Early to Primary Years Social Mobility Initiative
The Early to Primary Years Social Mobility Initiative facilitates businesses to fund key projects from the early years that improve social mobility.
Due to socio-economic disadvantages from the early years, society is not getting the brightest people into the economy.
This is a backward step for society, the economy, and businesses.
Our Objectives
i. Equip early years settings with affordable play, learning and development resources to help children be ready for primary school.
ii. Provide primary school children with easy access to libraries, extra curricular activities, and high-quality educational resources to help them narrow the attainment gap.
_jfif.jpg)
Why the Initiative is Unique
The initiative aids businesses deliver on the “S” part of the ESG agenda by giving them the opportunity to raise educational aspirations from the early years and improve social mobility.
Current businesses’ social mobility initiatives, such as mentoring, apprenticeships, etc., typically start in the secondary school years.
However, by the secondary school age, the attainment gap for children from poorer families is already significant.
Disadvantaged children are four months behind at age five, 10 months behind by age 11, and 19 months behind by the age of 16.
Research on Early Years and Social Mobility
In the UK today, your social background still significantly impacts your opportunities in life.
It is well known that children growing up in poorer families emerge from school with substantially lower levels of educational attainment.
Such 'achievement or outcome gaps' are a major contributing factor to patterns of social mobility.
The Education Policy Institute (EPI) research shows clear evidence that high quality early years education plays a positive role in raising attainment and closing the outcome gaps between children from disadvantaged backgrounds and other children.
The 2019 Department for Education (DfE) Early Years Social Mobility Programme report showed that on average, disadvantaged children are four months behind at age five. That grows by an additional six months by the age of 11, and a further nine months by the age of 16. Children with poor vocabulary at age five are more than twice as likely to be unemployed when they are aged 34.
The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children showed that gap in attainment between children from the poorest and richest backgrounds, already large at age five, grew particularly fast during the primary school years. By age eleven, around 25% of children from poor families did not reach the expected level at Key Stage 2, compared with 97 per cent of children from the richest fifth who did.
The Millennium Cohort Study showed big differences in cognitive development, social and emotional well-being between children from rich and poor backgrounds at the age of three, with this gap further widening by age five.
This has worsened with COVID-19.
The State of the Nation 2021: Social mobility and the pandemic report by the Social Mobility Commission (SMC), showed that across the UK, attainment gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged children are getting wider, with every critical measure of low social mobility being poor.
While only about 7% of UK children attend independent schools, c.30% of all A* grades at A level are achieved by them. And c.32% of MPs, 51% of top medics, 54% of FTSE-100 chief execs, 54% of top journalists and 70% of High Court judges went to an independent school.