First Published 2019

by John Catt Educational Ltd,
15 Riduna Park, Station Road,
Melton, Woodbridge IP12 1QT

Tel: +44 (0) 1394 389850
Email: enquiries@johncatt.com
Website: www.johncatt.com

© 2019 Sonia Blandford

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the contributors and are not necessarily those of the publishers or the editors. We cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions.

ISBN: 978 1 912906 09 3

Set and designed by John Catt Educational Limited

To my diverse and inclusive family
Charlie, Bethany, Mia, and our newest member Zoe Rose

About the Author

Sonia Blandford is Founder and CEO of the award-winning, educational charity Achievement for All, delivering programmes to improve outcomes for children and young people vulnerable to underachievement in early years, school and post-16 settings across England and Wales. She is also Visiting Professor of Education at UCL Institute of Education.

Previously, Sonia was director of research and leadership at Teach First, Professor of Educational Leadership and Innovation at the University of Warwick, where she now holds an Honorary Professorship, Pro-vice Chancellor and Dean of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University, Deputy Dean of the Westminster Institute of Education, Oxford Brookes University and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. Prior to her charity and higher education positions, Sonia held leadership positions in five schools in Wiltshire, Bath, London and Bristol.

Since 1990, Sonia has worked in partnership with international business, policy, third sector and education organisations focusing on projects to deliver social mobility representing England in the European Agency for Inclusion study on Raising Achievement for All Learners (2015-2018).

A prolific writer and speaker, Sonia has published widely including Born to Fail? Social Mobility: A Working Class View (John Catt, 2017); Raising Attainment in the Primary Classroom, co-authored with Dr Catherine Knowles (Bloomsbury CPD Library, 2018): Understanding Applied Learning: Developing Practice in Education, co-authored with Professor Tanya Ovenden-Hope (Taylor Francis, 2017).

Among her many charitable roles, Sonia was a Founding Trustee and Vice Chair of the Chartered College of Teaching, Founding Ambassador of Teach First, and Founder of The Pound Arts Centre. Named in Debrett’s 2015 and 2016 list of the Top 500 Most Influential People in the UK, Sonia was also among the 2016 Women of the Year and was a finalist for the ‘Outstanding Achievement Award’ in the 2017 and 2018 UK Social Mobility Awards.

Endorsement

‘Professor Blandford undertakes a most crucial task in this book. She positions the spotlight squarely on the two challenges that are fundamental to the life chances of working-class children. First, through the Foundation Years, how to ensure every child starts school successfully and on a level playing field with their peers. Second, through post-14 education and apprenticeships, how to give every young person a genuine choice over their future. Here we are presented with a blueprint for radical reform.’

Rt Hon Frank Field MP –
Chair of The Work and Pensions Committee

Praise for Social Mobility, Chance or Choice?

Professor Blandford’s ability to provide clear solutions for the issue of social mobility, combined with her academic framing and personal insight makes Social Mobility Chance or Choice? a must read for everyone.

Lady Cobham CBE, Chair, The 5% Club

A beautifully written book driven by passion and tempered by experience, sound research and analysis. Sonia has both worked and consulted widely with children, parents, leaders and teachers. She offers employers, politicians and policy makers, all who care and work for disadvantaged children, solutions that give hope and are rooted in mutuality and agency.

Frances Maguire, Partner, PwC, Australia

It is refreshing in the way Sonia seeks to challenge the status quo; putting need (societal and young people) at the heart of her approach; being non-judgmental about the past and passionate and determined about the future. Social Mobility, Chance or Choice? is a clear, concise and compelling reset on our approach to social mobility. Encouraging of a national conversation, casting aside blame for past errors, and being brave enough to look practically at what young people need in a changing world.

I love the notion that we all need to own this challenge for when our young people succeed, our country succeeds. Every young person should have the chance and choice to succeed and we should care enough to make it happen, even if it means changing our minds on the role of education and the world of work. This is a model in practical action, active listening, casting aside doctrine, and determined to make a difference. A national effort required for a nation committed to the biggest social change in history.

An incredible must-read book on why we must become more impatient about social mobility. Not content to wait 100 years or more for change to happen because the price we all pay for social immobility is too high and the time to be serious is now. A great read and a book that I hope is consumed and implemented on an industrial scale.

Nick Stace, UK Chief Executive, The Prince’s Trust

As usual, Sonia is disarmingly forthright. She speaks with an honesty that is irresistible. In this book she passionately presents us with an ambitious blueprint for mutuality. I am sure that all of us who work with children dream of a society and a system that is properly meeting the needs, recognising the talent, and unlocking the potential of the thousands of children living with disadvantage. Our chances of achieving this are now significantly improved.

I would suggest that the next (and all future) education ministers read this book when they take up office and then again when they leave it, and, judge their achievements against its powerful message of aspiration, opportunity, entitlement, justice, respect and recognition for all.

Paul Green, Headteacher, Lyng Hall School, Coventry

Born to Fail? Social Mobility: A Working Class View established Blandford’s personal and professional understanding of socioeconomic disadvantage, access to equality of opportunity and the potential for social mobility through education. Social Mobility, Chance or Choice? develops the concept of mutuality raised in Born to Fail? and challenges the reader to care enough as a society to change. Every reader can see the chances children and young people need to really have a choice in the direction of their lives.

Blandford’s new book implores the reader to effect social justice through a radical change in attitude and deed. Her evidence-informed solutions demonstrate that we must value all, regardless of background, challenges or needs and focus on equality of choice.

What makes this book special is Blandford’s understanding of what was, what is and what could be for children and young people through a mutually socially just society. Her statement below should echo through parliament, making politicians attempt once again to transform lives by providing chance and choice: ‘There is no reason at all why all children and young people cannot have the same chances and choices, but there are many reasons why they do not.’

Professor Tanya Ovenden-Hope, Plymouth Marjon University

The word that echoes through Sonia Blandford’s new book, Social Mobility, Chance or Choice? is mutuality. After exploring the negative, top-down assumptions made about young people in Britain today in her last book Born to Fail?, Professor Blandford again makes the impassioned plea for facing up to ‘the deceit of the concept of a classless Britain’. Ranging through the stages that impact on our chances in life, from early years through schools to the workplace, the thread that links together Professor Blandford’s analysis of the issues we face as a society is the heartfelt belief that equality of opportunity is possible, alongside the deep and justified anger at the many ways in which it is denied.

But the importance of this book, and of Professor Blandford’s arguments elsewhere, is that the focus is on valuing all, and including all in the conversation. She rightly points out that social mobility cannot be seen as an engine that pulls people out of working-class identity and makes them ‘better’. We must recalibrate, and steer away from the mindset that writes off those who do not conform to the exam led, academic route into middle class professional identity. If we define success in our society as simply reaching that identity, then we will never eradicate the advantage that those who start their lives there have over those for whom it is a long and difficult journey.

And it is difficult. Perhaps the most important takeaway from this book is the importance of providing the network of support, through children’s centres and parental engagement programmes like Blandford’s own Achievement for All, as well as in the most basic structures of welfare and healthcare, so that young people are offered equal chances and equal choices right from the start of their lives. If we can do this, and if we can face up to the importance of this challenge, not only morally, but for the future productivity and stability of our society, we have a real chance to finally make the progress towards a mobile, diverse and equal society that has been promised for so long but never quite delivered.

Sammy Wright, Social Mobility Commissioner

What a great read. This book shows the depth and breadth of Sonia’s insight into education both in the UK and further afield. She covers a great deal of ground in this book. Yet Sonia can break down complex and nuanced discussions expertly. As with all of Sonia’s work, she draws on such a wide base of literature and research, which in turn makes the book both ambitious and highly readable. The concept of mutuality is such an important one in education, especially in our work with parents, carers and the community. Sonia draws out the importance of defining what it is and what it is not. Sonia emphasises the importance of teacher learning, of leadership as well as positive and authentic relationships with community, business and university. All are essential for young people to increase their life chances and choices.

Sonia’s passion for all young people shines through on every page, both in the urgency of the message and through the many practical examples of what can be achieved through collaboration. Everyone will find something of real value here. You may not agree with everything, but you cannot doubt the belief, clarity and principle behind every word.

Reuben Moore, Teach First Executive/DfE ITT Review Panel

For many children government policy has raised academic attainment over the last ten years. But many other children have been failed by the new system and, too often, excluded by it. Professor Blandford provides a new vision that complements the current one. She begins with where all our children begin – with their family and community environment – and shows us how to improve our schools for the benefit of all our children.

I have had the privilege of being included in her work for two years. Please read this book and learn how we can mend some of the divisions in our country. I would especially commend this work to those who lead our education policy. Professor Blandford knows of what she speaks.

The Earl of Listowel, Treasurer, All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Children

Introduction

Social Mobility, Chance or Choice? – a sequel to Born to Fail? Social Mobility: a Working Class View¹ – sets out the current chances and choices available for those children and young people facing challenges to their future social mobility. This book explores the concept of mutuality and asks the questions: ‘do we dare to start a new conversation about social mobility?’ and ‘do we care enough as a society to change?’ By considering the questions, this book identifies how education, educators and public policy can develop effective responses and solutions to the social issues that push against future social mobility.

Drawing on interviews with education and business leaders, this book reflects on the changing skill sets and capacities needed by young people to drive their social mobility, and the inescapable conclusion that these skill sets and capacities will continue to change in the future in ways that are almost impossible for us to predict.

In these contexts, this book questions whether the traditional national measure of educational achievement – maximised university entrance – is still useful for, or even relevant to, working class children and young people and children facing disadvantage.

For example, apprenticeships at their best can offer an up-to-date and forward-facing solution to providing choice for working class and all children and young people. Despite recent policy developments designed to encourage meaningful apprenticeships, apprenticeship programmes are experiencing challenges. In this book, I argue that applied learning and work-based learning should be more accessible and made available to all children and young people. If we are serious about unleashing the talent of all children and young people, regardless of their background, challenges or needs, we must consider new and innovative approaches to post-14 education.

In this book, I argue that all education and business leaders, professionals, practitioners, parents or carers, and members of society have a shared responsibility to ensure that our education system (in its widest sense) gives every child and young person a right to real chances and choices and support that maximises their opportunities. When we do this, we contribute to building a society that is truly inclusive.

Born to Fail? Social Mobility: A Working Class View presented a common sense manifesto for a fairer start for all children and young people. I took the current conversation about inequality in Britain and looked through my own personal lens and wealth of professional experience at what we have learned (and what we have failed to learn) about the working class in Britain, the true meaning of social mobility, and the impact, if we can get it right, it could have on us all.

Born into poverty in the late 1950s, I am now one of the country’s foremost experts on and champions for improving the aspirations of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. I assert that social mobility is about changing the way people think, act and engage, and – crucially – understanding there is an alternative way to live to ensure everyone can succeed. At the heart of which is mutuality. I believe that we need to act fast to galvanise society and we need to act against what is ultimately the social injustice of our time. My story began when children from the estate where I was growing up participated in a study of disadvantaged children (later published in 1973 as Born to Fail?) and the enormous inequalities we suffered (health, family circumstances and educational development) compared to what the authors then called ‘ordinary’ children.²

Shockingly – as discussed in Born to Fail? Social Mobility: A Working Class View – the findings of Born to Fail are as real today as they were in the 1960s and 1970s. Children and young people are still not reaching their full potential because of education, poor housing, poor health outcomes, and a lack of care.

Building on my life story and questions asked in the original Born to Fail study, this book incorporates new research, practice and interviews with social mobility commentators and senior educational and business leaders. Recommendations that follow are based on what works to improve social mobility chances and choices for all.

This book has a simple central premise: providing better and more meaningful chances and choices for children and young people will increase their future social mobility.

By chances, I mean opportunities in an equal and mutual context where everyone is valued in education, training and the workplace.

By choices, I mean giving children and young people real agency in securing positive options for their future in terms of their: overall life-course; employment/career; and better health, wellbeing, security, happiness, and engagement in society. In short: true social mobility.

I argue that we can only offer real chances and choices through mutuality, where everyone is valued regardless of their background, challenges or needs.

If we are in a place and at a time where we are embracing new thinking, we must recognise the great things that have been achieved by recent initiatives in health, social care and education but also acknowledge, accept and address what has not worked and what is not working.

We must resist repeating or exacerbating the mistakes of the past and must have a will to change. The will to change must be in everyone that is involved in the lives of children and young people, because it is about mutual gain. Mutual gain happens when people, on all sides of the political spectrum, and across all classes and cultures are owners of change and recognise that they have a role to play. Mutuality means that we recognise that every child and young person has talent, potential and a voice, which makes every child or young person a valuable and integral part of our society.

I believe that if we are serious about increasing social mobility and improving the lives of all children and young people, providing real chances and choices, underpinned by mutuality, is the key. The Prince’s Trust UK 2030 Taskforce has adopted the very apt slogan ‘Live, Learn and Earn’ to describe the thrust and outcomes required to provide positive improvements to the lives of all children and young people.³

Bridging the gap between talent, potential, and opportunity must be the goal of everyone with an interest (whether professional or personal) in ensuring that children and young people can access opportunity (chance) and lay the foundations for healthy and happy future lives (choice). However, bridging this gap is becoming harder than ever before in the context of the current precarious social and economic climate.

The 2017 Social Mobility Commission (SMC) report Time for Change tracked how levels of child poverty have risen – with about one in three young people now classed as poor – and how the attainment gap between disadvantaged and better-off pupils widens rather than reduces during a child’s journey through statutory education.⁴ In England, only 39% of pupils on free school meals achieved an A* to C in English and maths GCSE compared with 67% of all other pupils. The SMC report also highlighted the real barriers to higher education faced by children and young people from low-income families. For example, there are still many areas of the country that have no higher education institutions, restricting choice and access for low-income youngsters, although the report also notes that, because of attainment issues, proximity to a university is not enough to widen participation.

Time for Change also examined the various stages of an individual life, which makes for shocking and arresting reading. In summary:

Early years: There is currently no prospect of child poverty being ended in England. If progress continues at the current rate, it will take 15 years before all children are school-ready by the age of five, and more than 40 years before the attainment gap between poor five year olds and their better off peers is closed.

Schools: There has been significant progress in reducing the attainment gap between poorer pupils and their better off classmates at primary school but the gap between children who are eligible for free school meals and their better off classmates increases substantially at secondary school. The attainment gap between poorer children and their wealthier counterparts at 16 is as large as it was 20 years ago. There is currently no prospect of the gap between poor and wealthier children being eliminated.

Young people: The last two decades have seen major changes to post-16 education with the school age rising to 18, access to higher education being widened and apprenticeships being recreated. These reforms have consumed a significant amount of public money and government effort, but progress has been too slow, and results have been piecemeal. Labour market outcomes for young people remain consistently poor. If progress continues at the current rate, it will take 120 years before disadvantaged young people become as likely as their better off peers to achieve A Levels or equivalent qualifications. In higher education, it will take more than 80 years before the participation gap between students from the disadvantaged and the more advantaged area closes.

Work: Extreme low pay has been largely eliminated but one in five people in the UK are stuck on low pay – a consistently higher proportion than other comparable nations.

2018 research by the Resolution Foundation concluded that:

low to middle income working-age households or the just about managing face three years of falling or flat incomes. […] the bottom part of the working-age population is expected to face relatively weak or even negative income growth.⁵

These are difficult – arguably unprecedentedly difficult – times for the working class and low to middle income families. However, the main commodity of a country is its people, and people from all backgrounds need to be represented in all areas of employment.

Method

To examine mutuality and journeys towards approaches that will drive social mobility, this book is based on a three-stage structure that draws on the most up-to-date evidence-informed practice, and the most reliable data and research at each stage. This structure is:

Identify the Issue.

Identify and evaluate the Solution.

Identify and make transferable the effective Outcome.

This synthetic approach has been designed to focus on and interrogate outcomes that can be genuinely transferred and spread to unlock:

the capacities and capabilities of children and young people maximising their future social mobility and life courses.

the untapped potential for positive change within the education system including, but not limited to, the further education system.

This approach is in line with current effective practice in business and management, but which also – and crucially – bridges the divide between research for and research of education and social activity and policy.⁶ The debate about the relative value of research for and research of education and social activity and policy has been on-going for more than half a century.⁷

On the one hand, researchers such as Hargreaves and Gewirtz have argued that all educational research (and by extension research relating to children and young people) should be (and in the case of Gewirtz can only be) of use if that research contributes to positive change and outcomes for children and young people.⁸ ⁹

On the other hand, researchers such as Whitty have argued that:

We certainly need to reiterate the importance of basic research and scholarship and recognise that education researchers are not necessarily under an obligation to make their research explicitly useful.¹⁰

The approach of this book attempts to reconcile both positions. As Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam noted:

We do not believe that all educational research should be useful, for two reasons [...] [Firstly] there should be scope for some research in education to be absolutely uninterested in considerations of use. [Secondly] it is impossible to state, with any certainty, which research will be useful in the future. Having said this, we believe strongly that the majority of research in education should be undertaken with a view to improving educational provision.¹¹

This book considers the research and practice that explicitly highlights outcomes for change. It also considers and synthesises research that is not focused on outcomes, but which has intrinsic value as building blocks that can build truly holistic approaches to maximising the outcomes and social mobility of all children and young people.

If we consider the inspiring work of mathematician Professor Andrew Wiles in solving Fermat’s Last Theorem, we can see traces of an approach that was truly Issue – Solution – Outcome focused. Singh notes that in his solution to the 2000-year-old mathematical problem Professor Wiles created:

[...] completely new mathematical techniques and combined them with traditional ones in ways that had never been considered possible.¹²

This involved considering mathematical proofs that had no obvious practical outcomes, but which were linked to the problem and which were vital to the eventual solution of the problem at hand. This is analogous to the approach that I have taken in the writing of this book.

Singh expands on this approach by explaining Professor Wiles approach to securing outcomes based on evidence in terms of an analogy that describes research as a journey through a dark unexplored mansion:

You enter the first room of the mansion and it is completely dark. You stumble around bumping into the furniture, but gradually you learn where each piece of furniture is. Finally, after six months or so, you find the light switch, you turn it on, and suddenly it is all illuminated. You can see exactly where you were. Then you move into the next room and spend another six months in the dark. So each of these breakthroughs, while sometimes they are momentary, sometimes over a period of a day or two, they are the culmination of – and could not exist without – the many months of stumbling around in the dark that proceed them.

My strong belief is that to find a quick-fix universal approach that will guarantee social mobility and equality is an impossible goal. Rather, we must fearlessly journey together through our own dark unexplored mansion. There will certainly be mistakes and missteps along the way, but I believe that creating a more equal society that ensures that every child and young person is provided with chances and choices to succeed is within our grasp, if we so wish.

By exploring chance or choice, this book will describe some of the many journeys we must take if we are serious about driving social mobility for all children and young people.

1.    Blandford, S. (2017) Born to Fail? A Working Class View. Woodbridge: John Catt Educational.

2.    Wedge, P. and Prosser, H. (1973) ‘Born to Fail?’ London: National Children’s Bureau.

3.    The Prince’s Trust (2018) ‘UK STRATEGY 2018-23: A million more young people to gain the confidence and skills to live, learn and earn’. London: The Prince’s Trust. Available at: www.princes-trust.org.uk/Document_Strategic-Aims-2018-2023.pdf

4.    Social Mobility Commission (2017) ‘Time For Change: An Assessment of Government Policies on Social Mobility 1997-2017’. London: Social Mobility Commission. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/622214/Time_for_Change_report_-_An_assessement_of_government_policies_on_social_mobility_1997-2017.pdf

5.    Corlett, A., Bangham, G. and Finch, D. (2018) ‘The Living Standards Outlook 2018’. London: The Resolution Foundation.

6.    Leclerc, O. and Moldoveanu, M. (2013) ‘Five routes to more innovative problem solving’. McKinsey Quarterly. Available at: www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/five-routes-to-more-innovative-problem-solving

7.    Corey, S. (1952) ‘Educational research and the solution of practical problems’, Educational Leadership, 9, pp. 478-484.

8.    Hargreaves, D. (1996) Teaching as a research-based profession. London: Teacher Training Agency.

9.    Gewirtz, S. (2003) ‘Enlightening the research–policy relationship: issues and dilemma for educational researchers’, Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, University of Hamburg, 17–20 September 2003.

10.   Whitty, G. (2006) ‘Education(al) research and education policy making: is conflict inevitable?’, British Educational Research Journal, 32(2), pp. 159-176.

11.   Black, P. and Wiliam, D. (2013) ‘In Praise of Educational Research’, British Educational Research Journal, 29(5), pp. 623-637.

12.   Singh, S. (1997) Fermat’s Last Theorem. London: Fourth Estate.