Might history repeat itself?

Abstract

Having recently moved into medical education, after spending many years in teacher education, the writer is struck by some parallels between the positions in which health and education now find themselves: subject to fundamental reform premised upon the creation of a social market and an extension to consumer choice, while discounting professional judgment. The paper analyses the implementation of teacher education reforms in the 1970s and 1980s, against a background of economic constraint. It then considers the recent reversal of those changes, as part of a wider reappraisal of social policy, heavily influenced by ideologies associated with the 'new right', which have underpinned reforms designed, in part, to curtail the traditional independence of professional groups and, in the name of greater accountability to consumers, substitute greater central control. Pre- and Post-Registration Education for health care professionals, now finds itself in a similar position to that which was evident in teacher education, when the writer joined. Since education and health both constitute major areas of social policy, the paper speculates whether the latter will, in the future, follow the same path as that described in relation to the former. In particular the control of the education of health care professionals is seen to be central to their ability to continue to offer reasoned critiques of political initiatives.