Boost early years support to improve social mobility, commission says
Joe Lepper
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
The early years pupil premium should be doubled as part of efforts to combat worsening life chances for children and young people across the UK, the Social Mobility Commission has said.
The commission's annual report State of the Nation: 2016 Social Mobility in Great Britain warns that low- and middle-income families are being held back by a "deep social mobility problem" in the UK.
It adds that "treadmill families are running harder and harder, but are standing still".
The report reveals that just one in eight children from low-income backgrounds will become a high earner as an adult, and over the last decade half a million poor children were not school-ready by the age of five.
In addition, children in deprived areas are twice as likely to be in low-quality childcare provision and 27 times more likely to go to a school labelled as inadequate by Ofsted.
A doubling of the £300 per child, per year early years premium would significantly improve social mobility, the report concludes.
The report also calls for government to set a clear objective of ensuring that by 2025 every child is school-ready at the age of five. This should form part of a new strategy to improve low-income families' access to high-quality childcare.
The commission also wants a parental support package to be launched for parents whose children are falling behind at "key transition points", such as when they first access childcare.
The commission's chair Alan Milburn said: "It is becoming harder for this generation of struggling families to move up.
"The social divisions we face in Britain today impact many more people and places than the very poorest in society or the few thousand youngsters who miss out on a top university. Whole sections of society and whole tracts of Britain feel left behind."
The Pre-school Alliance's chief executive Neil Leitch has backed the commission's call to increase the early years pupil premium, pointing out that the current rate is "less than a quarter of what primary schools receive".
Leitch says such a move needs to be part of a wider boost in investment for the early years sector.
"For far too long, early years providers have been asked to deliver high-quality early education and care on consistently inadequate funding - and while the government has repeatedly emphasised its commitment to improving children's life chances, as yet, its actions have not matched its rhetoric," he said.
But Leitch is less supportive of moves to ensure children are school-ready by the age of five adding that "every child develops at their own rate".
"We need to be making sure that schools are ready for our children - and to support their individual learning and development needs - rather than the other way around".
The report is particularly scathing about the emerging geographic divide in terms of social mobility, with many towns and rural areas across the UK being left behind affluent London and the south east.
Areas of greatest concern are the north east and south west, where young people on free school meals are half as likely to start a higher level apprenticeship than their wealthier peers.
Just two per cent of poor young people in Yorkshire and Humber will complete an apprenticeship, the report found.
Anne Longfield, the children's commissioner for England, backed measures to support families at key points in their child's life and ensure support is available at the earliest opportunity.
She added that she is currently carrying out a study in the North of England "to understand what local factors impact on their wellbeing and choices".
This will have a particular focus on how devolution and economic regeneration can best improve life chances for young people.