Note on the curriculum

During his first six months with us, Michael has embarked on his major project for the year: the cancellation of Building Schools for the Future, and the replacement of it - or at least parts of it - with an alternative programme of school renewal.

Accuracy of work

Unfortunately, Michael has had problems with achieving accuracy in his work. His paper on the cancellation of Building Schools for the Future (BSF) had to be returned four times to allow him to correct errors, which was particularly unfortunate given that he released it to the public at the first attempt.

There are also disturbing signs that Michael is prone to exaggeration: his claim that 700 groups or individuals have expressed an interest in setting up a free school may be true, but the fact that only 62 applications have been received by the charity setting up the scheme surely warrants a mention. It appears he did not learn from criticism. He later claimed that more than 1,000 schools had applied to become academies (a figure he used to justify pushing the Academies Bill through parliament before the summer recess) when the true figure was 153.

Communication skills

Michael is clearly not a shy individual, yet he appears to have difficulty communicating with those around him. An over-eagerness to make himself heard has resulted in his making sweeping pronouncements before having a full grasp of the information he wishes to impart, giving him something of the frantic air of of the X-Factor’s Stacey Solomon (although thankfully with a better grasp of the Queen’s English). His presentation on the cancellation of BSF - and his list of which schools were affected - was a case in point.

Thankfully, his fifth attempt at delivering the information was spot on, and his apology for earlier errors was much clearer than his original announcement. (Michael made good use of phrases such as “unreservedly apologise”, “full responsibility” and “regrettable error” to get his message across.) However, there are worrying signs that contemporaries are becoming impatient with his blustering: during the aforementioned apology, there was an unfortunate incident when a member of Michael’s house interjected to call him a “miserable pipsqueak”.

Social skills

We understand that Michael showed early signs of becoming a popular individual, particularly at last year’s Conservative conference, when one word from him was enough to elicit large cheers from his audience (the word was invariably “Churchill”). However, this has not extended to relationships beyond his immediate peer group. He alienated large sections of the construction industry by claiming that the people who should be “bearing the brunt” of cuts were architects and consultants who had been “creaming off cash” from frontline services under the BSF programme. He then inflamed the situation further by saying money should not be being spent on “consultants, architects or bureaucracy”. However, he does appear to be loyal to close friends - the New Schools Network, an “independent charity” set up to advise groups on setting up free schools, recently received a £500,000 government grant. It is run by Rachel Wolf, a former adviser to Michael.

Summary

Michael has entered the government under difficult circumstances, but this is no excuse for the lack of attention to detail in his work to date, or his lack of sensitivity to the needs of others. Tries hard, but could do a lot better.

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