Katharine Birbalsingh says aim is to move away from fixation on small minority of rags to riches tales
The new head of the Social Mobility Commission will call for a move away from the fixation with rags to riches tales of “caretaker’s daughter goes to Oxbridge and becomes a top surgeon” and highlight instead the value of “small steps up the ladder”.
In her inaugural speech as the SMC’s chair, Katharine Birbalsingh will appeal for a radical rethink of what social mobility means, saying it should not just be about opening up elite pathways for the few. She will also echo the government’s view that widening access to university has “not always brought the dividends hoped for”, although more than 80% of sixth-formers at the school where she is headteacher went on to Russell Group universities last year.
