Regional Policy Differences In the UK: Education in Wales

Abstract

This paper is concerned with regional policy differences in the UK. The classification of education in the UK as a concurrent rather than an exceptional policy by Rose (1982) is evaluated in this paper. It is argued that the Rose framework does not distinguish between policy content and policy impact. In failing to distinguish between these elements of policy, Rose and other authors implythat regional policy differences within the UK are minimal. However, whilst some policies can have the same content, they may havea different impact within the separate nations of the UK. The finding of this paper is that education policy in England and Wales is broadly concurrent in its content and exceptional in its impact in Wales. This is due to the role and influence of the education policy community in Wales.