​SWIFT Autumn Leadership Forum

Levelling Up the South West | Lee Elliot Major OBE
“All the secrets are within our own system.”

​Thanks to the ease of online forums, we were delighted in early November to be joined by Lee Elliot Major OBE as keynote speaker at our Autumn Term Leadership Forum in transit home to the South West from a trip to Norway.

​As Britain's first Professor of Social Mobility at the University of Exeter, Lee spoke with practical passion on “Levelling Up the South West.” An essential issue that is adding traction to the North-South Westminster debate. Delegates were particularly privileged to be in the audience the day before a hot-off-the-press feature in Schools Week.

​Lee hardly needed to remind school leaders that the classic images of the South West’s beautiful coastlines and landscapes - and not forgetting, the time-honoured cream tea, can too often mask the level of disadvantage within our region.

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As his starting point, Lee explained his involvement in the pivotal “Social Mobility in the South West | Levelling up through Education” report. Supported by the Cobalt Trust, the report published in April 2022 highlighted the region’s poor social mobility and unique challenges, and offered practical and impactful recommendations.


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​Very pleasingly, the report is proving to be a call to action, and has clearly “lit some fires;” successfully bringing people together who have been thinking about the same issues and are now working together to find realistic solutions. 

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The report figures were stark. Educational outcomes for poorer children in the South West are very low.
In 2019, disadvantaged pupils in the South West were furthest behind at the end of both the primary and secondary stages of their education. Fewer disadvantaged pupils attained basic English and Maths GCSE qualifications and fewer went on to university than in any other region nationally.
                           
Recommendations focus on the following:

• School-centred cradle to career models
• University-led tutoring service
• Sharper focus on disadvantage
• Post-16 skills reform

 
Data is being published on the disadvantaged for MATs across the region and nationally, developing a “school scorecard” that is more than the binary free school meals.
 
Lee’s energy and excitement about implementing the report’s recommendations was evident.
Aptly, he is an advocate for more explicit policy on levelling up in order to understand disadvantage at a deeper level and to seek how to address some of the issues and “best bets” for improving progress.

Lee is working beyond the South West and speaking to lead national providers, as well as presenting to the Labour Front Bench, and the current Government.

In case you were wondering (like one of our audiences), what in Lee’s opinion is the single most important thing that schools can do to better support their disadvantaged pupils without any extra funding?
 
Parental engagement.
Too often, it is a weak spot for schools in how they interact with parents.             
 
So…as starter advice from Professor of Social Mobility, Lee Elliot Major OBE.
Develop a focused parental education strategy: re-think home visits, home school agreements, and parents’ evenings and offer dedicated advisory sessions. Consider neutral meeting venues for those parents who never come into school and communications with parents.
 
Reassuringly, Lee reminded school leaders that excellent practice is already in existence in all schools.
Be innovative. Not least as schools face straitened funding in the future.
“All the secrets are within our own system.” 
                                                   
We thank Lee Elliot Major for joining us at our Autumn Leadership Forum and for sharing his insights and positivity into levelling up the South West.
                              
Report by Jude Owens, PA to the SWIFT Executive Team ​