Whitehouse Communications designed and delivered ‘Lessons from Labour’, a political networking event held on 25 April 2019 at the Houses of Parliament, in the run-up to that year’s general election. The inaugural event of Whitehouse Communications’ newly launched Education Practice, it gave Labour’s Shadow Schools Minister Mike Kane MP and former Shadow Children and Families Minister Emma Lewell-Buck MP a curated platform to promote, explain and advocate the party’s policies on children and education. The evening combined a formal policy session with an informal networking reception, in front of an audience of stakeholders drawn from across the political and educational policy community.
The challenge
In the run-up to the 2019 general election, there was considerable interest in the policies a Labour Government under Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister would pursue, including the party’s ambitious plans for a National Education Service, its proposals to abolish SATs, its critique of Conservative cuts to children’s services, and its position on the future of academies in the UK. Labour’s Shadow Schools Minister, Mike Kane MP, and former Shadow Children and Families Minister, Emma Lewell-Buck MP, wanted a platform on which to promote, explain and advocate their party’s policies on children and education, and to build a network of informed and influential contacts across the sector.
For Whitehouse Communications’ newly launched Education Practice, the event also represented an opportunity to establish a distinctive profile in the sector from its opening night. The brief called for an evening that would combine the substance of a formal policy exchange with the atmosphere of high-quality political networking, sit at ministerial level in Parliament itself, and translate a single evening’s attendance into sustained, useful relationships. It needed the right agenda structure, the right audience, the right platform, and rigorous follow-up.
Our approach
Whitehouse Communications drew on its event management, political networking and education policy capabilities to design and deliver an evening at the Houses of Parliament that combined substantive policy exchange with high-quality relationship-building.
The work focused on:
- Securing the Houses of Parliament as the venue, giving the event the stature of a formal parliamentary occasion in the political heart of Westminster.
- Opening the evening with a comprehensive overview from Whitehouse Communications Founder Chris Whitehouse of Labour’s education policy over the previous decade, setting the substantive context for the Shadow Ministers’ contributions.
- Facilitating an ‘In Conversation’ session with Labour’s Shadow Education Team, led by Whitehouse’s Associate Director and Head of Education Paul Church, structured around questions from key stakeholders in the audience and opened to questions from the floor.
- Balancing the formal policy content with an informal networking reception over drinks and light refreshments, giving attendees the space to build direct relationships with the two Shadow Ministers and one another.
- Curating the audience to represent a wide range of the political and educational policy community, and focusing rigorously on follow-up to ensure that information exchanged during the evening was captured and that attendees derived maximum ongoing value from their participation.
The outcome
The event enabled the two Labour Shadow Ministers to promote to a curated audience a comprehensive vision for policy on children and their education, covering Labour’s ambitious plans for a National Education Service, its position on abolishing SATs, its critique of Conservative cuts to children’s services, and its views on the future of academies in the UK. The evening also produced a moment of cross-party consensus, with both Labour MPs praising Conservative Secretary of State Damian Hinds and Schools Minister Nick Gibb for their work on LGBTQ+-inclusive education, and Mike Kane telling attendees: ‘I praise Nick Gibb and Damian Hinds over this, and we supported them in introducing that legislation and voting it through the House of Commons. This curriculum is inclusive and for most professionals, including faith-based schools, they say it is appropriate.’
For the Shadow Ministers, ‘Lessons from Labour’ delivered both the immediate policy platform Mike Kane MP and Emma Lewell-Buck MP required, and a foundation of sector relationships that could support ongoing engagement beyond the event itself. For Whitehouse Communications’ newly launched Education Practice, the inaugural event established a distinctive profile in the sector.
