Jim Murphy is in many ways an old-style Labour politician. The MP for East Renfrewshire and parliamentary secretary at the Cabinet Office is a working-class boy made good and is determined to make it easier for others like him to do the same.

But Murphy’s passion for using IT to improve social mobility is far from traditional.
‘I grew up in the Glasgow housing scheme and now I’m at the Cabinet Office. I was lucky, but people shouldn’t have to rely on luck,’ he told Computing.

Public service modernisation – based on the concepts of personalisation and choice – and better access to information are only possible using technology. And both are central to improving social mobility, changing families’ levels of aspiration and breaking the cycle of generations of poverty, says Murphy.

‘For me, technology is about giving people more choice over their lives and getting away from the idea of having to take what they are given,’ said Murphy.

‘Working-class families make complicated choices every day and are more equipped than many to take control of their lives, given the chance,’ he said.

Young children’s education is a critical area for improving social mobility. The potential for a child to outstrip the achievements of its parents is largely set by the time the child is 10 years old, and, alongside family support, education is one of the most crucial deciding factors.

Murphy says record levels of investment, the government’s choice agenda and initiatives such as broadband provision to more than 90 per cent of primary schools have helped lift some 700,000 children out of poverty since 1997.

But it is not yet time to stop trying, he says. ‘Has the Labour government done enough? The truth is, no, not yet,’ he said.

Murphy argues for the better use of schools to help parents and grandparents who have missed out on the information revolution to develop the skills to work with their children.

So-called ‘extended schools’ would give parents access to facilities such as computers and high-speed internet connections when they are not being used by pupils, and would provide another focal point for communities.

IT can also enable a more personalised approach to education for children. School league tables mask the progress of individual children and could be supplemented with ‘expected progress’ support for each pupil on a weekly or monthly basis, says Murphy.

‘Individual targets for each child, rather than an end-of-year league rating for the whole school, would need IT to make it happen or it would be too difficult for teachers to manage,’ he said.

There are schemes in place across the country to make the most of technology’s potential to give less privileged groups access to services and information.

Choice-based letting schemes and Manchester’s Eastserve broadband access project – see boxes – are just two examples. And the Social Exclusion Unit is looking at putting broadband access into homeless units, children’s homes and women’s refuges.

‘Broadband in these places is a simple but important way to help people take more control of their lives,’ said Murphy.

The eGovernment Unit at the Cabinet Office is assessing what national lessons can be learned from local initiatives and how programmes that work in one area can then be made available in another.

But it may be another decade or more before these improvements bear fruit.
‘Politics is driven by the five-year election cycle but this is a much longer-term project for a generation of politicians to deliver,’ said Murphy.

Choice-based letting
...in 30 seconds

How is choice-based letting different?

* In the past, people eligible for social housing were obliged to accept either the first or second choice of accommodation they were offered, or face home lessness. But selections ignored
factors such as the location of children’s schools or transport links to parents’ jobs.

* Choice-based letting operates more like an estate agency and allowing people to search an online brochure using criteria they have set themselves about where they want to live.

* The old system was the typical, traditional state-knows-best approach, says Murphy. ‘One of the most important decisions in a person’s life is where they live and where they bring up their family. These initiatives put power in the hands of the resident rather than the provider.’

* The first choice-based letting scheme was started in Newham in London, but the concept has spread and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has a target for all councils to run similar schemes by 2010.

* Schemes include the East London Lettings Company and EH Key to Choice in Edinburgh.

London

Edinburgh

How Eastserve helped deprived Manchester go online

* Manchester’s Eastserve initiative provides low-cost wireless broadband access for more than 3,000 households in three of the city’s less affluent areas.

* ‘This is a fairly deprived part of the world and Eastserve means people are getting access to information they have never had before so they can make choices,’ said Cabinet Office minister Jim Murphy.

* The project started in April 2002 and includes a 5.7GHz backbone connecting 17 schools, eight UK online centres and 10 public access points. Prices start at £6 for lower speeds and the Eastserve web site acts as a portal to a range of services, including local information, computer advice and health links.

* ‘Some people set up an online network to help them quit smoking. A woman who five years ago had never turned on a computer is now lecturing on IT’, said Murphy.