Liberal Democrat Education Association

Every Child Must have a chance: not a life on means-testing

It is unacceptable to any liberal that Britain is the developed country where your life chances and income at age 30 are more influenced by your parents' background and income than in almost every other developed country. Britain is a meritocracy, but one in which the chances of acquiring "merit" are hopelessly unequal.

Social mobility is unacceptably low in Britain and 12 million people live in relative poverty. Labour's attempts to reduce poverty have come at the price of trapping people in dependency, with means-tested benefits. The Government's approach seeks to move people over an arbitrary "poverty line", rather than giving them the real opportunities which would allow them to play their full part in society.

The Liberal Democrats, in our recently published policy paper, 'Freedom from Poverty, Opportunity for all: Policies for a fairer Britain', have addressed key areas for reform which can help give children the opportunities to secure a better standard of living, and more opportunities. We want to establish a real meritocracy where everyone, regardless of background, is given the chance to acquire the education and skills to succeed. We believe that Government interventions, in partnership with the private and voluntary sectors, can create the real opportunities that will tackle the root causes of poverty, rather than trapping people in an endless cycle of dependency.

Children from the most deprived backgrounds are falling behind in education from the moment they start school and all too often they don't catch up.

School catchment areas have become increasingly polarised between the affluent and the deprived. The top 100 state secondary schools have only 1.7% of pupils on free school meals compared to the national average of 14.7%. If the underachievement of children from deprived backgrounds is to be reversed, schools with high needs need more resources to cope with these demands.

The Liberal Democrats would introduce a 'pupil premium', where higher funding is attached to children from deprived backgrounds and with high needs, and this would follow each pupil to whichever school he or she attended - giving schools a greater incentive to take "hard to help" pupils. By spending £1.5bn on the 15% most disadvantaged pupils with the greatest need, funding for these pupils will rise to eventually match that in private schools. This would double current deprivation related school funding.

We would fund the Pupil Premium by reforming tax credits, and focusing the money on those on lower incomes. It is a nonsense that people on £50,000 or £60,000 per year can qualify for means-tested benefits.

Alongside this, we want to see an emphasis on higher school standards. Too many pupils fail to leave primary and secondary schools with decent standards of literacy and numeracy. We must strive to achieve higher levels of both in all our schools, amongst all our students. Those pupils falling behind should have access to 'catch-up classes' at weekends and after school - the Pupil Premium would help give schools this option. We must seek to increase the number of students with good grades in five or more GSCEs and we should restore confidence in exam standards by looking at the establishment of an independent body to monitor these.

The education system must deliver for top, middle and lower performers. Young people cannot be allowed to leave education without the skills needed for everyday life; there must be an emphasis on every pupil reaching an absolute minimum standard in literacy and numeracy.

Although it must be a priority to address the attainment of poorer children in schools, it is also vital to address the underlying causes of educational under performance. This Government has not delivered for families on lower incomes. Many live in poor housing, dependent on means-tested benefits, with poor chances of gaining long-term employment.

Our recent Policy Paper includes measures to give real employment opportunities to those who are presently locked out of the labour market, and it includes a strategy to reduce child poverty and cut the taxes which particularly hit poorer families.

The biggest challenge for the next two decades must be to break the link between social background and performance in schools. We must make Britain a society where people a not only judged on merit but have a fair chance of acquiring it.