Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment have they made of the recently published <i>State of the nation 2016</i> report by the Social Mobility Commission.

We welcome the Commission’s report, published last week. It is a wide ranging, valuable piece of work that draws out some important findings.

The Commission’s approach to social mobility is in line with work going on in the Department: looking at the opportunities of a group beyond the most disadvantaged; solidly focusing on areas of the country which are falling behind; and addressing wider obstacles to opportunity, like the need for high quality advice. Officials are engaging with the Commission’s findings as part of this wider work programme.

Opportunity Areas, launched last month, will be the vanguard of our approach to social mobility in areas where there are the greatest challenges and the fewest opportunities and will benefit from our energy, ideas and resources to address the barriers to social mobility. These areas are all social mobility coldspots identified by the Commission.

The Commission points out that the barriers to social mobility will not be fixed overnight. It will require long term effort from the Government, business, civil society and communities to ensure that talent and hard work leads to success, wherever you live or whatever your background.