Blunkett calls for extra support for UK's poorest children

Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Central Government, Communities, Education

Children from disadvantaged backgrounds should attract additional funding at school to pay for extra support, ex-Cabinet minister David Blunkett suggested today.

The estimated £80-£100 million cost of Mr Blunkett's proposed Personalised Supplementary Educational Allowance could be raised by taxing the child benefit paid to top-rate taxpayers for offspring aged over 16, he said.

The idea forms part of a package of measures designed to boost social mobility floated by the former education secretary in a pamphlet published today by New Labour thinktank Progress.

In the pamphlet, entitled The Inclusive Society? Social Mobility In 21st Century Britain, Mr Blunkett also suggests:
 

• A "dramatic" expansion of the Child Trust Fund to promote asset-building among the disadvantaged;
• A secondary school graduation ceremony to mark the "transition to adulthood" at 16 or 18;
• A scheme for people in rented properties to use housing benefit payments to purchase shared ownership of their homes, in return for signing up to a contract committing them to being good tenants and supporting their children at school;
• Access to micro-credit at affordable interest rates for the less well-off;
• An annual five-day national entitlement to education or training for those in permanent work.

Mr Blunkett said: "It is clear that the decline in social mobility that took place during the 1980s and 90s has been halted, yet a further step change is required to ensure that mobility begins to increase to create equality and overcome poverty of aspiration.

"Six months into Gordon Brown's Government, this pamphlet contains ideas that have come from conversations I've had across the country.

"It builds on major policy publications over recent months and years, and is a continuation of radical and progressive proposals in support of the future success of the Brown premiership."

Mr Blunkett's Personalised Supplementary Educational Allowance proposal would see schools receive extra money to provide mentoring and support for the poorest schoolchildren.

The cash would be linked to the individual children, and move with them if they changed schools, but would be available to the educational establishment, not the parents.

Although broadly welcoming Mr Blunkett's proposals, children's charity Save the Children warned against losing sight of the bigger picture.

"Social mobility has stalled under this Government, so David Blunkett's new pamphlet on this issue is extremely timely," Save the Children's UK spokeswoman Claire Walker said.

"We support many of his proposals, including narrowing the gap of educational achievement and reform of the social fund.

"But a person's chances in life are defined during childhood. Without tackling underlying child poverty, social mobility will not improve, and we are well behind schedule. The Government needs to invest £4 billion now in order to meet its target of halving child poverty by 2010."

Ms Walker said the charity was also campaigning for "seasonal grants" for the poorest people in summer and at Christmas to relieve financial strains on vulnerable families.