Tabled by Lord Lennie To ask Her Majesty’s Government what
progress they have made on the appointment of the new Chair and
members of the Social Mobility Commission. Baroness Lister of
Burtersett (Lab) On behalf of my noble friend Lord Lennie,
and at his request, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in his
name on the Order Paper. The Parliamentary...Request free trial
Tabled by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made
on the appointment of the new Chair and members of the Social
Mobility Commission.
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(Lab)
On behalf of my noble friend , and at his request,
I beg leave to ask the Question standing in his name on the
Order Paper.
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education (Lord Agnew of Oulton) (Con)
My Lords, the recruitment of a new chair of the commission is
well under way. Applications have now closed and I am pleased
to report that we have had a strong response. We will recruit
new commissioners as soon as possible after the appointment
of the new chair to allow him or her to provide input. These
are public appointments, and the process will be completed
following the governance code for public appointments.
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My Lords, it is now nearly five months since the commission
resigned en masse because it had been reduced to a rump of
four from 10, and felt that it was not being listened to. As
the Conservative chair of the Education Committee observed,
this seemed extraordinary in light of the Prime Minister’s
concern to fight burning injustices, and given that the
commission’s final report warned that there is no overall
national strategy to tackle the social economic and
geographic divisions facing the country. What steps are the
Government now taking as a matter of urgency to develop such
a strategy and to reconstitute a strengthened commission to
oversee it, as recommended by the Education Committee?
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of Oulton
My Lords, the national strategy for social mobility is
focused on removing barriers to opportunity for all,
including disadvantaged people and places—whether it is
through education, using the pupil premium, in which the
Government have invested £13 billion since 2011, closing the
attainment gap, which has narrowed by 10% in the last seven
years, or increasing the national living wage by 4.4% at the
beginning of this month, and by £2,000 a year since April
2016. The recommendations of the Education Select Committee
are being considered by the Government, but our commitment to
improving the lot, particularly of the least advantaged,
remains paramount.
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(Con)
What are the Government doing to help break down barriers
between children from different religious and cultural
backgrounds?
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of Oulton
My Lords, we have an ongoing process of education. We
announced the integration strategy a couple of weeks ago,
using the schools linking programme to create sustained
opportunities for children of different backgrounds to mix
and socialise, and strengthening expectations on integration
for all new free schools.
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(CB)
In light of the fact that the last report of the Social
Mobility Commission indicated that intergenerational poverty
and deprivation was as bad, if not worse, in rural England
than anywhere else, including urban England, can we assume
that an appointment to the commission will go to someone who
truly understands the particular nature of rural poverty and
deprivation? In other words, are these appointments being
rural-proofed?
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of Oulton
My Lords, the Government govern for all of Britain, including
rural areas, where I live, so I can assure the noble Lord
that that will be an important part of the criteria in the
interview process.
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The Lord
My Lords, greater social mobility was one of the drivers of
the original academies programme set up by the last Labour
Government, which was why some of us supported it so
strongly. Does the Minister believe that that still holds
true for academies now and that widening educational
opportunities for the disadvantaged is the key factor in
promoting social mobility?
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of Oulton
The right reverend Prelate is correct, and we ought to record
our great debt of gratitude to him personally as one of the
very first academy sponsors in Norfolk. I have seen the work
that he has done. The short answer is yes. We have taken
1,950 previously largely failing schools into sponsored
academy status. At the time they came in, only 10% of them
were rated good or better. Today, 70% of those are good or
better, which accounts for about 450,000 children. So I see
the academy programme as a vital plank in social mobility.
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(LD)
My Lords, from the evidence that we have heard, social
mobility inequalities are not narrowing or improving, despite
what we have heard from the noble Lord and despite what the
Prime Minister pledged—to make Britain a country that works
for everyone. Can the Minister say why the Government are not
prioritising this and why is it not improving—or is it that
the Government are rather preoccupied with something else?
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of Oulton
My Lords, I assure noble Lords that it is a very high
priority of this Government. If we look at some of the papers
and initiatives that have been launched just over the past
few months, we can see the 30-hours policy in December 2017,
which was aimed at disadvantaged families. Then there was
Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential, aimed at improving
social mobility, issued in December. I mentioned earlier the
integration strategy, and we had a careers strategy in
December 2017. These are all aimed at improving social
mobility.
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(Lab)
My Lords, it is clear that social mobility in the UK is
declining. Will the Government issue some clear priorities
and set out some clear targets by which we can measure social
mobility?
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of Oulton
My Lords, I respectfully disagree with the noble Lord; I do
not believe that that is the case. The number of children
living in poverty has actually declined since 2010. In the
recent social mobility action plan that we issued in
December, we reasserted our aim to focus on areas such as the
word gap, which we know is one of the biggest areas of
disadvantage for young children. We have put more emphasis on
high-quality post-16 choices for all young people and, as I
mentioned at the beginning, we have closed the attainment gap
by 10% in the last seven years.
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(Con)
My Lords, in 2016 your Lordships’ House had a one-year Select
Committee looking into social mobility, on which I served as
a member. We looked at social mobility for those young people
who did not go to university. In fact, the majority of young
people go into jobs, vocational training such as
apprenticeships or into further education. Could the Minister
please outline whether there is an intention by the
department to ensure that some of the commissioners come from
a non-university education background?
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of Oulton
My Lords, I certainly hope so, because I did, so I know that
it is quite possible to have an interesting and fulfilling
life without having gone to university. Our T-levels are very
much aimed at that group of people who do not consider a
university career as their priority. There is a growing
awareness that there are other routes. There is an education
and skills company that is also doing a lot of work with
schools, providing mentoring and showing that there are
routes other than just university.
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