Fair Access to the
Professions Panel publishes over 80 recommendations.
‘Closed
shop’ Britain must end to unleash aspiration in all children,
report concludes.
Elitism in the professions and a lack of focus on careers in
schools mean that bright young people from middle class as well as
lower income backgrounds are being shut out from professional
jobs, the Rt. Hon. Alan Milburn MP, Chair of the Fair Access to
the Professions Panel, said today.
Unleashing Aspiration - The Final Report of the Panel on Fair
Access to the Professions concludes that without action to address
Britain’s ‘closed shop’ mentality, tomorrow’s generation of
talented young people will miss out on a new wave of social
mobility.
Up to seven million more professionals are likely to be needed in
Britain by 2020 as the global economy expands. A new focus is
therefore needed, the report says, to unleash aspiration in all
children and make social mobility the number one social policy
priority for this and future governments.
Over 80 recommendations are in the final report including:
* All young children need dedicated careers support from primary
school. ‘Connexions’ is not the right service for this and should
be replaced.
* Every state school should provide soft skills training and
OFSTED should inspect schools on their extra curricular training.
* Cadet schemes should be available for all state schools to
increase confidence in children and open up jobs at higher levels
in the armed forces. Currently the majority of schemes run in
independent schools.
* Parents should have the right of redress for schools
consistently failing their children and have the right to move
children to better schools.
* At the same time the professions should review their
recruitment and internship practices and report to Government by
2010 on improvements.
* Statistics should be published on university admissions
annually with more detail on pupil backgrounds. The senior civil
service should take the lead by publishing the socio-economic
backgrounds of all entrants to the senior civil service, drawing
on what they currently do for diversity.
* Universities should offer modular degrees and flexible
learning. Student finance should be available for part-time
students, as they are for full-time students.
* People needing training should have their own Government funded
budget which individuals control through a new ‘Lifelong Skill
Account’ worth up to £5,000.
Panel Chair, The Rt. Hon. Alan Milburn MP, said:
“There is a chasm between where we are and where we need to be if
Britain is to realise the social and economic benefits of huge
potential growth in professional employment. We need a new
recognition: that a closed shop mentality in our country means
that too many people from middle income as well as low income
families encounter doors that are shut to their talents. And we
need a new focus: unleashing aspiration, not just beating poverty.”
”The Report recommends how the professions, the government and
others can unleash the pent-up aspiration that exists in the young
people of our country. Not everyone can be a doctor or a lawyer –
and not everyone will want to be – but those with ability and
aptitude need a fair crack of the whip to realise their
aspirations. And in more disadvantaged communities we need to
systematically raise the aspirations of those youngsters and
families who simply do not believe they will ever progress.”
“It’s not that many young people do not have aspirations. It is
that they are blocked. It is not that they do not have talent. To
coin a phrase, Britain’s got talent – lots of it. It is not
ability that is unevenly distributed in our society. It is
opportunity. In this sense the professions simply reflect a wider
problem in British society: a governing assumption in too many of
our institutions that progress can be achieved on the basis of a
limited pool of talent having access to a limited set of
opportunities. Such elitism is unjust socially. And it can no
longer work economically.”
The Panel found that many of Britain’s professions have become
more socially exclusive over the past few decades. As a
consequence, bright people from all backgrounds are facing not
only financial obstacles, but also social and cultural barriers –
despite having the aspiration and talent required for a
professional career.
ANNEX A The Report’s key findings include:
* Up to 9 in 10 new jobs in the future will be professional jobs.
* Tomorrow’s professional is growing up in a family that is
better off than 7 out of 10 families in Britain.
* The typical doctor or lawyer of the future will today be
growing up in a family better off than 5 in 6 of all families in
the UK.
* The typical journalist or accountant of the future will today
be growing up in a family better off than 3 in 4 of all families
in the UK.
* The typical engineer or teacher of the future will today be
growing up in a family better off than 2 in 3 of all families in
the future.
* Over half of professional occupations such as law and finance
are currently dominated by people from independent schools which
are attended by just 7% of the population. 75% of judges and 45%
of top civil servants were independently schooled.
* A typical professional born in 1958 came from a family that
earned 17% more than the average family income; but by 1970 the
family income gap between those who went on to pursue a
professional career and the average family had risen to 27% with
journalism – along with accountancy – seeing the biggest shift to
more social exclusivity.
* The Report makes 88 recommendations to government, the
professions, charities and others. The recommendations range from
putting social mobility at the top of the political agenda, to
practical proposals which will open fairer access to the professions.
Key recommendations include:
Social Mobility
* Social mobility to be the top social policy priority for this
and any future government.
* A new expert social mobility commission to advise government,
professions, employers and other public bodies and oversee
progress made.
Aspirations
* Reforming the Gifted and Talented programme to a new “raising
aspirations” scheme to provide personal mentors, work tasters and
soft skill development.
* More information and support being provided to help parents
help their children.
* Role models to inspire young people through a high profile ‘Yes
you can’ campaign backed by a volunteer network of student and
young professional mentors.
* Finding new forms of partnerships for social action through
‘Social Mobility Bonds’ with government and investors co-funding
social mobility projects.
Schools
* Closing the attainment gap in education by examining reforms
such as :
o Expanding City Academies at primary and secondary level;
o More pupil premium funding in disadvantaged areas;
o A new parental right of redress, with a voucher worth 150% of
the cost of their child’s education where schools are deemed underperforming.
* A dedicated, professional careers service in every school and
college as a replacement for the failing Connexions careers
service.
* Careers advice to be available from late primary school onwards
– and to target parents through a new careers prospectus.
* A new focus on school outcomes – including incentives for
student outcomes and Ofsted to inspect on quality of careers
advice and extra-curricular activity.
* A radical overhaul of work experience programmes in schools.
* A new emphasis on soft skills development - including team
working, leadership, and presentation skills.
* Cadet Force activities to be available in every school that
wants them.
Universities
* Universities to offer modular degrees and part time students to
get loans.
* Fee-free higher education for students staying at home and
studying at their local university, especially mature people with families.
* Supporting all universities to take into account the
educational and social context of pupils’ achievement in their
admissions processes.
* New partnerships between universities and local schools and professions.
* 3,000 ‘Apprenticeship Scholarships’ to university per year –
rising to 10,000 over time – to fully fund talented apprentices to
progress to university and combine their work with the opportunity
of higher education.
Internships
* Fair rules for internships through a nationally agreed
Internships Code between government, employers, professions and unions.
* Internships openly advertised through a new website.
* A kite-mark for identifying high quality internships.
* Support for internships through means tested micro-loans and
private finance.
* Low cost or free accommodation at
universities for young people to undertake internships.
Recruitment
* A pilot to record socio-economic background of new entrants to
the Senior Civil Service.
* All professions to undertake reviews of fair access in their
professions, reporting back to Government by 2012.
Flexible Professions
* Each profession to establish clear progression routes from
vocational training – including introducing apprenticeship schemes
– to allow more non-graduates to start out in a professional career.
* A new model of training through ‘Lifelong Skill Accounts’ to
provide a voucher worth up to £5,000 to empower people to learn
flexibly and choose from a range of courses at the time, place and
provider of their choice.
* The Government to expand apprenticeship schemes to Whitehall
departments – and allow successful apprentices to become eligible
for the Fast Stream management programme.
* Recognising the contribution of further education as a driver
of social mobility – including a model of “HE within FE” and new
freedoms for further education colleges.
Notes to Editors
1. The Panel on Fair Access to the
Professions was announced in January as part of the
Government's New Opportunities White Paper, outlining the
Government’s strategy to improve social mobility.
2. The Panel was commissioned by the Prime Minister to review the
processes and structures that govern recruitment into the
professions, and make recommendations to both the Government and
the Professions on action that will improve access for all.
3. The Panel consists of eighteen representatives from the
Professions, (including the media, law, business and finance,
architecture, politics, and medicine), and two experts on social
mobility, with the Rt. Hon. Alan Milburn MP as Chair. The Panel
was supported by a Secretariat drawn from the Cabinet Office.
4. The Panel’s work did not look at some of the wider drivers of
social mobility as covered elsewhere in the New Opportunities
White Paper, and did not look at employment law, illegal
discrimination, or wider issues of equality such as race or gender.
5. To access a copy of Unleashing Aspiration - the Final Report
of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions, and for more
information, visit www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/accessprofessions
For more information contact Nadine Smith, Kirsteen Rowlands or
Shivanee Chady on 0207 276 3472/1203/5539.
Cabinet Office Press Office 22 Whitehall LONDON SW1A
2WH
Tel: 020 7276 1273 – Fax: 020 7276 0618
www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Out of hours telephone 07699 113300 and ask for pager number 721338
Contacts:
Cabinet Office Press Office
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Fax: 020
7276 0618
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Shivanee Chady
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shivanee.chady@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk