Bridget Phillipson – 2024 Speech on Fixing the Foundations of Opportunity

The speech made by Bridget Phillipson, the Secretary of State of Education, at the Carlton House Terrace in London on 10 September 2024.

Thank you so much. I’m so pleased to be here with you today at the launch of such an important report.

And the temptation with reports like these, the ones that deal in international comparisons, is to try and score cheap political points by doing each other down.

But I think that’s a mistake. They are a chance for collaboration, not competition. Partnership, not rivalry.

Educational standards, opportunity itself, is a shared global endeavour. I want countries to come together to educate our children to form, not just the citizens, but the society of tomorrow.

And so I’d like to thank the OECD for this excellent report. And I’d also like to thank the Sutton Trust for hosting us today.

And I know that Sir Peter Lampl – you are stepping down as chair soon.

And I know that you’ve spent the last quarter of a century campaigning tirelessly to level the playing field where it comes to access to education and career opportunities, so that no young person is held back by their background.

So thank you for all that you have done, Peter. I was going to wish you a happy retirement from your role, but it sounds like you’ve got lots of plans lined up and lots that you intend to achieve in the months and years to come.

I’m an optimist. So I want to be positive, but I do have to be honest about the inheritance of a new government.

And as data published today shows, around a third of children leaving primary school do not meet the expected standard in reading, writing and maths following assessment.

There are pockets across our country where only every other child is leaving primary school meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Lurking beneath all of these separate challenges is a common denominator of distress: child poverty – the stain on our society that has seeped into the fabric of far too many families.

One in 10 pupils in this country miss at least a meal a month because their parents can’t afford to buy food.

Back in August I visited a sixth form college in Manchester for level 3 results day.

And during that visit I sat down with teachers to listen to their reflections on what it is to be a teacher today.

One told me that he had been a teacher for over a decade. But in that time his job had changed beyond all recognition.

With more and more kids bringing out of school issues into the classroom, his role had expanded.

The children’s need for pastoral support took up so much more of his time.

More and more children were prevented from learning in his lessons because they were hungry, or because of other problems at home.

Despite that teacher’s best efforts, going far beyond his job description, the life chances of those children were shrinking.

As politicians we like to talk about our own story.

But proud as we may be of that, too often the story of why some of us make it to stand on platforms like this today, while others never get that chance, is not one of hard work and talent.

It’s one of luck, and all too often of bad luck.

That’s the story for those children in that teacher’s classroom in Manchester, and thousands of other classrooms across the country.

The ones arriving too hungry to learn.

The ones arriving too tired to concentrate.

The ones arriving not having done their homework because they don’t have a quiet space at home.

Whereas others arrive ready and raring to go – and in the evenings they go back to homes where they are encouraged to continue learning, where their education is prized.

Nowhere is the stickiness of these disparities clearer than in the persistence of poverty, infecting generation after generation.

It takes five full generations for families in poverty just to reach average pay in the UK.

And in today’s Britain, it’s the luck of your background, rather than how hard you work, that all too often delivers success.

And the British people know it: three in four of adults agree that a person’s background influences their outcomes in life.

The foundations of opportunity in Britain may be rotten.

But aspiration – that desire to achieve and to succeed – is in rude health.

It isn’t just the reserve of the wealthy, even if the opportunity to fulfil those aspirations remains rationed to a lucky minority.

Working people want to know that success belongs to them, to look into the eyes of their children and grandchildren and tell them that if they work hard, they’ll be able to get on and have a good life.

So this government is on an urgent mission to make that a reality once more…

… an urgent mission to fix the foundations of opportunity

… to restore the heritage of hope passed from generation to generation.

It can be done.

But to do it we must eradicate child poverty from our society.

That’s why I came into politics, that’s why I’m proud to be leading the new government’s child poverty taskforce as co-chair, together with the Work and Pensions Secretary.

Work has already begun, we held our first meeting of the taskforce last month, and we’ll publish our strategy in the spring.

I’m glad to see that the theme of today’s report is equity in education.

Tackling child poverty is one piece of the puzzle – and it’s a top priority for this parliament. But fixing the foundations of opportunity demands equity in education too.

For this new government, it means high and rising standards across the length and breadth of education:

Not for some of our children, but for all of our children

Not in some of our schools, but in all of our schools

Not just in London and the south east, but right across our nation

Every village, every town, every city on the map. Every child, every young person, every adult in this country.

And to do that we need great teachers – the ones who inspire, who guide, who shape the futures of all of their students.

They are vital to our opportunity mission, so we’re restoring teaching as the profession of choice for the very best graduates and recruiting 6,500 new expert teachers.

That’s why we’re giving teachers and school leaders a 5.5% pay award, starting this academic year.

Great teachers in every classroom – that’s one way we’re fixing the foundations of opportunity.

But our opportunity is about parents as well as children – it’s about families.

We need to get early education and childcare right – so that all children get the very best start in life and all parents get the power to pursue their careers.

But, as your report shows, the gap in enrolment in childcare between rich families and poor families in the UK is one of the biggest in the OECD.

So how can we spread opportunity more widely?

Part of the answer does lie in the childcare rollout.

And I’m delighted that last week hundreds of thousands of working parents started receiving 15 funded hours for their young children for the first time.

And I was pleased to confirm that the 2025 childcare commitment to increase this to 30 funded hours will go ahead.

We have worked tirelessly this summer alongside childcare providers to deliver the promises government made, because trust in government is vital.

That of course means being open about the scale of the challenge to roll out this commitment in full.

It won’t be simple. It won’t be easy.

But I will work with our parents and workforce to see it through.

All of early years education is vital for our mission, not just childcare.

Those first steps into education are so important for a child’s life chances.

And the sad truth is that a significant part of the attainment gap is already baked in by the age of 5.

But what happens next in a child’s life, what they are taught in the classroom, is vital too.

So we are bringing together expert education leaders and staff in an expert-led review to help us deliver a cutting-edge curriculum fit for the future.

True equity in education requires breadth and depth, and ours has been thin and shallow for too long.

A foundation in reading, writing and maths, yes.

Of course.

But let’s go further. I want every child in our country to benefit from the wonders of music, sport, art and drama.

A curriculum that reflects the issues and diversities of our society, ensuring that every child is represented.

Never compromising on standards in the basics.

Quite the opposite.

That’ll be the strength with which we drive high and rising standards for all of our children.

Those standards must be for each and every child.

When they slip, it’s not middle-class parents who miss out – they can pay for tutors to pick up the slack.

It’s the children without support at home who fall further behind.

To deliver those standards in all our schools we need an accountability system that is fit for purpose.

A system built on support, and focused on driving improvement at the earliest point.

High standards, not high stakes.

Broad and rich, not narrow and reductive.

And last week I took the first steps to reform accountability. I announced the end of single headline Ofsted grades for state-funded schools, with immediate effect.

Instead, a clearer, broader, more transparent report card approach, in place by September ‘25.

Equity in education, from early years up to university and beyond, is the seed for opportunity in our society.

We can’t focus just on one part of the system, one area of the country, one group of people.

We can’t let excellence in education be the reserve of a lucky few.

It has to be for all, for everyone, forever.

Now I said before that I’m an optimistic person. And even given the challenge ahead, I am optimistic.

I believe that this country’s best days lie ahead of us; that our country with its proud history can have a brighter future yet.

September signals the end of summer, but a new beginning for education.

The work to fix the foundations, to build a new nation of opportunity, has now begun.

Thank you.