Structural Inequality in the British Education System and its Impact on Working-Class Students

Reform of our education system is crucial. Investment alone, while helpful, cannot solve the problems. Rather, our education system requires deep-rooted structural reform carried out on a national and local level. Although the mission of delivering a quality education to the many and not the few is never complete, it has truly never been further away under our current system. Inequalities are baked in, regional disparities are an immovable feature, white-working class boys have been neglected, childcare and early years provision is broken, child poverty provides a structural barrier for children from low-income backgrounds and the state-private structure consolidates economic and cultural barriers to education. A complete version of that list is longer than I could possibly attempt. In short, our education system is broken. However, hope is not lost. Our education system is fixable, but it won’t happen overnight. I will now explore the challenges facing our education system and, crucially, what we can do as a country to fix them…

A History Lesson

To understand the state-school system in Britain, a history lesson is required. The education system we currently have in Britain was not inevitable. Rather, it was the result of the advocacy, campaigning and grit of tireless working-class men and women who believed that an educated population could achieve more. Through successive Labour Party administrations, education reform became a central pillar of the government, pushing investment and structural reform to the top of the government agenda. The education settlement associated with the government of Clement Attlee (1945–1951) was built on the foundations of the Education Act 1944, which Labour implemented and expanded after the war. This legislation created a national system of secondary education for all and introduced the tripartite structure of grammar, secondary modern, and technical schools, with selection via the 11-plus. Attlee’s government also passed the Education Act 1945, which extended key provisions such as raising the school leaving age to 15 and ensuring broader access to free secondary education, alongside major investment in rebuilding schools after wartime damage. These reforms were significant because they established, for the first time, a universal framework for secondary education in Britain. While still selective, the system dramatically expanded opportunity compared to the pre-war era, making education a central pillar of the emerging welfare state.

Then, it was Harold Wilson’s turn to reimagine the education system, spearheading reforms under then-Secretary of State for Education, Anthony Crosland. The most influential change under Wilson was the move toward comprehensive schooling, driven by Circular 10/65. This urged local authorities to reorganise schools on non-selective lines, effectively dismantling much of the tripartite system created by the Education Act 1944. This shift was reinforced by the Education Act 1968, which supported the reorganisation of secondary education and raised the school leaving age in preparation for later change. The government also passed the Open University Charter 1969, formally establishing the Open University as a new institution dedicated to widening access. Rather than just promoting equality in theory, Wilson’s government used legislation and national policy to reduce selection, expand participation, and redefine who education was for. By weakening the 11-plus system and opening higher education to adults and working-class students, they challenged long-standing class barriers.

The administration of Tony Blair came next, focusing less on restructuring the system and more on raising standards and expanding opportunity within a largely comprehensive framework. Key legislation included the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, which abolished most remaining assisted places, limited the creation of new grammar schools, and strengthened the comprehensive system while introducing greater oversight of admissions and standards. This was followed by the Education Act 2002, which expanded school autonomy, promoted specialist schools, and laid groundwork for the growth of academies. Blair’s government also increased investment in education and prioritised early intervention through programmes like Sure Start.

The point of this timeline is not to provide a lecture, but to provide an understanding that education reform and progress is always hard-won and, more importantly, never complete. Now, under this government, the enormous mantle of reforming our education system falls to Bridget Phillipson. Born and educated in the North East of England, Bridget Phillipson encapsulates the best of the opportunities of an education system that promotes social mobility. Educated at St Robert of Newminster Catholic School, Phillipson attended the University of Oxford, then founded a successful women’s refuge in the North East of England before making her move into politics. Upon becoming Secretary of State for Education, Phillipson has prioritised her flagship piece of legislation, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026. At its core, the Act strengthens child protection by improving coordination between services, introducing tighter regulation of care workers and social care agencies, and expanding support for children in care and care leavers. It also increases state oversight of children outside mainstream schooling through measures such as compulsory registers of children not in school and stronger powers to intervene in illegal or unsafe educational settings. Alongside safeguarding, the Act makes significant changes to the school system itself. It mandates practical welfare provisions such as universal free breakfast clubs in primary schools and expanded free school meals, while also reducing costs for families by limiting compulsory branded uniform items. It introduces new statutory requirements in schools while tightening accountability through greater inspection of academy trusts and requirements around teacher qualifications and pay structures. If implemented effectively, this bill could be transformative.

While the early signs of Bridget Phillipson’s tenure as Secretary of State are promising, the education system needs comprehensive structural reform to finally close the gap between background and success and to ensure that every student, no matter where they come from, has the chance to succeed.

White Working-Class Boys

‘You understand that the little girls and boys in your classrooms today are the inventors, artists, creators, engineers, scientists, partners and parents of tomorrow.’ As Bridget Phillipson concluded her speech at the CST Conference in October 2025, one theme became clear: this Education Secretary understands the importance of a brilliant education for every child, regardless of their background. Emphasising reforms to the curriculum, a renewed focus on reading and literacy and bringing well-paid jobs to every part of the country, one thread of Phillipson’s speech raised eyebrows. ‘White working-class children’, for Phillipson, needed special attention, to prevent them from being ‘forgotten’ from school discourse. Indeed, Phillipson’s emphasis on white-working class children puts her finger on the pulse of so many of the challenges facing Britain’s education system: some people are just forgotten.

As per the Centre for Social Justice in March 2026, disadvantaged white British boys continue to record some of the lowest results in key exams, even as many poorer pupils from ethnic minority backgrounds now pull ahead. Indeed, just 36 percent of white British boys on free school meals reached the expected standard in GCSE Maths and English last year, analysis of the latest Department for Education figures finds. This compares to 65 percent of all pupils, 39 percent of Black Caribbean boys on free school meals, and 82 percent of Chinese boys on free school meals. Among Black African boys on free school meals the figure rises to 58 percent, for Bangladeshi boys 68 percent. Indeed, Lord Sewell argued that ‘White working-class boys from the poorest homes are still stuck at the bottom of the class.’ Furthermore, white working-class boys on free school meals are among the least likely to remain in education after 16. These statistics do not, however, stand in isolation from broader socio-economic trends, and the Centre for Social Justice highlights the importance of family structures in determining educational outcomes for white working-class children. Just two in ten poor white children live with married parents today, compared to almost six in ten among poor children in non‑white families, analysts found looking at official data. In concluding their review, the Centre for Social Justice argues that ministers have failed to tackle the root causes of poor outcomes for disadvantaged pupils including family breakdown and weak local economies in the areas where white working‑class boys are most likely to fall behind.

The government is correct to conduct a review into the challenges facing white-working class boys and is right to put this inequality at the heart of its focus in bridging the attainment gap. For me, the solution lies in a fundamental restructuring of the education system, transforming the system into one that actively engages the family in childhood development and roots education in the passions and vocations of the students themselves. Indeed, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act makes provision for Best Start Family Hubs, a rewiring of Sure Start to bring family social services under one umbrella to ensure that parents and children can develop and grow together without economic status acting as a barrier. Bridget Phillipson’s personal emphasis on this is clear with the fast rollout of these hubs. As of April 2026, over 200 new Best Start Family Hubs have opened across England, with 800 expected to be operating by the end of that month. This initiative aims to deliver up to 1,000 hubs nationwide by the end of 2028, alongside 2,000 satellite locations to provide integrated support for families from pregnancy through to age 19 (or 25 with special needs). Sure Start, for instance, boosted grades. On average, children who lived near a Sure Start centre achieved about +0.8 of a GCSE grade overall. In reinventing Sure Start, Best Start Family Hubs should improve educational attainment.

That the Secretary of State understands these challenges, because she lived them herself, is significant. Ensuring that working-class children get an education framed around family services, practical skills and vocational training is crucial to ensure that the next generation of white working-class students feel supported in their education journeys. It is to the latter point that I will now turn.

A Renewed Emphasis on Apprenticeships

The collective trauma experienced by pockets of Britain during deindustrialisation has come back to bite children from working-class areas. The security of that first job down the pit, in the steelworks or in the trade. Gone. That prospect has been lost in our education system since the demise of British industry and manufacturing. There are, however, significant openings and growth in innovative and dynamic sectors that could offer not only the industrial rebirth of towns and cities, thus driving economic growth, but also giving young people who feel neglected by the exam-based education system a future of job security and growth to believe in.

Apprenticeships in Britain have experienced a significant decline, with a 40% drop in starts among young people over the last decade. Starts fell from roughly 393,400 in 2016 to 349,200 by 2022, primarily driven by the 2017 funding system change and the impact of COVID-19. Cities and towns previously blighted by deindustrialisation must once again be reinvented and reindustrialised. Take the North East of England, for example. The industrial heritage and proud working-class mindset of the region makes it a hotspot for new jobs and industrial growth which should be partnered by a new wave of high-skilled apprenticeships. According to the Sustainability Community, the North East of England is swiftly emerging as one of the UK’s premier arenas for clean energy investment. One standout example is Newcastle College’s Energy Academy in Wallsend, which has secured a substantial £8.48 million investment. Once completed, this expansion will triple student intake, equipping thousands of young people with the engineering and renewable skills this green energy boom demands. On the industrial front, Siemens Energy’s Newcastle facility has received a £2 million boost, creating 65 new jobs to produce critical substation components, a tangible example of how investment is translating into local manufacturing growth. On a broader scale, the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), a carbon capture and storage project backed by Equinor, BP, and TotalEnergies, has secured final investment approval. It is set to store up to 4 million tonnes of CO₂ per year and launch the Net Zero Teesside Power project, a 742 MW gas-fired plant with carbon capture. These developments promise around 2,000 direct jobs in the North East and roughly £4 billion in supply-chain opportunities. Important new projects include Atom Bank's HQ move, expansion by companies like Siemens Energy, and a £160m Investment Zone targeting 4,000 jobs in green tech, highlighting a push for high-value growth in strategic sectors. Indeed, Sunderland has been a city transformed in recent years. In the financial year 2024-2025, Sunderland received £29.75 million of funding from Homes England to support infrastructure at Riverside Sunderland, alongside £50 million of investment through the recent JATCO/Nissan deal which will provide for a new EV powertrain plant, creating jobs and supporting the EV supply chain. Over the next ten years, the economy will gravitate towards growing, new sectors. New jobs and apprenticeships ought to partner it.

The government have placed a new emphasis on apprenticeships. The Department of Work and Pensions recently freed up a £725 million package of reforms to the apprenticeship system which will help to tackle youth unemployment and drive economic growth, with thousands more young people expected to benefit over the next three years, framed around a £140 million partnership with local economic leaders to be directed by Combined Authorities. Within the government’s further reforms to the apprenticeship system includes more flexibility in the English and Maths requirement for incoming apprentices. Until 2025, apprentices over 19 were required to complete a Level 2 English and maths qualification (GCSE equivalent) to finish their apprenticeship. Under the new rules, employers can now decide whether this qualification is necessary for adult learners. The government has identified sectors such as construction, health and social care and green energy as some of the hotspots of new apprenticeship growth. An emphasis on apprenticeships will ensure that new and innovative sectors of the economy can rely on well-trained British workers to fill vacancies, giving purpose and stimulus to the economy and employment of the future. Of crucial importance to changes to apprenticeship provision is the creation of Skills England, a national body dedicated to shaping the country’s workforce strategy through working with employers and industry leaders to ensure that apprenticeships and high-skilled jobs are offered in growing and evolving sectors.

There is great pride in the formerly-industrial towns and cities across Britain. It is now important that the government realises this and utilises the heritage of ex-manufacturing hubs to work with the private sector to improve apprenticeship provision. In moving towards apprenticeships, students can take pride and earn money in their career pursuits. Without the challenges of student debt and employment post-university, greater focus on vocational training would set working-class students up for suitable and high-paid employment with a clear destination in mind, closing the gap between learning and a mapped-out path of what comes next for students.

The Cost of Everything but The Value of Nothing

The Austerity Years under successive Conservative governments crippled local services offered to young people, namely youth clubs and sporting facilities. Partnered with the hollowing out of music and other cultural experiences for state-school students, it is little wonder that Sammy Wright described a student referring to school as a ‘prison’ in Sunderland. School should be for learning, but it should also be the venue of realising the talents of students beyond the classroom. Where schools struggle to perform, local authorities must intervene and offer more local opportunities for students in the arts and sports to give a sense of purpose to young people across the country.

The decline of youth clubs in Britain is one of the clearest examples of how austerity and policy choices have reshaped young people’s lives over the last few decades. As per UK Youth, youth service funding in England fell from £1.06 billion in 2011 to £408 million in 2021 and, by 2022-23, overall funding for youth clubs was down 73 percent since 2010. In England alone, the number of council-run centres dropped from 917 in 2012 to 427 in 2023 and, in London alone, at least 130 centres closed between 2011–2021. In cutting funding to local authorities, the Conservative Party may have saved money, but they damaged the extra-curricular opportunities for millions of young people in every part of the country. Youth centres didn’t just provide safety for students after school, often preventing youths roaming the streets and getting involved in crime, but they also provided structured activities in sport, music and creative projects. For some children, the youth club was often their only access to these opportunities. For working-class young people, who are less likely to have access to private clubs or paid extracurricular activities, these spaces helped to level the playing field by providing free, local opportunities for personal and social development. Their decline, therefore, represents not just the loss of leisure provision but the erosion of a key protective structure that supported educational engagement and wellbeing. In the context of a system already marked by inequality, the disappearance of youth clubs reinforces the argument that the British education system fails working-class students not only within the classroom, but by withdrawing the wider support networks that enable them to succeed in the first place.

Sport too provides a similar trend. I was lucky growing up. Sunderland was a city with a booming football scene, where just about every corner of the city had a football club which would have teams with age ranges from 5-18. I played football for my own local club from the age of 9 until 16 and forged friendships and relationships that will last a lifetime, alongside developing a skill and committing myself to regular exercise and training. Recent trends, however, show the decline of local sports clubs amid rising costs. Grassroots sports clubs across the country report rising facility costs and falling local authority funding. Indeed, between 2010-2020, hundreds of playing fields, leisure centres and community sports halls were closed or sold off as local authority funding fell by up to 40 percent during the same decade. These sporting opportunities aren’t cheap for parents either. Around 1 in 5 parents say cost prevents participation. Sport does not provide an inherent improvement to academic attainment, but it does provide a more varied and dynamic lifestyle for young people, enhancing their commitment and teamwork skills for generations to come. This problem also exacerbates the state-private divide as the last decade has opened a chasm between state-schools and their private counterparts. Around 90 percent of private schools offer strong sports programmes while the last decade has seen state-schools reduce PE time and offer fewer extracurricular clubs, offering wealthier students greater access to both health and opportunity.

An interest in music is obsolete for too many state-school students due to underfunding and a lack of resources to match their interests. The headline statistics are damning. Research by the House of Lords Library concludes that, in 2024, 42 percent of schools did not enter a single pupil for GCSE Music and the number of schools offering A Level Music had dipped 15 percent in the last two years alone. Part of the problem comes from the decline of talented professionals in the arts entering teaching. The Cultural Learning Alliance highlights that arts teachers are down 27 percent since 2010 and that secondary schools have lost over 1,000 music teachers in the same period. In the arts, the state-private division is now a chasm. Oxford Professor Daniel Grimely has pointed to a significant discrepancy in music provision. Around 50 percent of private school students receive sustained music tuition compared to just 15 percent in state schools. Similarly, 85 percent of private schools have orchestras, compared to 12 percent of state schools. Grimely concludes that this leads to real gaps in participation as state-school students participate in music 38 percent less than their privately-educated peers. What does it say about Britain when access to the arts is defined by your class background? At a minimum, it tells us that we have an education system in desperate need of reform to offer opportunities in the arts to every child, regardless of their background.

It is true that the Conservative Party understood the cost of everything but the value of nothing during the Austerity Years. This government must now act to reinvigorate youth clubs fit for the social media age, invest in local youth sporting facilities and invest in the arts and music to ensure that schools become a place to not only learn, but grow and realise hidden talents and passions. It is crucial to build a more holistic education system, and investment in culture, arts and sport will go some way to reverse the wave of decline of recent years.

Culture

As Fiona Hill rose to her feet following her congressional testimony in Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, she could have expected that Twitter would be lively in response to her accusations against the sitting president. What Hill did not expect, however, was the most viral aspect of her testimony: her accent.

Having grown up on a council estate in Bishop Aukland, Fiona Hill has obtained degrees from St Andrews and Harvard in her distinguished career in geopolitics and national security. Her calm, analytical and equally scathing critique of Donald Trump earned her critical acclaim as a model of how to use intellect and experience to dismantle populist political figures. Her North East accent, however, overshadowed all of that on social media. This speaks to an often-forgotten culture of accentism in elite institutions which creates an additional layer of imposter syndrome for students from parts of the country with lower progression to higher education.

A recent report from the University of Leeds on accent bias in higher education institutions came to a clear conclusion: accent biases exist and have damaging long-term consequences for students. Worryingly, 30 percent of university students report having their accent mocked at university and 33 percent are concerned about their accent affecting their future success. This research project conducted an accent bias survey with over 600 students at a Russell Group University in the North of England. It showed that a significant number of students experience accent-based disadvantages that have a lasting negative impact on their academic life. Negative experiences were most frequently reported by students from the North of England, especially from working-class backgrounds, and students who did not grow up speaking English, especially from minoritised ethnic backgrounds. The significance of this lies in creating a lifelong inferiority complex. If a student finds their accent inferior to their peers, it is challenging for that same student to project confidence and authority in their speaking style.

The Sutton Trust, a charity that helps young people from disadvantaged backgrounds access higher education, called on top universities to do more to cultivate an inclusive and supportive environment for all undergraduates. Sir Peter Lampl, the trust’s founder and chair described the experiences of some students as “scandalous”. “It’s tough for young people from low-income backgrounds to get into top universities. For this and for other reasons, it’s completely unacceptable that they are discriminated against while they’re there,” he said.

Analysis by the Office for Students (OfS), the government’s higher education regulator, shows that virtually all communities with the lowest levels of access to higher education are in industrial towns and cities of the north of England and the Midlands, and in coastal towns. For example, the most recent data shows that 55 percent of young people in London go into higher education but only 40 percent in the North East. This has tangible consequences as it creates a perception in regions like the North East that education at elite higher education institutions isn’t for them, paving the way for more of the same students from privileged backgrounds to capitalise and enter universities with less competition from underrepresented regions. StateElevate has encountered several obstacles in the North East of England. None, however, are as prevalent as the collective perception that university life wouldn’t suit students ‘like them’ or that ‘sound like them’. It is an uphill struggle to change perceptions like this, but the only way these things can change is through more students from regions with strong dialects attending top universities to change the culture of higher education institutions.

The government has proposed rolling out oracy lessons for children to teach them how to speak with more confidence. I support this scheme, provided that it doesn’t eat away at regional accents. Universities are at their best with a fusion of accents and dialects as it speaks to different cultures and experiences. The solution lies in promoting confidence and pride in where students come from, as no single accent or region should monopolise institutions. This, I believe, is a fight worth having and is a fight we must win.

Regional Disparities

There is a significant educational disparity between regions across the country, both in confidence and attainment. StateElevate’s Outreach Coordinator, Elodie Clements, has previously conducted some research into the region-based application rates to top universities. In the 2023/24 academic year, the North East had the lowest overall progression rate to higher education in England at 40.8 percent, a staggering 20.4 percentage points behind London. In England, there is a clear divide in progression to high-tariff universities: while 14.3 percent of non-Free School Meal (FSM) pupils access top universities, this figure plummets to just 4.9 percent for FSM pupils. The North East, home to an average of 31.2 percent FSM students (rising to above 40 percent in areas like Newcastle and Middlesbrough), faces a significant structural disadvantage. By age 19, only 50.7 percent of FSM pupils in the region progress to any university, compared to 63.6 percent of their non-FSM peers. In a region that dwarfs the FSM national average, progression to high-tariff universities is not only daunting, but in some cases financially out of the question. There are two main reasons for this disparity: confidence and academic attainment.

Case Study: The North East of England

I know how strong the pride is in working-class families in the North East, built around the simple desire for children to do better than their parents. It is not for the lack of belief from families, nor is it the lack of ambition and hunger among the students that prevents them from applying to top universities from state-schools. That problem runs far deeper, and it is one word: confidence. I won’t accept that there isn’t a desire to attend top universities in the North East. I also won’t accept that there isn’t talent and academic drive in the region either. Rather, it’s because state-school students from the North East don’t apply. As per the University of Oxford’s own statistics, only 2.5 percent of all students admitted to the university between 2022 and 2024 were from the North East. This statistic may appear shocking, given that the region is only a four-hour train journey away. The statistic is less shocking if we look at the application rates from the North East, which stands at just 2.2 percent. The university admission process is not the problem here; the problem lies in the North East itself.

In ‘There Is Nothing for You Here’, Fiona Hill argues that educational inequality in the North East of England reflects deeper structural and regional disparities rather than any lack of individual ability. She contends that underfunded schools, limited resources, and fewer local opportunities place young people at a systemic disadvantage compared to their peers in more prosperous regions such as London and the South East. Hill also highlights how education often reinforces, rather than reduces, inequality, acting as a mechanism that channels already-privileged students into elite universities and careers. This is compounded by a pervasive cultural message that success requires leaving the region which contributes to a cycle of brain drain and ongoing economic stagnation. Hill presents educational inequality as both a symptom and a driver of wider regional neglect, arguing that without meaningful investment in local education and opportunities, these divisions will persist.

Fiona Hill is correct. Educational inequality manifests itself in the North East of England. The British education system has Southern roots, creating a North-South divide in educational attainment. As per the House of Lords Library’s report on the Educational Attainment Gap (2022), London has the highest proportion of ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ secondary schools at 89 percent, while the North West has the lowest at 66 percent. Indeed, Sammy Wright’s book ‘Exam Nation’ roots the problems of state-school education in the secondary school experience. In the period studied by Wright, he points out that the North East of England was ranked second out the nine English regions in SATS outcomes. By the end of secondary school, the North East drops down to ninth. The statistics back Wright up here. As per the same House of Lords report, 22.4 percent of North East state-school students obtained an average of 7 or higher at GCSE, compared with 29.2 percent in the South East and 32.6 percent in London. The picture doesn’t get much better at A Level. In 2022, 30.8 percent of students in the North East obtained A*-A grades at A Level, compared to 34.4 percent in the North West and 39.5 percent in the South East. Sammy Wright doesn’t just look at statistics to shape his views on education, however. An experienced Head of School at Southmoor Academy in Sunderland and previous member of the Social Mobility Commission, Wright understands education through the lens of an intersection of poverty and both regional and economic inequality. For Wright, the ways to fix these inequalities lie in addressing poverty and economic challenges, but also in education reform through increased investment in education and stronger support for post-sixteen education.

StateElevate harnesses the skills and aspirations of state-school students in the North East of England and transforms that ambition into opportunity. This year, around 150 state-school students from across 10 North East schools have been partnered with one of our 100 undergraduate mentors in a range of subjects. This support, however, isn't just about academics. It's about investing time into students, with no financial cost. It's about building connections between students in the North East of England and high-achieving professionals and undergraduate students. It's about instilling confidence into students and making sure that the structural confidence barrier is broken for good. In short, Grace and I turned our own challenges in applying for top universities into StateElevate to ensure that success is determined by aspiration and ambition, not background.

I will now turn the focus of this article onto a region that has transformed itself into a place that recognises and harnesses the aspiration of its students through combining industry, schools and elite universities: Rochdale.

Case Study: The Atom Valley Education Challenge Consortium

I recently sat down with Chris Dobbs, the Director of The Atom Valley Education Challenge Consortium (AVECC) to talk about the progress in Rochdale in efforts to promote aspiration among state-school students through linking together growing industries and elite universities.

The work Chris Dobbs and his colleagues are doing is transformative and inspiring and has taken Rochdale, a location emblematic of the neglect and economic challenges facing Northern communities across the last decade and turned it into a hotspot for aspiration and ambition. For AVECC, it’s about early intervention and capturing the bright sparks in students as young as primary school to put them on a trajectory of high attainment and pathways to impressive universities and industries. Partnering Rochdale Borough Council, the Rochdale Development Agency, Rochdale Sixth Form College, Pembroke College, Oxford and St Johns College, Cambridge, AVECC brings together holistic support networks to ensure that background does not determine destination.

Putting state-school students from one of the poorest parts of the country onto a trajectory of elite higher education has been boiled down to a simple solution: inspiring students to question everything, think critically and explore fearlessly. AVECC understands that excellence starts with curiosity, a skill highly valued by top universities and employers across the country. Some of the earliest participants of the AVECC programme are starting to feel the tangible benefits that the scheme offers through acceptance into broader university schemes and offers from elite universities to pursue their passions.

Rochdale also speaks to my previous point about connecting education to industry. Working within the Greater Manchester Development Zone, Atom Valley connects state-school students with thriving new industries and employers. New devolution powers have allowed for greater say at a regional level, putting more cash and more power in the hands of local leaders. This gives greater control over post-16 technical education, setting Greater Manchester on the path towards becoming the UK’s first technical education city-region. Indeed, headquartered in Atom Valley, the Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing Centre (SMMC) is an initiative that will drive innovation for the UK’s advanced machinery manufacturers to meet the challenges of developing new technology and entering emerging markets. This sort of investment provides jobs and opportunities for young people, while also instilling pride in the broader Manchester region which has seen itself become a hub of innovation and growth under Mayor Andy Burnham.

The example of Rochdale provides an interesting blueprint for the North East of England and how to ensure that the aspiration of students is matched with tangible opportunities. Rochdale proves that the recipe for success is connecting education to aspiration and industry, and creating a broader narrative of a region being transformed by investment in the talent of its young people.

Child Poverty

Failure to mention the shameful scourge of child poverty in modern Britain is not offering the full picture. Child poverty is everything. An education strategy that ignores child poverty ignores the root cause of so much of the structural inequalities that form the bedrock of Britain’s education system.

The economic inequality birthed out of child poverty leads to worse attainment outcomes for disadvantaged children. The Institute for Fiscal Studies’ 2022 report on education inequality was damning. Even at the age of five, there are significant differences in achievement at school. Only 57 percent of children who are eligible for free school meals are assessed as having a good level of development in meeting early learning goals, compared with 74 percent of children from better off households. This extends into adulthood. Over 70 percent of private school students are university graduates by the age of 26, compared with less than 20 percent of children from the poorest fifth of households. These inequalities persist through primary school, into secondary school and beyond. Bridget Phillipson has made positive steps in this field. The government has expanded free school meal provision and has opened thousands of new breakfast clubs, designed to alleviate some of the economic and time-based constraints on young working parents on a morning. Bridget Phillipson was correct to say recently that these measures are about ‘more than just a breakfast’. These measures are designed to increase socialisation among young children before the school day, offering the chance to form friendships and relax before entering the busy primary school environment.  

It is a damning indictment on modern Britain that we live in a country in which the state must intervene to ensure that children get three meals per day. It should be a source of shame for us all. Conservatives will argue that it is the role of the parent to feed their own children and, of course, for most parents, that is the case. For me, hungry children is the moment that the state must step in and provide access to affordable meals for children, so these early policies coming out of the Department of Education are progressive steps to creating a Britain in which children go to school with hungry minds, not hungry bellies. The most impressive measure of this Labour government has been the lifting of the cruel two-child benefit cap on universal credit payments, lifting a momentous 450,000 children out of poverty across the country. Never again can this country allow so many children to be neglected by systems designed to protect them. Never again can this country allow hundreds of thousands of children to slip through the net and be confined to a childhood in poverty.

Lifting children out of poverty will enhance their life chances, but the government must now ensure that this change is irreversible through raising living standards in every part of the country to ensure that children have access to good housing and resources to set them up for a life of prosperity. Indeed, for Stephen Gorard, the attainment gap is persistent but not inevitable, focusing on early intervention as the crucial partner of lifting children out of poverty.

A Focus on Early Years

Educational inequality begins long-before students enter school. It begins and continues to be rooted in the inequalities in access to quality early years provision and childcare services. In 2024, Ofsted concluded that A strong foundation in literacy and mathematics gives children lifelong benefits and is crucial to their future success. Early literacy development helps with children’s language and vocabulary and can support their emotional understanding. Equally, effective early mathematical learning and encouraging positive attitudes to numbers and maths are crucial to children’s later achievement. Expressive arts provide children with opportunities to learn new skills and be creative. Understanding the world is a broad area and, for babies and young children, learning needs to be connected so they can build on their pre-existing knowledge to learn new ideas in the familiar contexts around them. Indeed, the link with inequality was highlighted by Sir Martyn Oliver, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, who said, ‘Learning in the early years is fundamental to providing children with the tools they need to thrive throughout their education, and beyond. That is more important for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. If we get early education right for our most vulnerable children, we’ll get it right for all children.’

Save the Children emphasises the importance of play to children. Play helps children and babies make sense of the world, explore new possibilities and challenge themselves and others. It provides the foundations for their well-being, social and emotional, cognitive and physical development. As children grow and develop, they build on their play skills in ways that align with their increasing abilities. The stress that poverty can cause may leave families with little time or space for play. The rising cost of living, insecure work and low wages mean caregivers spend more time trying to make ends meet and dealing with the anxiety of an uncertain financial future. This not only impacts the time and energy families must play but can exclude them from being able to provide enriching new experiences including hobbies, holidays and local visits. To fix this, Save the Children have recommended some policy proposals, including a benefit ‘lock’ to enshrine universal credit payments for the poorest children and access to holistic support and services that meet their specific needs and ensure the best start for their child, including support with play. High quality early education and childcare can be instrumental to developing parental understanding of how play supports early learning and embedding play into everyday routines.

When it comes to intervention to provide high-quality education for all, early intervention and quality early years provision is essential. Bridget Phillipson is implementing a major expansion of early years education focused on school-based nurseries and increased funded childcare to support working families. Key policies include launching 300 new school-based nurseries in 2025, rolling out 30 hours of funded childcare for eligible working parents of children from nine months old, and improving school readiness for children by age five to a target of 75 percent by 2028. These are promising signs, but reform to the economy to give parents more time to spend with their children with suitable housing and salaries are also important to ensuring that children grow up in favourable circumstances and have the opportunities for growth and excellence.

 Conclusion

I am aware that I have not mentioned the crucial word that every educator demands: investment. For me, that is a basic requirement that every serious government should prioritise. Increasing investment in education is essential to provide a prosperous education system with renovated schools, happier staff and more opportunities for students. This article has argued that the real transformation in British education lies in structural reform. Reforma to our early years system, lifting children out of poverty, using a laser focus on the neglect of white working-class boys, investing in culture and ensuring that the culture of elite educational institutions are to name but some of the themes I have touched on. My conclusion is simple: Britain has a broken education system, but it can be fixed with the right policies and focus. My case study of Rochdale, and the investment in ex-manufacturing hubs provides something of a blueprint for what a reformed system could look like. But let me be clear: if the system is not changed, children of today cannot possibly be seen as the answer to the problems facing our world, rather they will be cogs in a wider society built on the false promise of meritocracy.