DEPUTATIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC
A period of not more than fifteen minutes shall be allowed at each ordinary meeting of the Council for the hearing of deputations from members of the public. Each deputation may be heard for a maximum of five minutes.
Deputation Referred from Full Council held on 28 January 2021:
(1) Deputation: Class Divide
Spokesperson – Carlie Goldsmith
Supported by:
Lisa Petitt, Will McInnes, Catherine Mercer Darren Snow, Dave Bailey and Curtis James
Class Divide is a grassroots campaign fighting to urgently bring attention and change to the deeply unjust educational attainment gap between young people from the communities of Whitehawk, Manor Farm and Bristol Estate and their counterparts in the rest of Brighton and Hove. The campaign is made up of parents, residents, experts and supporters who have experienced these problems or have expertise in education. For more information about the campaign see www.classdivide.co.uk.
Class Divide wants Brighton and Hove City Council to:
1. Face the problem by producing an annual report on the school outcomes and attainment of children living Whitehawk, Bristol Estate and Manor Farm that is presented to the Children, Young People and Skills Committee and shared with the community and online.
2. Address the issues revealed by publishing a plan that specifically addresses what actions will be taken to reduce the identified educational inequalities experienced by children, young people and adults in our area. This should include closing gaps in attainment, exclusion, access to learning across the life-course, and levels of financial investment. Subject the plan to annual review and make it available to the community.
3. Find a solution by training all school leaders and school staff on the experiences of working-class children.
4. Our children are two times more likely to get excluded from school so we want you to Improve your response and work with schools to reduce the rate of school exclusions and the placement of our children in alternative schools to the Brighton and Hove average, with a plan for further reduction by moving away from punishment approaches to behaviour management towards models informed by an understanding of the social and emotional development of children.
5. Offer ongoing support and give local people a second chance by providing local learning and training opportunities and develop advocacy support for parents struggling to keep their children in school.
Brighton & Hove City Council data shows that in 2019 less than 1 in 4 (37%) young people from Whitehawk, Manor Farm and Bristol Estate equipped with basic grades at GCSE English and Maths, leaving school at a serious disadvantage to the citywide average of 69%. A basic grades gap of 32% . [1]
● The basic grades gap is not confined to English and Maths. Attainment 8 - a measure of a pupil's average grade across a set of eight subjects - for young people from Whitehawk, Manor Farm and Bristol Estate was 32.2 in 2019 compared to 47.6 for young people in the rest of Brighton and Hove. [2]
● Children and young people from the East Brighton communities of Whitehawk, Manor Farm and Bristol Estate are twice as likely as their counterparts across Brighton and Hove to be excluded from school at least once. [3]
● They are three times more likely than other children in Brighton and Hove to be educated at a special school or pupil referral unit. [4]
● IMD, 2019 data shows the most advantaged area for education, skills and training in Brighton and Hove was ranked 32,690 out of a total of 32,844 areas in England. By contrast, North Whitehawk ranked 134. The gap between the most advantaged area and North Whitehawk is 32,556 ranked places . The same data shows South Whitehawk ranked 238 and Central Whitehawk 260. [5]
● The pandemic will make the basic grades gap worse. Families in the East Brighton communities of Whitehawk, Manor Farm and Bristol Estate will be hit hard by Covid-19. Many will lack the resources to support homeschooling or make up the gaps in learning caused by school closures in the first wave. In addition, some families will need additional support to help their children and young people learn because of the lasting legacy educational disadvantage has had in the area, for example, local authority figures show that 51% of households in our area hold Level 1 qualifications (GCSE grades 3,2,1 or D,E,F,G) or No Qualifications compared to 27% of households in the rest of Brighton and Hove . [6]
● East Brighton is in the top 10% least economically advantaged areas in the country [7]. Figures show that in 2017 43% of children living in the ward live in poverty, the highest level of child poverty in any ward in Brighton and Hove. [8]
[1] Local Authority data
[2] Ibid
[3] Ibid
[4] Ibid
[5] Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019
[6] Local Authority data
[7] Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019
[8] Valadez-Martinez, L. and Hirsch, D. (2017) Compilation of child poverty local indicators, update to September 2017, [online] Available at http://www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/poverty-in-your-area-2018/.