A traffic light system was used to assess progress in improving social mobility; findings show failings at every key stage in people's lives.
- Early years - amber
- School - amber
- Training, further education or university - red
- Work - red
- Economic growth in London and other cities has left parts of England behind, with people leaving in search of opportunities.
- The income & wealth divide has increased; between 1997 and 2017, the bottom fifth of households saw incomes increase by just over £10 per week, compared with £300 per week for the top fifth.
- There is growing inequality between the old and the young, who are more reliant on parents for help to buy homes.
- At current rates of progress, it will take 15 years before all children are school-ready by the age of five, and 40 years before the attainment gap between rich and poor at that age is closed.
- Currently no prospect of the gap between poorer and wealthier children being eliminated at either GCSE or A-level.
- It will take about 80 years to close the participation gap between students from rich and poor areas.
- Young people's wages have fallen 16%, taking pay to below 1997 levels.
- One in five people are on low pay, a consistently higher proportion than in similar nations.
- Establishing a national ambition to ensure the attainment gap between poorer five-year olds and their peers has been halved within a decade.
- Abandon plans to extend grammar schools. Focus on developing collaborative approaches to turning around failing schools.
- Ensure higher education is available through further education colleges in social mobility 'cold spots'.
- Aim to make the UK the country with the lowest level of low pay in the OECD by 2030.
Source: Divisions in society leading to 'sour mood', Katherine Sellgren, BBC News website, 28 June 2017.
