Decision-making on exam grades has been ‘appallingly handled’

This year we are not short of news, and while senior politicians have gone on holiday as usual, leaving their juniors to carry the can if something does happen, the news continues to be serious, and keeps changing with frightening rapidity.

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If I had been writing yesterday (Monday) morning I could have chosen to raise questions about Ofqual and the Secretary of State for Education; now (Tuesday morning) the questions would be quite different, and might be joined up with my concern for the very many M&S staff who will be facing redundancy, and worries over its continued presence in Chesterfield town centre. Let’s hope those worries are unfounded.

In many ways this is the worst of times to be in Government, management, or any other position where difficult decisions have to be made. If you’re completely open about every aspect of your thinking, then it gets picked over, criticised and misrepresented on social media; if you try to think things through in private, there are leaks, and when the final decisions are published, they are still torn apart on social media, with the added attraction of people complaining the decisions have come as a complete surprise, as well as the posturing of opponents who are quick to see a political advantage or a possible career move on the back of other people’s failure.

While it has to be accepted that those in leadership often simply can’t win, the decision-making on exam grades has been appallingly handled, and the effect this has had on those hoping to progress to higher education has now concentrated minds on saving the day, when they should have been concentrated earlier on to make absolutely sure of a fair outcome.

It really is time for more open, thoughtful decisions to be made at all levels of society, and especially where people’s futures and livelihoods are at stake. It is time for politicians, public servants and managers to share and persuade rather than posture and dictate.

Yes – they need us to trust in their goodwill, but we need them to trust in our goodwill too. And the most important goodwill on all sides lies not with the loudest voices on the stump or on Twitter, but with the quiet, thoughtful people who are still those who actually get things done and make this country work.

We certainly do need a silly season to lighten things up in this grim year, but we don’t need silliness to become a virus that infests and makes nonsense of those things that need to be done carefully and properly.

Keep safe and keep well.

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