Educational Outcomes: Disadvantaged Boys and Young Men

Luke Murphy Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd February 2026 Westminster Hall

[Alistair Strathern]

The hon. Member is spot on in highlighting the fact that, particularly when we are talking about boys’ lack of achievement, ensuring that we identify the full suite of needs they have early and put in place appropriate interventions is vital. It is an often overlooked fact that 70% of young people with education, health and care plans across the country are boys. The gendered aspect to some of the special educational needs and disabilities challenges faced right across the education system will be fundamental to ensuring that we get our reform agenda right.

The heartening thing for the Government should be that there is lots of good practice to build on. When I look back to my own time in teaching, which I assure you, Sir John, was not a catalogue of universal great practice to be learned from, and think about some of the young men where I was able to have the impact I wanted, it came down fundamentally to one thing—the quality of the relationship I was able to build with them. That observation might seem so simple as to be banal, but in Westminster discourse and in policy making, we can often overlook this simple fact. When dealing with vulnerable and isolated young men, who often feel quite alienated, relationships are everything.

[Luke Murphy (Basingstoke) (Lab)]

Will my hon. Friend join me in paying tribute to Chris Edwards and Peter Beeching at Brighton Hill community school in my constituency? They have set up the GOAT Boys scheme—the greatest of all the boys’ schemes—standing for growth, ownership, attitude and tenacity. It is a mentoring scheme designed to tackle that very issue—to ensure that every child has a trusted adult outside their family, to build resilience, purpose and connection and help to tackle the educational attainment gap, which this debate is all about. Will my hon. Friend join me in endorsing schemes such as that? It has already signed up 70 pupils locally and 50 schools nationally. Would he encourage similar schemes elsewhere?

[Alistair Strathern]

Absolutely. My hon. Friend makes a really important point. It was a real pleasure to meet Chris, his constituent, at an event as part of the Lost Boys Taskforce work earlier in the year. They are doing really inspiring things. I hope that together we can better showcase those and build on some of the successes we have already seen in relation to the Government’s youth strategy, which recognises the importance of trusted adults at its heart.