Sutton Trust responds to the Social Mobility Commission's State of the Nation report

“Today’s report presents a worrying and complex regional divide in the chances of getting on in today’s Britain. It shows that a patchy picture - first uncovered in the Sutton Trust Mobility Map in 2015  - with London socially mobile and much less mobility elsewhere in the country.

“It is vital that we focus on providing quality education in the early years, so that disadvantaged children gain the developmental skills they need to succeed.

“We need to make sure that children have access to high quality teaching by recruiting more good teachers and most importantly raising the game of the 450,000 teachers already employed. The Education Endowment Foundation’s Research Schools are playing an important role in doing this in the government’s Opportunity Areas, regions where social mobility is very low. They’re helping to break down barriers so that research doesn’t stay on the pages of academic journals but has a real impact in the classroom.”