Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the recommendations in the Social Mobility Commission's report, entitled The Time for Change, published 28 June 2017, what plans she has to develop and implement a new social mobility test for public policy.

The Department for Education welcomes the Commission’s report, published on 28 June, which considers efforts to improve social mobility over the last twenty years. The Commission rightly concludes that too often life chances can be determined, not by effort and talents, but where you come from, who your parents are and what school you attended. The Department will set out further details on policy to tackle this social injustice in due course.

Thanks to the Government’s reforms, there are 1.8 million more pupils in good or outstanding schools than in 2010, and we are delivering three million apprenticeship places, opening up access to our higher education system and investing £500 million a year into technical education.

However, we want to go further. The Social Mobility Commission’s previous analysis has contributed to our understanding of the geography of social mobility, and last year we launched our £72 million Opportunity Areas programme. This brings together local businesses, schools and councils in 12 social mobility ‘coldspots’ to create better opportunities for young people. By working with these Opportunity Areas, identified by the Commission, we aim to better understand how we can address the barriers to social mobility from the early years to adulthood.