We have released the second part of our annual Parent Survey 2017, which canvassed the views of over 1,500 parents in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Social mobility and work readiness
Since the government has made it part of their agenda, social mobility has become topical. Children from a disadvantaged background in the UK are on average out-performed academically by their better-off peers, leading to narrower career pathways and employment options. For the first time in living memory, the income gap between generations is falling, throwing parents’ expectations that their child will have a better standard of living than them into doubt. This proved a crucial area to gauge parental opinion.
We asked parents for their perceptions of whether or not their child's school:
- does enough to provide all pupils with the opportunity to succeed
- does enough to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds
- offers a better quality of education than the one they received
- does enough to prepare their child for the workplace.
We also found out parents' expectations for their child's future prospects, and whether or not, in the current economic climate, they believed their child's standard of living will be better or worse than their own.
See the section on our research page about our annual Parent Survey 2017.