Here’s what Liz Truss should really be calling for

Class still deeply shapes British society. So the Equalities Minister Liz Truss was right to imply in a speech yesterday that government should focus more on this. The class you were born into is a very  large determinant on your lot in life.

“Some issues, particularly those facing working-class children, are neglected,” she argued. There is no need to pretend governments have chosen and need to choose to tackle one form of inequality and not another. There should be the bandwidth to address them all. But transforming lives takes time and tough measures.  

The solutions offered by Ms Truss amounts to better data analysis and reforms to government machinery. She announced the government’s Equality Hub would relocate to the north of England and would embark on the “biggest, broadest and most comprehensive equality data project yet”. But this is all small beer, frankly.  

Data collection can be important, but lots of it already exists on this subject. What we need is more radical action. If Truss really wants to make a difference, the state needs to be a pushy parent for folks from modest backgrounds, securing for them as much as possible, resources and opportunities that the middle-classes so successfully source.

Infancy is the optimal time to shape later educational success. Build world-class pre-schools, prioritised on poorer areas and free at the point of use, and then make attendance compulsory for a certain number of hours from the age of three.  

Introduce significant salary supplements for working in childcare settings and schools in deprived areas, to attract the very best teachers. Incentivise schools and universities to introduce lotteries for admission, to improve the chances of the poorest getting into good ones. Give a new financial gift for twenty-somethings who don’t receive significance inheritances. Poshness gives you incredible financial, cultural and educational advantages.  

To enable those of modest means a chance to catch up, we need a radical redistribution of resources and opening up of life-enhancing institutions.  

Ryan Shorthouse is the founder and chief executive of Bright Blue