliability, and even validity. This means that in cases where there is little knowledge of policy creation existence together with the sound evidence absence, then researchers of education will respond with strong research in any case they want it to have an influence on the decision policies. This may not be the case sometimes since the researchers may be silenced in some cases. The climate of today containing different educational, social and radical changes has a great opportunity of recording reform elements that are contradictory and the way they are being used. Even though some people will view question different education policies as somehow being rude, it is very important to have people who question the different policies being made (Apple, 2001).

During the policy formation and driving, it is very important to consider a different lens of history since they help in the investigation of key themes lineage. The lens of history also helps in allowing an improved understanding and appreciating why some the stakeholders in policy making are advocating for some of the particular policies. Lens of history obtained from the past policies is very crucial in the making of new policies. That means that in making new policies there is always the benefit of looking back to look forward. But then this philosophy is not all that perfect since, looking backward may stand in the way or shoulder of the stakeholders and sometimes they struggle to fight against the same old forces. The United Kingdom policy makers should help in the reclamation of the educational purpose, which means that the educational reforms haven t been very successful in the inequalities reduction. All in all the past must just be revisited since it holds a lot of clues to making great foundations of the present policies (Beckmann & Cooper, 2004).

During the creation of policies process, there must be a cycle of policy that responds to the questions asked by the policy creation servants. The process helps in comprehending and implementation of the policy task. This will include even the sequence of steps that allows the formation of ideas into the recommendations of the cabinet involved. It will eventually help in the provision of structure in the dizzying world of policy making. They policy makers should also respond to the criticisms about the limitations cycle. The best way to do this is by warning people who criticise them that their models are unable to claim applications universally and they just guide different actions during the policy making. This, therefore, means that policy cycle is very crucial during the process of making policy even though there may be some limitations existing (Hangreaves, 2010).

There are several stakeholders that are involved in the process of policy making and implementation. For instance, private companies may be greatly involved during the policy implementation. They help in translating the policies into practice. The private companies and organizations are often helped by the fact that they are more flexible in terms of their implementations and demands. Such demands include hours for working and smooth routes to practise from the policy itself. Even though the public sector may not be really interested in making sure that the cost of implementing the policies are reduced, they are very important since they put pressure on the stakeholders in ensuring that the policies put in place are working and producing results. The process of making and implementing policies is always time-bound hence, it is important even as the politicians use different agencies to ensure that the process is well completed (Exley & Ball, 2011).

Another policy employed by the people of UK is, believing that most ideologies and values are spread by the different overseas trips and international links. Even though the policy is borrowed from other countries like the United States, it is very important in improving the education sector of the United Kingdom. Different starting points in making the policies are very important since there is sorting of necessities of policy to help solve particular ideas during the according process. With the ideology regard, the political parties of the United Kingdom are subscribed to the ideology of the democratic political notion. The notions are classified and grouped on a continuum of left to right. It is therefore very crucial to have a critical interrogation of different political policies and ideologies. This will help very many people from stakeholders to the common citizen in understanding and evaluate the national, local and global relationships that exist in the economy, politics, ideology and even the education itself (Dyson, Milward et., al. 2002).

The policies of education do not always exist in an ideological vacuum since it has a huge influence on other sectors like the finance sector. The political parties in the United Kingdom have always highlighted that most people are now in either right wing or neo-liberals in their economy. They are also suggesting that most people are authoritarians in their personal freedom. That means that people should be warned of believing that here is an existence of another invisible hand in the Kingdom that will inexorably create better schools. Being that this theory is not clear within the rhetoric, the warning done should influence the habit of face value policy taking. The stakeholders must be very precautious when implementing the ideology power, which has always had a belief in the competition within the markets and choice of raising the education standards and lowering the implementation costs. Whenever the evidence is questionable and cannot be implemented directly, then the stakeholders must find other better ways of ensuring that every bad decision is rectified (Ball, 2008).

Another policy very important for the sector of education is the provision of financial incentives to solve the requirements in the sector of education. In this case, different offices and units involved in making strategies suggested that increasing the social mobility is very crucial in raising the capabilities of the citizens and capitalizing on the jobs available throughout the economy of the world. All these are very relevant concepts in the supply and demand for human capital, which then will affect the education sector positively. On the other hand, people with less income will not be able to invest in the human capital and that is a huge problem to solve during the implementation. The government of the United Kingdom has desired a social and a mobile kingdom that is achieved through the success in the economy. Also, wide targeted services are needed to raise the attainment of all these. If the government wants the preparation of the education of each individual to help in the development of growth and trade throughout the world, then it will require different policies to ensure this happens. The policies will help in aligning the resource human development with different opportunities that can be achieved by planning with different sectors like private sectors and organizations. The planning with the sectors will automatically help them in identifying the needed skills for the betterment of the education sector. This, therefore, means that financial incentives are a very important policy required by the stakeholders to ensure that the education of the UK improves (Benn, 2012).

In the analysis and evaluation of the government policies to improve education sector, the implementation of the policies is very important especially if it takes another format. The policies put in place have offered a chance for all the schools in the United Kingdom to become academies and every head of these schools are able to apply and they are considered. The policy gave the government powers to provide the offer though the part did not have any specific adherence though it had some similarities with foundations for making some decisions later. Some interested schools were able to express their interests even before the act was passed in the parliament, this showed how many people were confident with the policy and were ready to implement it. Even though most people support the policy, it has to be passed through the parliament in the form of a bill and eventually become a law. This is however not going as planned since most politicians are derailing the process. The government officials are also not having any consultation from the educational professionals about the bill thus it will really take a long time for it to become a law. There are also other factors influencing the implementation of the policies coming from different groups and they should be looked to if the bill is to go through. The factors may also be human factors like the same way the secretary of state for education wrote to every school inviting each of them to become the academy. The secretary did that just after one month being in the office (Gilborn, 1997).

Conclusion

Even though the policy-making concept is not very easy to implement, the United Kingdom must just try and implement the available policies in place. If better aspects of planning, creating and implementation of the policies are well compiled and presented in a better framework, then we can all come to a conclusion that the policies are a major boost and step formed through several individuals. Using the historical lens implies that all these policies are influenced by the experiences of the past, although somehow also it may have been borrowed from other countries with better policies. There is a knowledge gained from the analysis and process followed for the implementation of the policies and that knowledge is very crucial in helping people understand and appreciate how and why the policies were created in the first place. The knowledge gained in the process and implementation of policies may serve as a huge foundation for the future research.