The human touch: influencing policy in FE and skills

In his text 'Lobbying: An Insider’s Guide', the former Labour MP and now peer Alf Dubs starts with the simple point that 'politicians are ordinary people'. As he puts it, they work hard, and are vainer than most, but they want to be liked, and almost all of them love being an MP.

This personal dimension to politics is often forgotten by those seeking to influence the policy process. It is easy to get fixated on the wider trends or headlines about who’s up and who’s down, what the opinion polls are telling us, what this means for the next set of elections and how we might second-guess the way that government policy is headed.

Obviously, understanding this broader context will be useful, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of the human side of politics. The key thing to remember about engaging with policymaking is that it is a process, not an event. It is about relationship building, developing trust and positioning yourself as a valuable resource for those whose job it is to make policy.

Instead of attempting to get all you need in your first meeting, put yourself in the position of the person on the other side of the table – whether it’s an MP, minister, official or anyone else – and think about what they want to get out of the meeting with you.

The time you get from them will be precious, so use it wisely, but also think about all the other pressing issues that are on their mind before you enter the room. 

Once you have a sense of all those factors, you then need to ask yourself, 'what have I got that will help them?' The vast majority of meetings with MPs and ministers follow a similar format where the attendees attempt to impress upon the politician how important their cause is, that current policy is adversely affecting certain key groups, and that they should be doing more to address this concern. All of this usually means spending more money than they currently have at their disposal.

But if you can present them with a solution to a problem, or promote a cause that they think matters, while also advancing broader policy ambitions, you are far more likely to start a conversation where you are valued as a partner in that process.

For example, rather than simply arguing that funding rates are insufficient in further education and skills, leaders who can frame their case around a local employer skills shortage and offer solutions aligned to a minister’s growth agenda are far more likely to gain traction. Ultimately, if you can engage at a human level and find ways of aligning personal interest with a higher political principle, you dramatically increase the chances of success.