Social Mobility

Peter Gibson Excerpts

Tuesday 21st March 2023 Westminster Hall

[Peter Gibson (Darlington) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Robertson. I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Sir David Evennett) on securing this important debate, and I am delighted to see the Minister for Social Mobility, Youth and Progression responding to it.

Levelling up is not just about dishing out money to parts of the north that have been ignored by Governments of all colours. Righting that wrong is part of my motivation for being here, and it is about delivering on the core missions of the levelling-up agenda. Social mobility goes to the heart of those missions, particularly education and skills. We all know that there are only two real- terms solutions to solving poverty—work and education. Providing opportunity, aspiration and inspiration to the next generation is critical to delivering social mobility. We all have a part to play in that.

For the record, Darlington is ranked 120 out of 533 English constituencies on the social mobility index, so Conservative Members are representing every type of constituency out there. There is already a vast swathe of new opportunities for local people in Darlington, which will enable them to fully reach their potential and find good, well-paid and secure employment into the future. Just this weekend, the brand new engineering block, the Ingenium Centre, opened at Darlington College. The centre has been delivered with £2.96 million from the towns fund, and it will house the college’s T-level students.

I commend the Government for introducing T-levels, and for providing an innovative educational route for people to gain the skills they need to prosper and fully meet their potential. I simply do not recognise the picture painted by the hon. Member for Hemsworth (Jon Trickett).

Literacy and reading is a great ladder for opportunity, and we know that wider reading broadens aspirations. I take this opportunity to highlight and pay tribute to Skerne Park Academy and its reading lobster scheme, which was introduced after the children said they did not have someone to read aloud to at home. They now each have their own reading lobster, a buddy for life to listen to their stories. The scheme is proving hugely successful and is promoting a lifelong love of reading in these children. Indeed, Seb, my own lobster, has met Mr Speaker, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor. The scheme is going down very well in Skerne Park in Darlington. We know that children who read for pleasure go further in life, and I ask the Minister what the Government are doing to ensure that we encourage wider reading.

This debate seemed a perfect opportunity to highlight the work of the Purpose Coalition and the Social Mobility Pledge, but my right hon. Friend the Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford has already done that, so I want to put on record my thanks to Justine Greening and David Harrison for their incredible work on the Social Mobility Pledge. Through the Harrison Foundation, which David heads up, the Social Mobility Pledge has contributed over £50,000 to First Stop Darlington, which is helping people get on in life.

In conclusion, the investment that Darlington has received from the Government has helped to galvanise organisations that work with local people to ensure their true potential is not wasted. But we can go further, and I urge the Minister to do so. Many of us in this place can be examples to our communities of what can be achieved. I am thinking in particular about those of us who went to state schools and were the first in our families to go to university, or indeed did not go at all.

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[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mims Davies)]

I start by congratulating my right hon. Friend the Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Sir David Evennett) on securing this important debate and on his excellent, thoughtful and wide-ranging speech on social mobility. It has also been a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Robertson, and I thank all Members who have contributed to this excellent debate.

I reassure Members of all parties that as the Minister for Social Mobility, Youth and Progression in the Department for Work and Pensions, this is a topic that I am particularly passionate about. In response to my hon. Friend the Member for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich (Dr Poulter), I am absolutely committed to working across Government and keeping a focus on this issue. I absolutely agree with the point about role models: you simply can’t be it if you can’t see it.

On Single Parents’ Day, and as a single mum, it is an honour and still a surprise to serve in this House. I was the first uni student in my family, with many of my relatives still thriving in trades as manual workers with a farming background. My father left school at 14 with no qualifications and a substantial dyslexia challenge, so our family is absolutely a product of social mobility. I understand the strong views expressed by the hon. Member for Hemsworth (Jon Trickett). I take a different view, but I am very proud and pleased that we all share our own experiences in this House, and how we learn from our experiences helps with the role model piece.

I agree with my right hon. Friend the Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford and many colleagues about the commitments that we make in this House by continuing through, and this is a great opportunity to move the levelling-up conversation into the social mobility conversation. Social mobility is absolutely about every single person having the chance and opportunity to succeed, no matter their background or postcode.

[Peter Gibson]

The Minister may not be aware that Darlington is home to one of the largest settled Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities in the country. I am particularly keen to hear her views—if not today, by following up in writing—on what the Government are doing specifically in respect of them.

[Mims Davies]

The support for all groups, no matter their background or where they are, is exemplified by hon. Friend pointing out that particular group. I am happy to come forward with further information on that, including cross-Government work.

The Government remain committed to all aspects of life, from education to work and later life, and to having a comprehensive suite of measures in place to achieve social mobility. The challenges laid down today are very welcome, because we have heard about different experiences in the different corners of Britain. Yesterday I visited Sandwell, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton and central Birmingham to discuss how our DWP support, youth offer and work with the third sector and local partnerships is making a difference in our communities.

I do not agree with the hon. Member for Wirral South (Alison McGovern) on the ABC—any job, better job, career—approach. Throughout the engagement that I had yesterday, it was consistently said to me that the skills, confidence and network that that gives people are transformative. As we have all spoken about today, you have to start somewhere.