Literacy news

The Equality Strategy

1 Feb 2011

The government has released The Equality Strategy – Building a Fairer Britain, focusing on the principles of equal treatment and equal opportunity. The strategy states that there are still opportunities that are closed to the disadvantaged, and gives some examples including:

• “The chances for children in lower income families of being socially mobile are lower in the UK than most international counterparts.” (p7)
• The difference in life-expectancy between people in higher and lower socio-economic groups.
• “Persistent inequalities exist for some groups. For example, under 10% of Gypsy and Traveller pupils attain five GCSEs or equivalent at A* to C grades including English and maths compared with over 50% for the average population.” (p7)
• “Black Caribbean pupils are three times more likely to be permanently excluded than the school population as a whole.” (p7)

The strategy explores the different areas through which these inequalities can be addressed.

Early years:

• “…promote the creation of new community-led public services, learning from organisations such as the National Childbirth Trust which works with single, teenage mothers to spread knowledge and good practice.” (p11)
• “…extend free early years education to all disadvantaged two-year-olds from 2013.
• Take Sure Start back to its original purpose of improving the life chances of disadvantaged children. Sure Start services will target early intervention on the most disadvantaged or at risk young families.” (p11)

Schools and young people:

• “…set up a new Ministerial Working Group to drive action across government to tackle the wide range of inequalities and poor social outcomes experienced by Gypsies and Travellers. 48 local authorities are already offering targeted support to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils.” (p12)

Poverty, work and social mobility:

• A social mobility strategy will be published by February 2011.

A fair and flexible labour market:

• “…improve careers advice for girls, women, ethnic minorities, disabled people and others who can be disadvantaged by occupational segregation, to help ensure that they are aware of the options open to them.” (p15)

You can download the report here.

Tags: Local Authorities, Partners in Literacy, Policy, Social inclusion

Return to literacy news