This week Neil writes about being voted chairman of the Education Select Committee

I HAVE been elected chairman of the Education Select Committee.

Having served on this committee for five years, formed an ‘All Parliamentary Party Group’ on School Leadership and Governance, and repeatedly promoted a focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, it was an obvious post for me to seek.

The election process, itself, was interesting and intense.

Once the newly elected parliament met for the first time, the chairs of the 25 select committees were allocated on a rough reflection on party representation with some bargaining over preferences.

Education was confirmed as a Conservative chair so I proceeded to seek nomination to stand, securing the necessary support from my own party and other parties.

Two other candidates were also nominated, former education minister, Tim Loughton, and my colleague on the previous committee, Caroline Noakes.

The electorate was the entire membership of the House of Commons so the two weeks of ‘campaigning’ was all about reaching out to colleagues through internal mail, emails and, my preferred style, face-to-face conversations.

With all select committees needing a chair, some candidates effectively carried over from the last Parliament so these and several other vacancies were uncontested.

This left 12 positions where elections took place.

The alternative vote system is used with the ballot papers consisting of a bundle of 12 papers with two to five candidates for each vacancy.

The Speaker of the House of Commons formally announced the election results and details of the voting can be found online.

The next phase of the construction of the new select committees is to elect the members.

In the meantime, I will be meeting with the committee clerks and officers to plan the first sessions and to sketch out a work programme.

My priorities for the first year will include tackling the productivity gap, testing accountability systems for academies and free schools, developing the role of the new Regional Commissioners and highlighting child protection with a particular focus on inter-agency cooperation.