The Education Select Committee, which I chair, has two key motivations underpinning all its work. Firstly, to address social injustice in our education system. The second, to scrutinise the government’s work on skills as it looks to reform schools and post-16 education.
The two themes often overlap. Since the beginning of this Parliament, our committee has held inquiries looking into exclusion, special needs, prison education and the education system as experienced by white pupils from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. Skills have a role in reducing social inequality and making them accessible to the most disadvantaged will act as a critical rung on the education ladder of opportunity – central themes in the committee’s current post-16 inquiry, and our future inquiry on careers education.
