Billions of pounds of public money are being spent on educating the nation, and votes are often won and lost on the back of education policy - so it’s no surprise that politicians often feel compelled to dictate what schools are expected to do and how they do it.

Because the political cycle is short, and an education secretary’s tenure is typically even shorter, the latest ministerial fad or fancy can have come and gone long before a child has made their way through a single key stage. That can’t be right.

Recently, the Commons Education Select Committee recommended a 10-year funding plan for education. And we hope to be giving evidence to its next session shortly. We have long argued for a more long-term approach to education policy setting.

This is one of the suggestions we have made to the Labour Party’s consultation on its proposal for a National Education Service (NES). On this occasion, the profession gets a chance to influence policy-making whilst it is still on the drawing board, rather than having to retro-fit hasty changes to an already decided set of plans.

Although NAHT has no political affiliation, Labour’s invitation presented a good opportunity for some interesting debate within our association about the purpose of our education system.

Nursery schools need funding

For us, the starting point is that education should allow all children and young people to realise their full potential. Equality of opportunity is fundamental to this, ensuring that a child’s life chances are not determined by where they live, their economic background or by having a protected characteristic. We’ve always said that this needs to start with proper investment in, and recognition of, good quality early years education - led by qualified teachers and with sufficient funding to deliver the support all children need, and address any early disadvantage gaps.

But actually, as our School Ready? report highlighted last summer, we’re seeing increasing evidence that we need to support children and families before they reach school if we’re to give children the best start in life. The cuts to health services, social care and benefits, and the resulting rise in child poverty, mean that the gaps between children from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers before they start school are getting harder to address.

The current government has recognised the crucial role of the maintained nursery schools but, as things stand, maintained nursery schools are struggling to remain viable. In 2018-19, 39 per cent are expecting to be in deficit, and by 2019-20, 64 per cent expect to have a deficit. We need an immediate guarantee of viable funding for maintained nursery schools after 2020. Without this, many more will close over the next few years. Time is running out fast.

The importance of investing in education alongside health and social care is a recurring theme of our funding campaign, and our evidence to Labour. While real-terms cuts to education budgets are driving our current school funding crisis, the cuts to health and social care are exacerbating the issues. Increasingly, schools have to plug the gaps when children are left unsupported. We need schools to be allowed to concentrate on education.

While we don’t want school leaders to take on the role of health and social care experts, we do want them to be treated as the experts when it comes to the shape of our education system. We have had years of ideological change, not supported by clear evidence or the profession. The damage caused by this approach is now evident everywhere. We believe that it is critical that the development of a NES places focus instead on proposals and interventions that are based on evidence of what will achieve the best outcomes for pupils.

Policy based on the evidence

A National Education Service should rely on and recognise the expertise and judgement of the profession and that’s why we have long advocated the establishment of an Office of Education Responsibility to plan and manage a five-year reform programme based on sound evidence. Led by a high-profile chief education officer, coming from within the profession, new proposals for change would be considered by the office against three key tests: the evidence of impact, value for money and the system’s capacity to implement them.

Fundamentally, of course, a NES must be properly resourced: funding must be restored in real terms to the level we had in 2015.  The fact that schools are having to watch every penny, and that “cost-cutting” and “children” are words that now often appear in the same sentence, leaves a very sour taste in my mouth - as I’m sure it does for anyone who works with the best interests of young people at heart.

We must also see investment in the valuable asset that is our teaching and support staff workforce. We must invest in training and developing our people, and ensure they’re allowed to do their job properly, free of the bureaucracy and hoops created by a punitive accountability system. If we are to attract and retain the best professionals, and if we are to focus on school improvement rather than league tables and winners and losers, we will have to reform our current accountability system - a project NAHT has started in establishing our Commission on Accountability to develop an alternative vision.

So, a lot to do for any government, but surely our children and young people deserve no less, and if we are to develop the citizens that a post-Brexit Britain will need, it is critical for all of us to get this right.

Paul Whiteman is general secretary of the NAHT headteachers’ union. He tweets @PaulWhiteman6