Towards opportunity for all: Addressing educational inequalities one neighbourhood at a time
Breaking down barriers to opportunity is one of the new Labour government’s five national missions. In this blog, Millie Dessent, policy officer at Local Trust, focuses on the role of neighbourhood-level action in supporting children and young people to achieve their full potential at school and beyond.
In Britain today, opportunity is a postcode lottery. We know that wealth is a big factor. But we don’t often talk about the fact that there are areas in the country where whole generations of young people haven’t got access to the support they need.
The presence or lack of social infrastructure – the community groups, organisations and spaces that underpin communities – can make all the difference, and provision varies widely from neighbourhood to neighbourhood or even street to street.
A growing attainment gap
Over the past 20 years, progress on addressing educational inequalities has been poor. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen the attainment gap between those from the most and least deprived places grow at pace.
This is often seen as a problem just for schools. But there are deeper and more rooted issues at play in the neighbourhoods in which young people live and grow up. The loneliness epidemic impacts young people in the most deprived areas more than any other group and one in four young people from disadvantaged backgrounds feel like they ‘don’t have much of a chance’ and that the future is out of their control.
Getting the most disadvantaged children and young people re-engaged and back into education is not just about what happens in the classroom, but all the other things that get them engaged and inspired to do well in the first place.
By this we mean the physical spaces, community groups and neighbourhood associations that turn places into thriving hubs of civic life and activity. Put another way: it doesn’t matter how much money the government spends on schools if young people don’t attend in the first place.
Social infrastructure is the missing ingredient
Nor does it matter how good a job opportunity is if someone doesn’t have the means to get there on time, or support to prepare for an interview. Social infrastructure, alongside targeted support to build community confidence and capacity, is the missing ingredient. It is what enables people to come together and organise extra-curricular activities and homework clubs, bid for money to improve local services and facilities, and generally advocate for themselves and their future.
In our work delivering the Big Local programme, we have supported 150 communities to improve their areas. As part of this, we have observed three major ways that resourced and resilient communities break down barriers to opportunity and support young people to achieve.
- Communities provide a safe learning environment outside of school. In response to poor school attendance and attainment in their local area, St James Big Local in Walthamstow partnered with Salaam Peace to deliver a study support and life skills programme for nine- to 16-year-olds. The two-hour weekly sessions provided a supportive environment for young people to complete their homework as well as develop communication skills, political awareness and financial literacy. Sessions not only fostered a sense of community amongst participants, but led to a marked improvement in academic proficiency, organisational skills and independence.
- Communities rebuild trust between young people and the education system. Marsh and Micklefield Big Local in Wycombe developed a community tutoring initiative to support those least engaged at school. A social enterprise run by a former teacher, they offered bespoke tutoring to families with children who were struggling. The initiative reached households who had missed out in the past because the teacher is a fellow neighbour and trusted community member and was able to tailor lessons to each family’s needs.
- Communities unlock opportunities that make young people want to get back into the classroom. In Bradley, East Lancashire, there were no sports facilities available for the three local schools in the area. Bradley Big Local stepped in and established a community land trust with affordable, year-round football and sports facilities. They developed a strong partnership with local schools, parents and the cohort of young people who attend regularly – who have gained friendships, skills and confidence.
Breaking down barriers to opportunity
The government should look to neighbourhoods if it wants to improve outcomes for young people. A Community Wealth Fund, investing to rebuild social infrastructure in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in England, would deliver what is needed to get youth provision into the areas that need it most.
Our research has shown which neighbourhoods should be first in line to receive that support. Data analysis with our partners Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion (OCSI) has identified a group of neighbourhoods which suffer from the double disadvantage of high levels of socioeconomic deprivation and the least social infrastructure in the country.
These neighbourhoods experience lower than average educational attainment: pupils are less likely to meet expected standards at both Key Stage 2 and GCSE-level, compared to similarly deprived communities which have an existing base of social infrastructure. Young people in these neighbourhoods are also more likely to be persistently absent from school.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The Big Local programme shows just what a difference strong, confident and resourced communities can make to getting young people excited about school and their futures. Breaking down the barriers to opportunity in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods will be a challenge, but trusting local people will go a long way to closing that gap and making sure every pupil has the support they need to achieve their full potential.
Local Trust is launching a series of papers exploring how learning from the Big Local programme can inform the delivery of the new Labour government’s five missions, and where these could have the greatest impact – at the neighbourhood level. These missions span policy across health, economic growth, education, crime, and energy.
Read the third paper on Labour’s mission to ‘break down barriers to opportunity’.
