In this chapter we will trace some of the developments and changes in forms of governance in England as these relate to the public sector, and specifically education through New Labour (1997–2010) and into Coalition policy (2010–): that is, from the ‘Third Way’ to the ‘Big Society’, from government to governance. These changes are multifaceted and multi-scalar and they work at different levels and move at different speeds. They rest upon both structural reconfiguration, the displacement of some actors and organisations and the introduction of others, and the introduction of new working relationships, incentives and subjectivities. They replace bureaucracy with management and leadership, service with ‘quality’ and ‘excellence’, professionalism with enterprise and, importantly, ‘commitment’ with contract. They are moves towards a ‘differentiated polity’ (Bache, 2003). They restructure the organising principles of social provision right across the public sector. That is to say, the forms of employment, organisational structures, cultures and values, systems of funding, management roles and styles, social relationships and pay and conditions of public welfare organisations are all subject to generic changes. Heuristically these changes may be situated as a part of the transformation that Jessop (1994) represents as from the Keynesian Welfare State to the Schumpeterian Workfare State (SWS).

According to Jessop this transformation replaced the Fordist discourse of productivity and planning with a post-Fordist rhetoric of flexibility and entrepreneurialism. The SWS ‘goes beyond the mere retrenchment of social welfare to restructure and subordinate it to market forces’ (pp 27–8).