Liam Byrne, Minister for the Cabinet Office, answered your questions on social mobility and the Government’s New Opportunities White Paper.
Read the transcript: New Opportunities webchat
Liam says: Welcome to those logging on with questions on the New Opportunities White Paper - thanks for taking the time to join our debate
Richard Garside: Since the introduction of University Fees and topup fees, has the number of people from poorer backgrounds going to university changed? And, how has and will this affect social mobility?
Liam replies: On the latest available figures, the proportion of young people from lower income families going to university has gone up - and it’s closer now to the ‘participation rate’ of youngsters from wealthier backgrounds than ever before. We want to go further. We’ve already created hundreds of thousands of new university places since 1997 - but we want at least 50% of young people to have the chance to go to university. In a world where we compete on our skills, we need to give as many as possible the opportunity to get the best skills available.
lizzie: Volunteering is a powerful tool in creating social mobility through access to learning, developing technical and social skills. Volunteering has to be well organised and resourced to meet modern expectations and legislative requirements. Can the Minister provide reassurance to local Volunteer Centres that provision will be made to ensure that volunteers are protected from exploitation and their endeavours promoted through effectively resourced management? We must make the best of the volunteering opportunities which tough times bring to help people who are without work to keep up their skills and regular working habits and use them to support vulnerable people in our communities.
Liam replies: You’re right about volunteering. For lots of people volunteering is not only a way to give something back to your community - it’s a way to get hold of skills that can lead to new work and new opportunities. And right now volunteering organisations have got a big role to play in helping Britain get through the downturn. That’s why we’ll be publishing our Economic Action Plan for the Third Sector in a few weeks time - bringing together what government and the sector is going to do together. We’re lucky that the voluntary sector goes into this downturn stronger than ever before because we’ve more than doubled to £10 billion the amount of public funds in the Third Sector.
Sue: Does Mr Byrne consider that professional, objective, expert careers advice is essential for ‘disadvantaged’ people trying to find their way through the education & training maze? And for those losing their jobs in the recession?
Liam replies: Good careers advice is crucial to helping youngsters and adults alike turn aspiration into success. So, we’ll be creating soon the Adult Advancement and Careers Service (working name!) and putting in place a huge expansion in the number of professional career development loans. But the wider argument we make in the New Opportunities White Paper is that we have to invest in every stage of people’s lives - from early years, to schools, to apprenticeships, university places and access to workplace skills training - if we’re to open up the opportunities of the future to anyone with drive, determination and the ambition to earn a good life.
Mrs.Irene Tait: It is fine going for social mobility but how does one become social or mobile when they are expected to live on very little money. After payiing rent (inclusive of water rates),council tax, Television Licence,tax and national insurance there is very little left to have a social life let alone become mobile in society
Liam replies: This is exactly why I’m arguing that we need to invest in people - to provide real help to get through the downturn - and real hope in the future of turning aspiration into success. That’s why the Chancellor recently put in place a package of tax cuts that benefit all consumers and all basic rate tax payers - and it’s why we put extra help on the table for those with children, and pensioners, with big increases in the basic pension and the pension credit. But for the future, we not only want to see an end to child poverty but we also want to see investment in the services that people need if they’re to get ahead in life. Over the coming months, we’ll be investing £10.5 billion extra in children, families, skills and communities. That’s how we’ll open opportunity in the years to come. Cutting back now would simply cut back on Britain’s future potential.
Stephen Brown: It’s great to see the Government focussing on the social mobility of young people, but given that often second, third and fourth chances happen after 24 years, what will the Governement do to fund volunteering opportunities for the majority of the population?
Liam replies: We’re passionate about strengthening civic society - and widening the opportunities to volunteer, especially for our young people. So we’re investing something over £0.5 billion to help the third sector - charities, voluntary groups and the like - over the next couple of years. We want to see the number volunteering go up, and in the New Opportunities White Paper we announced that the independent charity ‘v’ will create a new programme to create full time volunteering places for young people, with skills training thrown in.
geoff: Social mobility is determined at a very early age. But our child poverty rates are schocking and hold too many back. Why does the White Paper skirt around this (couldn’t see much reference to child poverty, only “best chance in life” blah blah) and what are you going to do to tackle it?
Liam replies: Actually, we’ve made some big steps forward pursuing our ambition to end child poverty in this country once and for all. Some 600,000 youngsters have already been lifted out of poverty - and now we want to go further still. So the New Opportunities White Paper confirms that we will legislate to enshrine in law our goal to end child poverty forever. The next step will be new laws put before Parliament later this year.
amanda: The WHite Paper talks about the best start in life, but assisted childcare does not start until age 3 and even then it is part time. Many parents work while their children are younger than 3. What’s the reason for this arbitrary cut-off? And why can’t we move to a Scandinavian model - more help, more equality?
Liam replies: Countries - like those in Scandinavia - have seen big increases in social mobility for the generations that enjoyed universal access to childcare. We’re very proud of our investment of some £25 billion in early years provision since 1997. But now we want to go further. We have a bold ambition to extend the reach of early years provision to all 2 years olds, and build 3,500 children’s centres - one for every community. In the New Opportunities White Paper we took the next step forward with new plans - and new money - to extend free nursery places for 23,000 2 years olds. That’s a flying start to life.
Natasha Kennedy: It is acknowledged within this discussion paper that, ‘a person’s social background makes a difference to the goals they are able to achieve in life.’ Does the minister agree that unless disability is seen within the policy framework of social mobility disabled children, who are three times more likely to live in poverty and twice as likely as non-disabled young people not to be in education, employment or training, will continue to miss out on vital opportunities to increase their life chances?
Liam replies: The argument the White Paper makes is straightforward. If we make the right investments today, we can do two things: we can capture a big share of the 1 billion or so skilled jobs that will be created around the world in the decades to come - and second, we can open those up to anyone from anyone background. Our proposals for welfare reform have a big focus on helping those with disabilities back into work. But I’ll be honest. We passionately believe that to deliver on this promise we need new investment - not cuts - for public services. Cuts would simply guarantee that our future performance fails to match our future potential.
George Dugdale: Given that research shows literacy to be vital to social mobility, what plans does the Government have to use literacy to further it’s mobility targets.
Liam replies: When you look at the research, the exam results you get at 16 are one of the biggest determinants of how well you do in later life. So, a big part of the New Opportunities White Paper was new proposals to make sure we get absolutely the best teachers in some of the toughest schools. One of the ideas we put forward is £10,000 bonsuses for teachers who stay for three years in schools that need them. And over the months to come, we’ll have more to say about rolling out one to one tuition for those at risk of falling behind at school.
Anne Aitchison: How do you envisage that you will counter lack of aspiration among disadvantaged communities which is a factor in predicating against upward mobility?
Liam replies: I’ve thought a lot about this because I serve an inner city community in Birmingham, where I’ve found that youngsters have buckets of ambition but often don’t feel they can go on and be successful in life. Often what’s lacking are good role models and a sense of self-confidence and self-esteem. Not all communities in deprived areas are the same - levels of aspiration vary a lot. So, we announced in the New Opportunities White Paper that we will trial some new approaches where we give front line professionals - eg schools, or doctors, or neighbourhood police teams - the flexibility to try new services that harness the whole community to make a difference. Look out for further news on this in the months to come.
mandy: Is the ministers view that children and young people should participate in decisions that affect their lives and if so could the minister tell us how children and young people participated in the development of this white paper?
Liam replies: A lot of the research we used to write the New Opportunities White Paper has come from young people. But in my experience of working with young people to change my communuity in Birmingham, I think the key is to give them a role in developing and delivering the services that will make a difference to what they can achieve. So, for many of our ideas about new services for young people, we want to see young people given a prominent role in how youth budgets should be invested and delivered.
Matt: All the chat about volunteering… it’s great that it is being backed, but why do Job Centres not view volunteering as a legitimate route to employment, is this something that needs dealing with at the Dept Work and Pensions?
Liam replies: This is an excellent point. At last week’s jobs summit - hosted by the Prime Minister, and Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell and others - we set out new plans to offer 35,000 structured volunteering opportunities for people out of work for over 6 months who want to get a job. This is an important idea because it means people can give something back to the community around them and continue to develop skills while looking for new opportunities.
Charlotte: But you’re NOT investing in people - this isn’t hitting the streets. People are unemployed for 6 months+ and there are no avenues to retrain without funding. You may be saying there is, but it’s not filtering down.
Liam replies: Actually we are. Take early years. We’ve invested £25 billion since 1997. Or take schools. We’ve doubled spending per pupil. Or take apprenticeships. In 1997, there were only some 65,000 opportunities available. Now we’re approaching a quarter of a million. Or university - we’ve increased places by 300,000. Or take workplace training. Soon ‘Train to Gain’ (the organisation that delivers workplace training) will have a budget of £1 billion a year. And over the year to come we’ll invest £10.5 billion extra in families, children, skills and communities. The point is there is no magical answer to boosting social mobility. You have to invest in people and families at every stage of life.
For those out of work for 6 months, extra help is on the way too - with 250,000 subsidised jobs, support for 140,000 people to become self-employed, 75,000 work-focused training places on top of 35,000 volunteering opportunities.
Steve: Whilst there are many important measures set out in the white paper, any efforts to address social mobility must recognise that too many families are facing more immediate and basic needs - struggling to afford basic necessities such as food, clothes and heating. It is absolutely vital that these basic needs are met first before children and their parents can look to the future with any sense of optimism. The biggest investment that can be made here and now is in the incomes of the poorest families. The Campaign to End Child Poverty thinks that we need investment of £3bn in the next Budget to make a real difference. What do you think will be the best way to invest now in the future of the poorest families?
Liam replies: We’re proud of our work to lift 600,000 children out of poverty over the last decade. Proud - but not satisfied. That’s why we want to go further and actually legislate to enshrine our targets to end child poverty once and for all. That’s a way of not just focusing minds today - but of binding future generations to one of the greatest causes in modern politics.
Emilie Whitaker: How will you work with the voluntary and community sector in taking the aspirations of the New Opportunities paper forward?
Liam replies: Look out for the Economic Action Plan - but also plans for public service reform - that we’ll publish over the next few weeks. We created the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) to help make sure the voluntary and charitable sector had real punch in developing new policy like the New Opportunities White Paper.
George Dugdale: You have briefly mentioned role models already, and I’d like to ask about this. For young people to be socially mobile they need to have aspirations and often these come from within the family. Do you have strategies for re-engagin families and communities who in some cases have lived without work and aspirations for 3 generations.
Liam replies: I think that anyone serious about promoting social mobility has to be serious about the family. But that means supporting parents manage life in the 21st century. Absolutely key to this has been the huge expansion of early years services. But this has come alongside creating new rights for parents at work to take time out to be good parents - when it matters most, in the first weeks and months after a new baby is born. So we’ve made an excellent start - but we’ve now got to finish our task; building 3,500 childrens centres and widening free nursery places. When I was researching the White Paper, someone I met said to me ‘education is like a house and nursery is the foundation on which you build’. I couldn’t put it better. And it means we need to build foundations that last a lifetime.
Liam says: Thanks a million for your questions this afternoon. But please stay in touch - the New Opportunities White Paper isn’t the start of this agenda - and it isn’t the end either. We’ll continue to need your ideas to take this work forward. You can contact me at the Cabinet Office via www.hmg.gov.uk/newopportunities
