The Fair Education Manifesto

Fair Education needs to be prioritised at the next General Election. 

Our manifesto is a guide for policymakers on what needs to be done to achieve this. 

Overview

The urgency to invest in education is clear to those of us in the sector – it is foundational to everything we want for our society in the future -- but education still isn’t getting the political priority it needs. The current context is one in which urgent crises dominate – from the cost-of-living to threats to global security. However, an education system that equips every child to thrive is essential for building the future we want and not just responding to issues as they arise. Voters will understand this: young people must be equipped with the skills employers need, they must be able to rise to the increasingly daunting challenges posed by climate change, and they must have the resilience to adapt to an ever-changing world. The Fair Education Manifesto leverages the expertise of our 250 cross-sector members to set out the areas where policymakers most urgently need to direct attention and describes what we stand to gain and lose in our fight for educational equality. 

The gaps between richer and poorer pupils – and why they matter.

At every stage, there are substantial and growing gaps between disadvantaged pupils and their wealthier peers: 

• Early Years: Disadvantaged reception-age children are an average of 4.6 months behind their better-off peers.  

• Primary: The disadvantage gap index, used by government to track the gap between poorer and better-off pupils, stands at 3.21, the highest point in over a decade. 

• GCSE: The disadvantage gap index stands at 3.76 (or a gap of 1.34 grades), the highest gap in over a decade. 

• A-Level: Disadvantaged young people are an average 3.1 grades behind their non-disadvantaged peers. 

• University: The gap in progression rates between disadvantaged pupils and others increased 20.2 percentage points, the highest recorded level. The gap in progression to high-tariff universities is also at its highest recorded level – 9.3 percentage points. 

• Skills: Individuals who attended independent or selective state schools were more likely to have above-median skills scores (55% and 52%, respectively) than those who attended non-selective state schools (49%); individuals with at least one parent who attended university were also more likely to have higher-than-median skill scores (54% versus 49%). 

• These gaps then translate into an employment gap: Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are 19 percentage points more likely to not be in education, employment or training (33% versus 14%). Our education system is leaving a substantial number of young people ill-equipped to thrive in adulthood. We need to redesign our system now so that we have an educated and skilled population in the future, ready to respond to a rapidly changing landscape. 

What we’re calling for

The Fair Education Manifesto urges politicians and policymakers to end the de-prioritisation of education that has gone on too long. It leverages the expertise of our 250 members to propose four areas for urgent attention:  

Ask #1: Stabilise the school workforce.

Ask #2: Re-balance our systems to value skills and wellbeing alongside attainment.

Our current system isn’t giving young people from all backgrounds the skills employers need, and it’s not giving them a positive experience of school either. However, change will need to be thoughtful and long-term, avoiding unintentional increase of disadvantage gaps and teacher workload.  

Ask #3: Deliver a quality early years education for every child.

Poorer children are more likely to be behind expected language and development levels when they start school. We must make high-quality early years education and care accessible to every child, so that they are able to build relationships and skills they’ll draw on for the rest of their lives. We need strategies for increasing supply to poorer communities and building a strong and sustained workforce.

Ask #4: Better fund and join-up the support around families.

Rising child poverty and a lack of investment in the services that support families have led to schools filling gaps left by others. This is not sustainable for schools or the families they serve. We need better funding for early-intervention children’s services; we also need clearer responsibilities, communication channels, and shared objectives between agencies. We also need funding restored to the streams intended to mitigate the impacts of poverty on education. 

Commenting on the manifesto, Sam Butters and Gina Cicerone, Co-CEOs of the Fair Education Alliance (FEA), said:  

“Record inequalities in educational attainment, starting at reception age and growing through to GCSE translate into serious issues of inequality in wider adult society, including employment, wellbeing and productivity. A fair education system is a root cause solution to many deeper societal issues, but real-terms education spending has declined over the past decade. This is evidence of our failure as a society to prioritise education. Our Fair Education Manifesto calls on policymakers to urgently address the school workforce crisis and barriers outside the classroom which are inhibiting children’s learning. We need to make strategic, long-term investment in building a system that properly equips all our young people with academic skills, essential skills, and mental and physical health and to start this young with quality early years education for every child.”  

Dr Vanessa Ogden, CEO of Mulberry Schools Trust and FEA Chair

“At a time when there are high demands on the public purse, we must recognise that education is central to everything we want our country to achieve: to have a workforce with the skills employers and society need, to have an informed and thoughtful electorate, and to have a fairer and more just society where every child has access to the makings of a good life. Children are our future – our most important assets are our people, and our priority should be to invest in them at the early stages of their lives – equally, consistently, and coherently in every region according to need. Cross-sector alliance on this was never more important in a competitive global context.”