Mayor's View: Giving white working class kids the start they deserve

This week brought more unsettling news about how young people are being failed, writes Combined Authority Mayor Paul Bristow. 

The Independent Inquiry into White Working-Class Educational Outcomes, published Monday, found an education system that isn’t working for white working-class children and families.  

The report is clear that this isn’t down to a lack of aspiration or potential, but structural failures in how we educate, support and create opportunities for young people from poor backgrounds.  

The numbers speak for themselves. Just 36% — about a third — of white British pupils on free school meals achieve a grade 4 (a ‘C’ grade in old money) or above in English and Maths GCSE, compared with 72% of their better-off peers. Nearly two thirds finish compulsory education without the bare minimum qualifications needed to get jobs or go onto further education.  

The local picture in Peterborough tells a similar story.  

Young people who leave school without qualifications are far more likely to end up NEET, (not in employment, education or training) and Peterborough's NEET rate is nearly double the national average. I don’t think anyone who knows Peterborough well will be surprised that lots of young people have a tough start, but that doesn’t mean we should accept it. 

The report calls out something I've long believed that transport is a real barrier to opportunity. Young people in communities like ours can't always get to college, training or jobs because they struggle to afford travel. That's why I secured the Tiger Pass, offering £1 bus fares for under-25s, and fought to extend it. Transport still needs work, but this scheme has shown what success in this area can look like.  

The Combined Authority is developing a Youth Employment Strategy specifically for 14 to 25-year-olds because we know how serious this challenge is. It will directly address the kinds of systemic failures this report identifies and support people into the workplace. We are already helping young people in the city through our Careers Hub, the new Youth Hub at Peterborough United, internships, apprenticeships, work experience placements and recognised digital badges for CVs to help their employment potential.  

The report makes the point that apprenticeships are highly valued in white working class communities, but that they are hard to get. It's why we funded the new Green Tech Centre at Peterborough College and the North Cambridgeshire Training Centre in Chatteris, which recently celebrated its 500th apprentice. At ARU Peterborough, a major Combined Authority investment, degree apprenticeships are available too. 

We’re working with employers in the city and region to create more apprenticeships, including support and grant funding to make the process easier. For the first time this year we’re offering to cover the cost of six-week internships, breaking down barriers for our businesses and giving young people foot in the door. 

This is a generational challenge and requires a generational response. No single policy fixes it, but earlier intervention, better careers support, improved joining up of skills and training to jobs, and affordable transport all play apart. My mission to create the conditions for a growing economy will create opportunity, and it will also be my job to make sure that opportunity reaches more of our young people.  

I'll work with Government, with the skills and education sector, with employers and with partners, to help make sure that these unacceptable figures start moving in a better direction.