Social Mobility:

Born to Fail?

Chance or Choice?

Professor

Sonia Blandford

No one is

born to fail

………..

Children from poor families start behind and may never catch

up….

Chance or Choice?

Social Mobility is achieving positive change in socio-economic status, and more widely, building better futures for all, in terms of wellbeing, health,

and engagement with all that life has to offer.

To support Social Mobility, we must provide chances and choices that:

are not determined by class, but by heritage, location and self-efficacy. are respectful of individuals

are non-judgemental

are not defined by movement between classes or location

provide opportunities for everyone to be included, and to belong.

prepare the way for everyone to succeed in life, in education, health, employment and housing

Mutuality

Mutuality happens when, instead of us thinking about helping

children escape the constraints of their class and making judgements

about what people from disadvantaged communities need to change, we focus on providing

equality.

This allows people on to have their voice heard in the conversation

about what happens next, to have a role to play, to value their class and background identities, and

own their own change.

When we do this, everyone in society benefits.

What do we need to do over the next five years?

1. Continue to develop new approaches to education and public policy, using the principles of mutuality, for the benefit of all regardless of their starting point, to:

Improve foundations for life for all children and young people,

Develop greater engagement with parents and carers, families, and communities that will

ensure that all children and young people are supported to access meaningful support,

develop their aspirations, and increase their achievement and life prospects.

2. Provide real chances and choices for all children and young people will light the way for better futures. This can only be done through mutuality. This will lead to greater access, opportunity, success, and happier and more fulfilling future lives.

3. Reconceptualise access to Higher Education to meet the needs of all young (and adult) people to provide greater equality, access, and social and socio-economic outcomes for all.

What do we need to do over the next five years?

What do we need to do over the next five years?

4. Support apprenticeships to ensure that they provide maximal choices and opportunities to young people from all aspects of society. Apprenticeships (and all other routes to the workplace and employment) must be supported by increasing applied learning and work-based learning in schools and Further Education settings.

5. Provide real chances and choices to children and young people facing disadvantage that will unlock their talents on a par with their more advantaged peers and provide them with opportunities to build future lives as productive and secure adults.

What do we need to do over the next five years?

6. Support educational settings and businesses that embed inclusive and effective leadership in both their vision and their day-to-day actions.

7. Advise policy makers and change-makers to develop a more relevant curriculum and assessment measures for children and young people.

8. Build social inclusion and regard for the future into everything we do.

Policy option 1: Respect and pupil well-being: Promote kindness and wellbeing in education, business and third sector settings, where every child and young person is included every day, addressing mental health, character and resilience through culture and mutuality, celebrating tolerance, patience, friendship, creativity and problem solving.

Policy Option 2: Focus funding on early years and a relevant curriculum: Increase investment across all phases of education, beginning with the early years that results in a socially and culturally relevant curriculum, increasing attainment in reading, writing and maths, enhancing life chances and culminating in a meaningful destination for every child.

Policy Option 3: Teacher training: Put greater focus on teachers as professional learners through recruitment, retention, and professional development that includes an enhanced understanding of the way disadvantaged and vulnerable children learn.

Policy Option 4: Inclusion: Reduce children and young people being excluded in education: increase responsibility for children at risk of exclusion through cross-agency collaboration to reduce exclusions and minimise the number of children and young people at risk, and close the gap for SEND, too often the marginalised and forgotten group.

Policy Option 5: Community engagement: Increase recognition of parents, carers and wider communities, valuing all parents and carers as crucial partners in the improvement of learning and life chances for every child.

Solution – national, local and school

Policy option 6: School Provision: Establish as free and open to all a

new national education service and system to build a more meritocratic

society.

Policy Option 7: Lifelong learning: make lifelong education widely

available with the scholarships / fee waivers ….

Solution - national

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