Sir Peter Lampl, founder and chair of the Sutton Trust and chair of the Education Endowment Foundation, said of today’s Levelling Up White Paper:

“Education is the building block of everything, and it is right that the Levelling Up White Paper contains ambitious targets for education in the most disadvantaged areas of the country.

“There are huge inequalities in education which result in a waste of talent – and these have been made much worse by Covid.  But any plan to address these problems needs significant long term resources to build on the evidence of what works.  This should be in line with the proposals put forward by Kevan Collins.

“We must also ensure there is a wider plan for those disadvantaged children outside of the 55 priority areas, especially in light of the massive disruption caused by the pandemic.  It is crucial that we keep the focus on recovery and on ensuring that initiatives like the National Tutoring Programme reach the poorest pupils, wherever they are in the country.

“We also applaud the fact the government are focusing on skills. There needs to be many more high-quality alternatives to university available to young people.

“The aspirations set by the government are rightfully ambitious. We look forward to seeing the detail of how these ambitions will be achieved.”