Looking at the media coverage of the last 24 hours at Conference, it’s all been about tax, boardroom pay and jobs – tackling Labour’s economic legacy. 

But yesterday in the Main Hall, and today in many of the fringes, delegates have also been debating another theme – social mobility, or as Sarah Teather, our Education Minister, powerfully put it – the challenge of breaking the link between the circumstances of a child’s birth and his or her fate. The fact that in this country the richest 16 year-olds are three times as likely to get five good GCSEs as the poorest, is just as shocking a legacy from Labour as the deficit and the banking crisis.

In the many and varied contributions to Sunday’s motion on the Education Credit, and in the Q&A session with Sarah Teather, Simon Hughes and Steve Webb later that afternoon, we discussed practical ways of turning this round – better access to computers and broadband, the inspirational role of teachers, the critical importance of early years education, and how to help busy mothers and fathers with information and skills to help their children learn and develop.

Two things remain with me from yesterday’s debates.

Firstly, the real content that Sarah was able to talk about in her speech.  Extra money for the Pupil Premium, more detail on the two year-olds who will benefit from extra early education, new ideas to support families and new opportunities for parents and communities to get involved with their local children’s centres – a real example of community politics in action. None of this has received much media coverage, but we Liberal Democrats should be proud of it, and I hope our campaigners will use these examples to illustrate just how much difference the Lib Dems are making in government. 

Secondly, the passion that our Ministers communicated about their job in tilting the playing field in favour of the most disadvantaged. As Sarah said “It is the reason we are in Government. It is the reason I came into politics”.

We are right to be motivated about social mobility. In different words, it is enshrined in our constitution: “Liberal Democrats exist to build … a society … in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity”.  

As someone whose father drove a delivery van for a living, I know the power of education to change lives.

We must tackle Labour’s economic legacy. But seeing Sarah and our Ministers talking so eloquently and convincingly about how they are tackling Labour’s education legacy should motivate us all just as much.

James Kempton is former Liberal Democrat Leader of Islington Council and co-author of “Equity & Excellence”, the Liberal Democrat Education Policy Paper