Young people who grew up in London and the Home Counties continue to enjoy better social mobility than their counterparts in other regions of the country according to the latest Social Mobility Report which came out this morning
The report says that government should adopt a place-based strategy to improve young people’s life chances in the areas with the lowest social mobility prospects in the UK
Their anaylsis of 230 local authority areas showed that there are marked geographical differences in educational attainment for pupils eligible for Free Schools Meals.
Free Schools Meals eligible pupils in rural areas such as Cornwall and Cumbria, or in other areas of the North West, such as Lancashire and Cheshire are also less likely to achieve passes (grade 5 or higher) in GCSE English and Maths.
The report also concluded that former mining, industrial and ship-building areas, as well as rural and coastal areas, continue to have the lowest opportunities across the UK.
These two groups contain some of the UK’s worst areas for young people’s social mobility. Young people who grew up in these areas tend to end up with lower qualifications and lower pay, and are more likely to be in working-class jobs than young people from the same socio-economic background who grew up in parts of the country with better social mobility.
Many of these areas also tend to have high levels of child poverty, low levels of parental educational achievement and fewer parental professional jobs
Alun Francis, SMC chair and Principal and CEO of Blackpool & The Fylde College in Lancashire, says that the policy focus on social mobility should now shift much more to helping those stuck in “left-behind places” with few opportunities. He calls on the government to tackle the regional disparities in the UK as a priority by implementing a place by place strategy tailored to local needs.
He argues that policy makers need to start recognising and explaining the reasons behind differences in outcomes before they can develop effective interventions.
“There is no one-size-fits-all approach to improving opportunities, as each place has its own particular challenges,” said Mr Francis. “A common theme is economic opportunity and the quality of jobs across the country, but there are also deeply entrenched issues around educational underperformance among families and communities which are more acute in some places than others.”
