Social mobility study calls for more regional devolution and empowerment
London continues to pull away on measures of school readiness and GCSE grades for pupils eligible for free school meals
Last updated 12 hours ago
Britain’s first professor of social mobility has praised Andy Burnham’s agenda of looking beyond London as new research shows the capital has extended its lead over all other regions in England on how well disadvantaged pupils do in school.
Analysis by the South-West Social Mobility Commission (SWSMC) showed London continues to pull away on measures of school readiness, GCSE grades and attendance for pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM).
Lee Elliot Major, professor at the University of Exeter and one of the report’s authors, said Britain’s educational divide is not a north-south split, but increasingly one between London and the rest of the country.
He told the Press Association (PA) that different regions have different challenges and require local approaches to address inequalities, commending Mr Burnham’s plan to transfer power out of Whitehall and give regions more control.
The Labour leadership hopeful set out proposals last month which he says would bring about the “biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen” in his first major speech since Sir Keir Starmer announced he would be resigning.
He said the plan would be to give regions greater control of housing, water, energy and transport.
Prof Elliot Major told PA: “I do think we want more devolution and more regional empowerment on opportunity.
“It all leads you to having to think about a more regional, local approach to addressing and improving opportunity if there are so many distinctive challenges across the country.
“A one-size-fits-all, top-down approach from Westminster doesn’t work.”
He also said the country needs an education system which “nurtures and recognises” technical vocational skills alongside academic ones rather than a system that is “dominated by accountability around academic assessments”.
“I don’t think we’ve done enough on that and it seems to me that a Burnham government, from what we can tell, will put more emphasis on that,” the professor added.
If he becomes prime minister later this month, as expected, Mr Burnham would establish a No 10 North in Manchester to act as the “nerve centre” for the plan to redistribute power.
Asked if the former Greater Manchester mayor might be too focused on retaining his “King of the North” title, Prof Elliot Major said: “I think there is a danger that these profound challenges facing the country are seen just through that lens of the south versus the north – that’s historically something we’ve obviously been obsessed by over centuries.
“The danger is that you miss out on other areas of the country which have some of the biggest social mobility challenges in the whole nation.
“If you look at the South West there are pockets of real deprivation, of rural and coastal poverty, and so we want a government that serves all people.”
The SWSMC report found 58% of children eligible for FSM in London met the expected level of development at the end of their reception year in 2025, while 47% of FSM pupils in the South West, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber did.
The proportion of FSM pupils meeting the expected standards in reading, writing and maths at age 11 last year stood at 59% in London, 50% in the West Midlands – which was the second best performing region – and 41% in the South West.
When it came to gaining grade four or above in English and maths GCSEs, London was once again at the top of the table – with 56% of students on FSM achieving the grades – while the South East ranked at the bottom – with 39% of FSM pupils doing the same.
Absence rates painted a similar picture, with 31% of students eligible for FSM in London secondary schools persistently absent – meaning they missed 10% or more of their classes – while it was 38% of FSM pupils in the West Midlands and 46% in the South West in 2024/25.