Children from families who are not socially well-connected risk falling even further behind their...

Family connections 'as important as money' to help children succeed:

Children from families who are not socially well-connected risk falling even further behind their more advantaged peers, experts warn, following a new report highlighting the lack of opportunities available to disadvantaged young people.

New data released from youth charity The Prince’s Trust suggests the “social bank of mum and dad” can be as important as financial backing, since many young people find work experience or their first job through family contacts.

Speaking at a TeachFirst conference in Leeds on Tuesday, Alan Milburn, Chair of the Social Mobility Commission, called for new social mobility tests to be put into place in education to help reduce the divide.

He said: “Over recent years there has been a growing sense that we have become an ‘us’ and ‘them’ society - where a few unfairly entrench power and wealth to themselves”.

Mr Milburn highlighted that with the current rates of progress it would take at least 30 years for the educational attainment gap in schools between poorer and better-off children to even halve.

For the gap in access to university to completely close, it would take more than 50 years.

He told the conference: “The truth about our country is that over decades Britain has become wealthier but we have struggled to become fairer.”

The Social Mobility Commission has called on the government to set a new target for a least half of children from the poorest background to achieve five good GCSEs by 2020. 

“This would be prioritised by the government giving equal importance to closing the gap between pupils from poorer backgrounds and their wealthier peers as increasing overall results,” the group states, as part of a measure implemented by Ofsted inspection and school league table measures.

Teaching groups have expressed their hesitations over the effectiveness of such policies, however, arguing that schools are under increasing amounts of pressure to produce top results despite lack of funding.

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “This government is focused on making Britain a country that works for everyone."

”We are determined that every child, regardless of background, gender or ability, has an equal opportunity to reach their full potential. The pupil premium, now worth £2.5bn a year, is being spent to improve the education provided to children from the poorest backgrounds.”

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/family-connections-money-children-succeed-jobs-employment-work-a7157166.html