Aspiration and Attainment Amongst Young People in Deprived Communities

Do you remember the NCB publication Born to Fail? Not really, it was published 35 years ago. I know it was based on data collected on over 10,000 children - the cohort group born in 1958 - and looked at the ways poverty and disadvantage had such an impact on their later health, family circumstances and educational attainment. It's still considered a seminal work, in part because its lessons continue to reverberate today.

The more things change ...? Exactly. The Social Exclusion Task Force has been looking at the ways in which a child's background affects their aspirations and attainment and its findings echo and expand on those in Born to Fail. Its discussion paper found that educational attainment is not only related to family background but also to an area's deprivation levels. Although parents and families have the most profound influence on a child's aspirations, the characteristics of the community in which those families live can have a significant effect on the parents, and therefore, their children.