Elite policy actors occupy UK government institutions, and use the control of policy processes and outcomes to construct and sustain reforms regarding the provision of and access to school places in England. Notably a segregated education system is vital for producing and sustaining this elite, whereby major reforms from the 1970s onwards have been designed to restore, legitimise and intensify individualised justice that is enshrined in notions of parental marketized choice, and educational products, where division and exclusion as is presented as a right for all. I use a new Thinking Politically-Sociologically Framework (TPSF) to analyse these policy trends, where I present a strategic conceptualisation of how and why members of a politico-administrative elite occupy specific vantage points, espouse particular viewpoints, dynamically operate within regimes of practice, engage in advantageous exchange relationships, and control knowledge production to authorise and legitimise policy claims. Specifically I provide an overview of location and practices of this elite with a specific focus on the case of Sir Michael Barber. I will chart his active location within and external to UK policymaking for educational services in England, and I will deploy the TPSF to examine contribution and impact.