Social mobility is extremely important. Without it, I would not have been able to come from a very poor, working class background to be a middle-class head teacher!
With Katherine Birbalsingh's appointment as Social Mobility Commissioner, this important aspect of modern Britain has come to the forefront of our thinking again. I want to begin this by saying that I have a lot of respect for Katherine. We disagree on many areas of education and have had a number of discussions on Twitter in the past. However, she has always been respectful in her discussions with me. What we both agree on though is that we want the best for the children of this country and will leave no stoned unturned to make that happen. Our methods may be different, but our end goals are the same.
Upon her appointment, Katherine was quoted as saying “improving social mobility is more vital than ever”. and that “On the one hand, I want to inspire real action that will encourage people to seize the opportunities available to them and, on the other, I want to ensure that the government and other public bodies are delivering on their commitments to providing such opportunities, so that we really can ‘level up’ every region of the UK.”
This is exactly what I would want to hear from the Social Mobility Commissioner, and I applaud her in her aims.
Unfortunately, I woke up to an article this morning which came across as parent blaming and saying that parents who do not actively engage with their children's schooling are letting their children down. Yes, in an ideal world, our parents would give 100% focus to their children's education, but we do not live in an ideal world.
Let me go through my childhood. My mum had to work three jobs to bring money in to put a roof over our heads, food on the table and clothes on our backs. My dad was severely ill with bi-polar depression so was not available to us as children. Did this leave any time for them to focus on my schooling? No it did not. Did this mean they failed me and my siblings? Definitely not. It wasn't a great upbringing, but I cannot put any blame on my parents. They kept our heads above water, which was all that we could ask. They did place an importance on school, and we went every single day.
I became socially mobile because of my education. The schools believed in me. The schools gave me the tools to succeed. I could have easily slipped into the same routine as my family and friends and continued to work in 9-5 working class jobs, but I had aspirations which were given to me by schools. They opened my eyes to the wider world. Could my parents have done this? No. They didn't have the opportunities or experiences themselves to break out of their own cycle.
Over the past 15 years, all of the support structures in place to help parents achieve social mobility have been stripped away. Sure Start Centres were the perfect starting point for this and the government of the time decided to take away all of this funding. These places gave parents a space to learn how to deal with difficult situations, ask for help and support and develop their skills as parents. The social care system has been decimated because of the short sighted decisions to remove Sure Start centres. Social care can now only firefight and deal with the worst cases. Instead of providing early intervention and support, they are only able to deal with the families in crisis, which is too late.
The biggest barrier to social mobility is poverty. Parents cannot often help being in poverty. They are working many hours and still have terrible decisions to make about whether to feed their children or heat their houses. How can people even consider how to break out of their cycle and be upwardly mobile when their thoughts are dominated about feeding their children? Therefore to crassly say that parents are to blame and have to devote more time to their children's education is disingenuous and does not get to the root of the problem.
Here would be my plan for improving social mobility:
Reintroduce Sure Start centres to improve outcomes for young children at the earliest point possible.
Increase social care funding to allow for more early intervention and support for families in need.
Raise the minimum wage to give families more flexibility with their income and lift more families out of poverty.
Not allow one child to be in poverty in this country. This is surely what the benefit system should be about. If we cannot do this, we should be ashamed of ourselves as a country.
Double the Pupil Premium to allow schools to support disadvantaged children.
Ensure universities work with secondary schools to raise aspirations for children and ensure all children can have a drive to go to further education if they wish.
Raise the status of vocational education. Children should not feel put off pursuing a career in these areas, and they can often be a route out of poverty.
As always these come down to money, but this has to be a priority of our country. The research shows that by removing people out of poverty, other social problems begin to diminish - there will be fewer people on benefits, people will lead healthier lives and crime will reduce. Surely now is the time to invest.
Ultimately, the children are the ones we need to focus on here and we should avoid a blame game.