" Great oaks from little acorns grow"  14th century proverb. A new chair and a proposed bill for the Social Mobility Commission that gives it powers to enable it to grow greater in influence. "The proposed amendments would generate the Social Justice Act 2018 and change the remit to one that is very much proactive. This move is designed to make it capable of getting change to happen by directly influencing legislation as it emerges." The gauntlet has been thrown down. Will government pick it up? "The miserable have no other medicine, but only hope." Claudio in Measure for Measure. Two events this week marked a turning point in how the thorny issue of social mobility and equality are to be approached in the UK. The democratic process was rolling along regardless of government. Instead, it seems that government is being dragged along reluctantly by the actions of those determined to work for positive change. They are to be applauded for t...

Bridge Group Meeting Tuesday15th May 2018 "We are in the midst of a profound social crisis.... Britain is deeply divided……. Between the have and the have nots.... Young people are on the sharp end of the divide". "They will see the challenge of funding as a major obstacle. Addressing this should be the essential and urgent prerequisite to any other actions. Otherwise they are futile and the traction gained from the day is wasted." On Tuesday of this week, the Bridge Group held a meeting in London at the headquarters of KPMG in Canary Warf on “Raising the Stakes: Collective Action in Pursuit of Social Mobility ” This is an urgent crisis and the discussion did not disappoint. A wide range of participants quickly learned from the different perspectives on display. The main disappointment was that there were no teachers present. Likewise, only academics with specific interest in the topic in question were there. A wider range of academics and teachers in ot...

Giving millennials £10,000 to tackle the UK generation wealth gap has been proposed this week. The crude notion is to spread wealth quickly to younger people across the board.  Investing directly instead in social housing, in families and in education may turn out to be a better option that yields greater social and fiscal benefits in the long run.  This week heralded the eagerly awaited final report of the ‘Intergenerational Commission’ that was a spin-out from the Resolution Foundation (RF) [1]. It was the culmination of a series of twenty two detailed reports released over two years of research. The media headlines concentrated on a proposal to: “Tax on pensioners proposed to heal inter-generational divide” and “Give millennials £10,000 each to tackle generation gap, says think tank” [2]. The basic idea reported was that everyone should get a “citizen’s inheritance” of £10,000 at 25 at an overall cost of approximately £7 billion per year. This would be funded...

TEFS Submission to DfE post-18 education review LINK TO THE FULL SUBMISSION HERE AND AT: https://www.pdf-archive.com/2018/05/02/tefs-submission-2nd-may-2018/ Priorities for a fairer system. The current Department of Education review appears to address policy relating to England only since education is devolved in the other UK jurisdictions. However the priorities and case presented here applies equally to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. There are TWO priorities highlighted in this submission. They are proposed as the foundation upon which any policy change is made and how its effectiveness is assessed. They are related to the fairness of the post-18 education provision and the independence of the data that underpins the assessment of fairness and any cost-benefit analysis arising. In making change it is also essential that the policies are planned in the longer-term so that students and their families can plan effectively well into the future. 1. Tha...