There’s a primary called St Matthew’s, which I would hazard an educated guess is the school most visited by ministers and civil servants in England.

It’s a “good” school, with a very high proportion of pupils achieving expected standards at 11. But that doesn’t explain its popularity. Its address does: Old Pye Street in Westminster - approximately 100m from the DfE offices in Sanctuary Buildings.

Despite best efforts, it’s very easy for education policy to be London-centric - whether that’s a quick visit for a photo op by a minister or a drop-in session by officials. One of the reasons that the London Challenge has assumed such prominence in policy discussions is that the signs of success are literally on ministers’ (and journalists’) doorsteps.

Conversely, the success of Newcastle upon Tyne’s primary schools, and the improvement in secondary schools in Bristol, gets less coverage than if similar transformation was happening closer to the capital.

So one of the most interesting things I’ve done for a while is to chair a series of roundtables on skills and social mobility in Newcastle, Birmingham and Liverpool. The aim was to try to get beneath the views offered by big organisations with a Westminster presence and see what the issues and perspectives were from businesses, colleges, charities and apprentices in these areas.

Difference in perspectives

The findings were interesting, and reflected a real difference in perspectives. The skills needs that were identified were mostly region-specific; and all three areas have developed ways of tackling them, which reflect many years of hard work around local approaches to training. For example, Birmingham is very focused on supporting transport and infrastructure growth, as a result of HS2, whereas the other two barely mentioned it.

But there are also differences in maturity. All discussed the changes to the apprenticeship system, but my feeling is that organisations in Newcastle and the North East seem further along with their thinking than those in Liverpool and the North West.

The overwhelming impression I got, however, was one of distance - and not just geographical. Despite the roundtables being full of senior attendees, they talked very much as if the reforms were being done entirely to them. They spoke of government with a capital G and awaiting announcements without any sense that they could have influence over them.

And yet, the recent devolution deals brokered with Westminster as part of the creation of mayors for these city regions (although Newcastle has rejected their specific deal) means that each of these areas will in reality have a huge influence over shaping how and in what areas apprenticeships and skills are developed.

The Northern Powerhouse may still be the agenda of the day, but it will require a few more years of power before the legacy of decades of centralisation in this area can fade away and localism can bear fruit.

Jonathan Simons is a former head of education in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit under Gordon Brown and David Cameron @PXeducation