Low social mobility "not just an English problem"

Those at the top of Scottish society are significantly unrepresentative'' of the population as a whole, with almost a quarter of leading professionals having been educated at private school, a new report has said.

While just over 5% of people attended a private secondary school, that figure rose to 23% for high ranking professionals, including judges, politicians and business leaders.

The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission said its research suggests that the top of Scottish society is significantly unrepresentative of the Scottish population - though less so than the top of British society''.

Commission chairman Alan Milburn said the report showed that low social mobility is not just an English disease, it is a Scottish one and it is a UK-wide one''.

Mr Milburn, a former Labour UK health secretary, stated: Our Elitist Scotland report should remove any shred of complacency there might be on this issue.

It is both a wake-up call and a call to arms - to focus as much on helping people move up in society as on helping them off the bottom of society. Action is needed on both fronts if social justice is truly to be the motif for this nation.''

The report said that locking out many of those not from advantaged backgrounds risks making Scotland's leading institutions less informed, less representative and ultimately less credible than they should be''.

It added: The lack of people from ordinary social backgrounds at the top of Scottish society indicates that a lot of talent is going to waste.

Perhaps most importantly it is unfair that those with the talent from less advantaged backgrounds too often find a ''class ceiling that prevents them from reaching the top of their chosen fields.''

The Commission identified a total of 846 people in Scotland at the top of key sectors of Scottish society - politics, the public sector, the media, and business - and pulled together information about which secondary school they attended and where they went to university.

The research, which was carried out in partnership with the David Hume Institute think-thank and with the support of postgraduate researchers at the University of Edinburgh.

It found 45% of senior judges, 32% of leading media professionals and and 28% of business leaders were educated privately, compared to less than 6% of the overall population.

Meanwhile two thirds (66%) of senior judges, half (50%) of top media professionals and 46% of Scottish MPs went to Scotland's ancient universities - Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews and Aberdeen. One in five (20%) of the 118 MSPs for whom data was available went to private school, according to the study.

But it said that every Cabinet minister at Holyrood was state educated and none were educated at Oxbridge, although 60% went to one of the ancient universities.

In contrast, half of Cabinet ministers in the UK Government were privately educated, half were educated at Oxbridge and 86% were educated at one of the elite UK universities.

Senior judges were eight times more likely to have attended an independent school than the wider population, according to the research.

Amongst Scotland's business elite - chief executive officers and chairs of the top 100 companies based in the country - 42% of those for whom data was available went to school outside the UK, with 31% going to university overseas.

Douglas Hamilton, Scotland's Commissioner on the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission said: Improving social mobility needs to be a central element of any attempts to create a fairer Scotland.

Although we recognise that children will have very different starting points in life, we want to make sure that every child, regardless of background, is given the best possible chance to reach their full potential.

Recent moves to address education inequalities and widen access to university are a step in the right direction, but today's report shows that there is still a long way to go.''

Ray Perman, director of the David Hume Institute, said: The Commission's Elitist Britain report showed that important UK institutions are dominated by a narrow elite, many of whom were privately educated and attended the same prestigious universities. We investigated the situation in Scotland and found similar results''.

Our work highlights the need for further research to understand why the social backgrounds of those at the top of Scottish society appear to be so different to the population as a whole.

It also demonstrates the need for greater effort from the government, schools, universities and employers to improve access to the top jobs.''

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: Tackling inequality and making sure that everyone has a fair and equal chance in life is a key priority for this Government. We know that education is one, key way to address inequality and enable greater opportunities in life.

That's why we have prioritised raising attainment and ensuring that an increasing proportion of young people securing positive destinations in continued education, training or employment after leaving school. That includes ensuring our colleges support young people into sustainable employment and taking steps to widen access to higher education; our ambition is that every child, whatever their background, should have an equal chance of attending university should they wish to do so.

Our funding for higher education supports wider access and recent statistics show improved participation amongst young people from deprived areas in Scotland. However, through actions within Developing the Young Workforce - Scotland's Youth Employment Strategy, we are enabling young people of all backgrounds to succeed in a stronger, fairer and more equitable society through a range of different options including training places and vocational courses.

We are clear though that removing barriers to access and enabling social mobility requires not just a Scottish Government response but a collective and coherent response from all parts of society. We will carefully consider the findings of this report to see what more we can all do to address this issue.''

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