Education secretary announces social mobility 'opportunity areas'

Six areas that have been identified as the most ‘challenged’ when it comes to social mobility will be able to access the funding.

Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference education secretary Justine Greening announced the first Opportunity Areas.

‘Earlier this year, the Social Mobility Commission released a report that identified places where educational attainment was poor, and where job prospects were poor as well,’ she said.

‘It called them social mobility coldspots. Getting real change could take a generation, and it’s going to need a different strategy to what we’ve done before, so today I’m announcing the first six Opportunity Areas, where we’ll trial a new approach.’

The DfE said that Opportunity Areas will involve local partnerships forming with early years providers, schools, colleges, universities, businesses, charities and local authorities to ensure all children have the opportunity to reach their full potential.

The initial areas are West Somerset, Norwich, Blackpool, Scarborough, Derby and Oldham, before the programme is expanded to other parts of the country.

The DfE will target programmes to ensure children get the best start in the early years, to build teaching and leadership capacity in schools, to increase access to university, to strengthen technical pathways with young people, and work with employers to improve young people’s access to the right advice and experiences.

The DfE will work with each opportunity area to tailor support to local needs and priorities.

Three areas – Derby, Scarborough and West Somerset – will also benefit fromsuccessful bids for the National Collaborative Outreach Programme, which will help raise aspirations for disadvantaged children through summer schools, organizing school visits and providing academic mentoring.

The move has been welcomed by a number of organisations, including academy schools, the Education Endowment Foundation and charities.

Helen Arya, executive principal of Oasis Academy Limeside, Oldham, said, 'As one of the few National Teaching Schools serving an area of high deprivation, we would welcome any initiative, which increases social mobility. We have always considered life for our children as a challenging journey through many phases, a journey which is smoother and more successful if everyone works together with the same premise and relentless insistence on quality provision with high expectations for all. Through this kind of cooperation, less precious time is wasted at times of transition or through negotiating the different systems employed by various agencies.'

More graduates in early years

The Family and Childcare Trust called for the funding to be used to support the development of a graduate early years workforce.

Megan Jarvie, head of policy and public affairs, said, ‘The early years are vital in setting children up to achieve at school and beyond and improving social mobility

‘We want to see a focus on using the new funding package to develop a graduate-led early years workforce to deliver high quality early education to children. Evidence shows that early years graduates have a significant impact on the quality of early years education and that only high quality early education helps to improve children’s outcomes.

'However, we know that England’s early years workforce has a low proportion of graduates compared to other developed nations – some 43 per cent of three and four year olds in private and not-profit day nurseries and 60 per cent in pre-schools did not have a graduate working with them in 2015.’

Sue Robb, head of Early Years at Action for Children, said, ‘I welcome the Government’s recognition that the early years is the key foundation for a life course approach to supporting social mobility and children’s futures. A place-based approach will allow a focus on local issues, solutions and partnerships that will help to deliver change and improvement on the ground.’

Alan Milburn, chair of the Social Mobility Commission, said, ‘There is a new geography of disadvantage in Britain - where the chances of a child doing well in life depends massively on where they come from, rather than where they aspire to get to.

‘If social mobility is to take off, much more needs to be done to create a level playing field of opportunity in our country. That requires action in the labour market, in regional policy and in education. The initiative by the Education Secretary to create opportunity areas in some of the social mobility ‘cold spots’ identified by the Commission’s Social Mobility Index is a welcome step.’

‘We hope that local communities in these areas will work closely with the Government to ensure that future progress in life depends on an individual’s aptitude and ability, not background and birth.’