There’s been a buzz about social mobility in the media recently. We’ve heard about organisations like KPMG and PwC pioneering the publishing of class pay gaps and implementing class-based quotas and there is a new membership body – Progress Together – launched by the Lord Mayor of London to drive socioeconomic diversity at senior levels in financial services. There has also been heated debate about opening up access to Oxford and Cambridge universities to more state-educated students.

All this attention is timely given that the Sutton Trust’s report published in June this year makes for a sobering read. The report shows that while progress has been made over recent years, outcomes for children are still tightly tied to the wealth and status of their parents. The report’s authors warn of a negative step change in mobility prospects for today’s poorer young people compared with other nations. This is unwelcome news given we are already in a situation where despite only 7 per cent of the population having attended an independent school, 65 per cent of senior judges, 43 per cent of journalists and 27 per cent of FTSE 350 CEOs are privately educated.

Why do we need to be bolder?

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