A Fair Chance: A manifesto from Impetus

Impetus transforms the lives of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds by ensuring they get the right support to succeed in school, in work and in life. We find, fund and build the most promising charities working with these young people, providing them with a unique package of support.

We find what works by combining the lessons from our charities with our own research. We share this learning to influence policy and resources so that all young people get the support they need.

As the 2019 General Election gets underway, we urge all political parties to put the needs of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds at the heart of their manifestos so that all young people in the UK have a fair chance to succeed, regardless of their backgrounds.

In Education, we’re calling for:

An entitlement to extra tutoring for those who fall too far behind at primary

Too often, children who have fallen behind academically by age 11 do not catch up at secondary school. Small group tutoring is one of the most impactful interventions for supporting young people to make accelerated progress. A ‘catch up premium’ would enable every child who doesn’t meet the expected standard at age 11 to receive an effective amount of tutoring to ensure they catch up ahead of their GCSEs.

Case studies: Action Tutoring & Tutor Trust

Action Tutoring works in eight cities providing trained volunteer tutors to support pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve a meaningful level of academic attainment. 72% of primary pupils supported by Action Tutoring achieved national standards in their SATs, where just 10% were working at this level at the start of their programme. Secondary pupils attending ten or more sessions delivered by Action Tutoring tutors achieved on average a third of a grade more than similar peers at GCSE.

The Tutor Trust provides small group tuition for disadvantaged pupils in schools in the north of England. A randomised control trial funded by the Education Endowment Foundation found that primary school children who received tutoring from The Tutor Trust made three months’ additional progress in maths.

Universal breakfast provision in primary school

In addition to feeding hungry children, breakfast clubs have been shown to have a positive benefit on overall class attainment, including for pupils who don’t attend them. Build on the successful rollout of these clubs through the National School Breakfast Programme with a commitment to a breakfast club in every primary school by 2024.

Case Study: Magic Breakfast

Magic Breakfast aims to end hunger as a barrier to education in UK schools through the provision of healthy breakfasts to vulnerable children. An evaluation funded by the Education Endowment Foundation found that in primary schools supported by Magic Breakfast, pupils made the equivalent of two months of extra academic progress in a year.

In Further Education, we’re calling for:

Extend the Pupil Premium up to 18

In schools, disadvantaged young people attract extra money in the form of the pupil premium, to enable schools to close the attainment gap between young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers. But this gap persists post-16. By extending the pupil premium to 16-18 we can ensure that they receive this vital extra support right through to the end of compulsory schooling.

Case Studies: The Access Project, ThinkForward, & TwentyTwenty

Several of our charity partners work with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in this age group to help them achieve better outcomes, whether that is university access, further education and training, apprenticeships or jobs.

Extending pupil premium to 18 would allow schools and FE colleges to buy in proven support to help disadvantaged young people to succeed at every stage of their compulsory education.

In Higher Education, we’re calling for:

Better Widening Participation

We urge the future government to protect the vital £900m Widening Participation funding which is designed to close the university access gap, but we acknowledge that too much of this funding is spent on things that are designed to encourage university applicants to pick a specific institution, rather than expanding the overall pool of university applicants.

The new government should direct the Office for Students to clamp down on such marketing tactics and set an expectation about a minimum spend on long-term attainment and aspiration raising measures in schools.

Case studies: IntoUniversity & The Access Project

IntoUniversity runs centres where disadvantaged young people receive support to raise their attainment and aspiration, and get the necessary information, advice and guidance to get in to university. 75% of IntoUniversity school leavers get a place at university compared to 39% of students nationally and 22% of disadvantaged students.

The Access Project works with high-potential students from disadvantaged backgrounds, providing tutoring and intensive support including mentoring, practice interviews and networking, to help them get into top universities. 62% of students supported by The Access Project who applied to a top third universities got a place compared to 51% of a UCAS control group.

In the labour market, we’re calling for:

Immediate and bespoke support for young people furthest from the labour market

Many long-term NEET young people (those Not in Education, Employment or Training) face multiple or profound barriers to employment. Our Youth Jobs Gap research shows that most NEET young people are NEET for the long-term – there is relatively little quick movement from NEET to EET.

Given the evidence that long NEET spells in youth have a long-term scarring effect, there is a compelling case to act fast. Eliminate employer’s national insurance when recruiting a young person who has not worked over 16 hours a week for 3 months (subject to a minimum employment of 16 hours per week for a minimum of 6 months).

Provide Youth In Work funding, available for employers to engage in-work support from youth specialist providers in the first 6 months of employment to help prevent young people falling back into unemployment.

Case study: Resurgo

Resurgo’s award-winning Spear programme helps to get the most disengaged young people ready for work and into a job. 75% of young people who complete Resurgo’s programme are in work a year later.

For civil society, we’re calling for:

A youth charity impact Fund

Too often, when the government seeks to fund successful interventions shown to improve the outcomes of young people, it confronts barriers to expanding this proven support. Demonstrating that a programme works is important, but then scaling it so that it reaches all the young people who need it should follow, and for charities the opportunity to rapidly scale up delivery brings its own challenges.

A new Youth Charity Impact Fund should explicitly support charities that have demonstrated effectiveness to expand their programme by funding the cost of scaling – this is the support Impetus and the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) deployed with Magic Breakfast following successful evaluation. This fund should also seek to grow the evidence base on ‘how to scale.’

Case study: Magic Breakfast