{"id":232282,"date":"2025-07-14T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/?p=232282"},"modified":"2025-09-22T16:04:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T15:04:57","slug":"profile-josh-macalister-mp-for-whitehaven-and-workington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/profile-josh-macalister-mp-for-whitehaven-and-workington\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh MacAlister, MP for Whitehaven and Workington"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Josh MacAlister isn\u2019t wasting time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weeks after becoming the MP for Whitehaven and Workington in Cumbria last July, the Teach First alumnus and founder of social work training charity Frontline was trying to change the law to ban phones in schools.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now he\u2019s a Parliamentary aide to one of Sir Keir Starmer\u2019s most trusted ministers and getting involved in public service reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But things could have been very different for the 38-year-old. He tells me when we meet in Parliament that while growing up in Rochdale, Gtr Manchester, family separation sent him \u201coff the rails\u201d at primary school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has \u201cstrong memories of being taken out of class for the \u2018Biff, Chip and Kipper\u2019 books\u2026 the red box for catch-up reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd that sinking feeling of everyone else in the class moving ahead and being left behind and all the stuff that came with that, like acting out, some bad behaviour,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MacAlister\u2019s fortunes were turned around by the intervention of his stepfather, Peter, who \u201cended up doing an hour of extra reading, writing, times tables every night after school for years\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Great teachers’ drove politics interest<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The extra help meant he started secondary school with a \u201cdecent chance\u201d of success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Young Josh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Moving to rural southern Scotland during his secondary education, MacAlister took an interest in history, geography and politics, spurred on by current affairs discussions at home and by \u201cgreat teachers\u201d. He read politics and social policy at Edinburgh university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He remembers being attracted to Teach First as \u201creally the only graduate programme going that was saying to people, \u2018there’s this massive social problem which is educational inequality, and we want a movement of people who are committed to going into some of the toughest schools in the country and contributing to solving that problem\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He says: \u201cThat was such an exciting invitation, and it offered something that was a challenge that had social purpose and that, in a way, I think probably linked back to the experience I had with Peter growing up where I had someone in my life who was a champion and was able to focus on me and my development.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Practising what I preached\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

MacAlister taught citizenship in schools in Oldham for three-and-a-half years, or \u201cpreached what I\u2019m now practising\u201d, as he describes it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is adamant that with the government\u2019s commitment to lower the voting age to 16 must come a \u201cresurgence of civics in schools\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really think we have to find a way of boosting civics education, and putting that together could mean we end up with the most informed, most engaged voter demographic being 16 and 17-year-olds, and completely overturning some of the preconceptions people have got about young people’s attitude to politics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was during his time in the classroom and interacting with young people in care that MacAlister hit upon the idea for Frontline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly to Teach First, the charity encourages top graduates to consider the often-maligned field of social work. He remembers being told there was \u201cno way you’d get graduates to consider doing child protection as a first step into their career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But \u201cwhen you put aside for a moment the label \u2018social worker\u2019 or child protection and describe what the task is, you’re describing somebody who is asked to go into a child\u2019s and a family’s life, often at the point of greatest crisis, and help steer them back onto a better course, which can be totally transformational for that child\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He adds: \u201cYou’ve got to get through that, get alongside that family and change what’s happening so that that child can have a better future. And that is one of the most extraordinary leadership challenges. Why wouldn’t people want to do it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children in care review<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

MacAlister was picked by the last government to lead a review of children\u2019s social care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It made over 80 recommendations, calling for schools to become statutory safeguarding partners and \u201ccorporate parents\u201d of children in care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MacAlister was initially critical of ministers\u2019 responses. The review called for \u00a32.6 billion over five years. The last government initially allocated \u00a3200 million over two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of his recommendations are now due to come to fruition as part of the children\u2019s wellbeing and schools bill. It will introduce things like regional care cooperatives and a single unique identifier for all children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But that key advice to make schools a statutory safeguarding partner has not yet been realised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MacAlister accepts bringing education into the safeguarding partnership system is \u201cnot straightforward\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have to pick, at a strategic and an operational level, someone from the school system who can speak on behalf of and control and coordinate the school system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat’s hard to do when you’ve got local authorities and multi-academy trusts. But I do think that that’s moving in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He believes the approach needs to be tested in a \u201ccouple of partnerships\u201d across the country to \u201cshow how it can work, and then that approach gets replicated across the system\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We should be so proud of academies\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

While the fragmentation of the school system presents a \u201ccoordination challenge\u201d, MacAlister is unapologetic in his support for academies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is despite his constituency having been home to one of highest-profile failures in the early years of the programme\u2019s expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, the Bright Tribe trust, founded by businessman Michael Dwan, walked away from the Whitehaven Academy after it was placed in special measures and amid growing concerns about its dilapidated buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MacAlister said the scandal left a \u201cdeep and visible print on the town and let down a generation of kids\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the \u201cstrength of the multi-academy trust system\u201d was demonstrated after the school joined the \u201cbrilliant\u201d Cumbria Education Trust in 2018. It was rated \u2018good\u2019 by Ofsted in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor every high profile, visible example of educational vandalism from the likes of Bright Tribe, there were sleepy, quiet state schools completely failing generation after generation of kids,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m as intolerant about one as the other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘You need challenge in the system’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

He points out Labour introduced the academy scheme \u201cto make sure it’s really clear to people that we’re on the side of kids and parents, particularly in the poorest neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe should be so proud that we did that. There was huge resistance to doing it back in the 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Conservatives recognised it was a good agenda, and they ran with it, and I\u2019m really pleased that we’re not turning back on that because it needs to be a part of the system that where an institution is letting kids down, we don’t tolerate it. You need that challenge in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Tories also deserve credit for \u201creally going after standards\u201d, MacAlister says. He remembers receiving training on learning styles, and lesson plans \u201ccrammed with loads of stuff that bore no resemblance to what the evidence said\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve managed to, over the last 15, 20 years, take a lot of that nonsense out of the education system, and it\u2019s all for the better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he doesn\u2019t share the fears of some academy supporters that Labour\u2019s reforms will water-down standards or prevent academy innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think all the things that have made academies great, they’ll still be able to pursue and get on with in the future, and they’ve got a government that believes in the model and wants to back them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mobile phone movement<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Another area of common ground MacAlister shares with the Conservatives is on mobile phones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labour has repeatedly resisted calls for a national ban, favouring leaving it up to heads. Even the Tories, who now advocate for a total ban, themselves stopped short of enacting one during their time in power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last October, MacAlister took matters into his own hands. He tabled a backbench bill<\/a> that would have put current guidance advocating a ban on a statutory footing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March, he watered it down in the face of government opposition. Ministers have now committed to research the matter further. The bill itself will likely not progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MacAlister tells me he picked the issue to \u201cstimulate the national debate\u201d, believing politics has \u201cfailed to keep up\u201d with one of the \u201ctop dinner table discussions for parents and families\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to get some movement,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted the government to go somewhere on the set of issues. So I was very prepared to put forward ideas that I would tweak and adjust in order to get government to commit to taking some action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we will see in the next few months and years, quite a lot of further action from the government on this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But new-intake MPs aren\u2019t waiting around for ministers. MacAlister says he and others are now \u201cworking with their local schools to put in place full bans in schools and wider changes to social norms amongst parents about when should kids have smartphones\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere have been MPs who’ve managed to get all of their schools in an area to agree to a full ban,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I want to make an impact\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

After living in London for many years, MacAlister and his husband Matt Hood (also a Teach First alumnus and founder of the Oak National Academy) settled in Cumbria five years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He got to know the area while conducting his social care review, and subsequently sought and won Labour\u2019s nomination and took the new constituency last July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His party may have a massive Parliamentary majority, but the rise of Reform UK and dismal polling for Labour raises the serious prospect that many of its new intake could be single-term MPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In MacAlister\u2019s seat, Reform came second, just ahead of the Tories, but still more than 13,000 votes behind Labour. Both of its predecessor seats, Copeland and Workington, had Conservative MPs until last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are his ambitions for his time as an MP? He ducks my question about whether he aspires to be an education minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Not taking anything for granted’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

MacAlister volunteers with mountain rescue, and he jokes that he\u2019s \u201cjust about\u201d managing to maintain his hours to stay on the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis team leader from another team said to me, \u2018make sure you keep it up, because mountain rescue will certainly last longer than politics\u2019. Both are great. I\u2019m not taking anything for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MacAlister is also now a Parliamentary private secretary to Pat McFadden, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and one of Starmer\u2019s close-knit inner circle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This role sees him contributing \u201cto some of the thinking on public service reform\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI might only be here for four years, and I want to make an impact. So that’s why I chose the issue around social media and smartphones,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe reason I’m here in Parliament is to make a difference. So the only question I ask myself is whether the place I’m in gives me a chance to make a difference, and [in 12 months] I’ve found quite a few ways to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Josh MacAlister isn\u2019t wasting time. Weeks after becoming the MP for Whitehaven and Workington in Cumbria last July, the Teach First alumnus and founder of social work training charity Frontline was trying to change the law to ban phones in schools. Now he\u2019s a Parliamentary aide to one of Sir Keir Starmer\u2019s most trusted ministers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":232081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"post-theme":[3420],"class_list":["post-232282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-profiles","post-theme-profile"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t