🫨 Did you know 95% of the remaining hereditary peers in the House of Lords went to private school? Over half went to Eton alone. 52% of all Lords were privately educated. There's a long way to go before the 829 member Upper House is representative of the wider population.

Power and influence in Britain is still wielded by a slither of the population: the 7% who are privately educated and roughly 1% who go to Oxbridge for uni. 6 years after the last rendition of Elitist Britain, and the situation hasn’t really changed! Huge privilege to be involved in this project.

A big (and very welcome) announcement from government today on free school meal eligibilty, widening it to all children on families eligible for UC. A quick thread on these changes, and the remaining challenges 🧵 www.suttontrust.com/news-opinion...

🚨 FSM eligibility is being widened! The DfE has announced tonight that every pupil whose family is on Universal Credit will be eligible for free school meals. This is a really important step in tackling child food poverty and combating the impact of hunger in the classroom. Great to see.

Been lots of debate about what might turn the dial on child poverty. But we hear far less from families in poverty. Our new briefing sets out a blueprint for a successful child poverty strategy, grounded in experiences of hardship changingrealities.org/writings/get... Pls read + share this 🧵

💬 "We need to bring class into the conversation. If we don’t, DEI initiatives in the UK risk going the same way as their US counterparts." Our Head of Research and Policy, @beckymontacute.bsky.social, on the need to include class in the diversity conversation 👇 www.suttontrust.com/news-opinion...

There’s been a 32% rise in the number of food parcels provided to families with children under 5 since 2019/20 🙁 These numbers cannot be normalised - especially when they affect children who are so young. My @suttontrust.bsky.social blog on child food poverty 👇 www.suttontrust.com/news-opinion...

Bikes have overtaken cars to become the most popular vehicle in central London 🚲 Bad parking habits of Lime bikers aside (which is improving, tbf) it’s great to see so many more casual cyclists. We should invest in cycle parking to capitalise on the biking boom! www.economist.com/britain/2025...

This kind of stuff is pretty terrifying. It was the warmest start to May in the UK this year. The last two years have been the hottest on record globally. Sometimes I find it difficult to actually enjoy the weather when it’s freakishly warm for the time of year. It just feels off 😕

It’s great to see more data demonstrating the economic value of children’s centres 👶 They can have hugely positive effects on health, education and social care outcomes for families (especially disadvantaged ones). It makes both economic and moral sense to invest in more of them!

💬 “The least socially mobile areas voted heavily to leave the EU, have few migrants, and more likely to vote Reform...support for Reform is strongly correlated with poor social mobility.” Interesting analysis in @financialtimes.com using data from our new research ⤵️ www.ft.com/content/d1aa...

🚨 NEW: Opportunities for the poorest young people in London far outstrip the rest of England, we have found. Our new Opportunity Index reveals how the area young people grow up in shapes their life chances, with huge differences between constituencies across the country 🧵⬇️

😲 Just 5% of medical students come from the lowest socio-economic backgrounds, with 75% coming from wealthier backgrounds. Great work from my colleague @kevinlatham.bsky.social highlighting the big problems with access to the medical profession. Some really shocking stats. Have a read ⬇️

👋 Come and work with our team! Interesting work and great colleagues (I promise!) ⤵️

Great to hear government re-affirm their commitment to ending unpaid internships - this is an issue the @suttontrust.bsky.social have been highlighting for years as an unfair barrier for working class young people.

“This year, the constituency’s child poverty levels hit 54 per cent” This is why local news is so important. Excellent, on-the-ground reporting from @charlotteliviahall.bsky.social highlighting the reality of life for lots of people in Oldham. www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/news-feature...

💬 "Two thirds (66%) of senior teachers say their school provided food for pupils to eat outside school hours in the last 12 months." Worrying new @teachertapp.bsky.social data reveals more about the level of extra support schools are having to provide for pupils. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

#SaveThePCC Some of you may have read about the situation regarding our new landlord wishing to add a new redevelopment break clause, with only 6 months notice to our lease. For now, we're simply asking you all to share & sign the petition below; you.38degrees.org.uk/p/princechar...

Reminder you can follow all of the Sutton Trust's staff on Bluesky here 😊 a brilliant team with expertise across the early years, schools and colleges, apprenticeships, higher education and access to the workplace (both from a research/policy perspective and our programmatic work with young people)

Agree that unpaid internships are bad for social mobility. Given that getting an internship helps future employment prospects, and the competition for roles, inequality in access to internships also leads to medium- and longer-term inequalities in the labour market (and in wages).

"The Sutton Trust wants unpaid internships lasting four weeks or longer to be banned, alongside enforcement of current minimum wage legislation." Unpaid internships are acting as a major barrier to social mobility. Our new research in @theguardian.com ⤵️ www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Taking an unpaid role is just not an option for many young people. Imagine working full time, unpaid, but having to fund even the minimum living costs...without savings or help from family, this is near impossible! Indeed, 2 in 5 say their unpaid role was funded by family...

61% of internships are unpaid or underpaid 🤯 I graduated in 2021 and the amount of unpaid roles on offer was crazy. Being working class and working for free in this economy (especially in London!) is simply not possible for most. Free ☕️ doesn’t pay the bills! www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

🎺 New research out from the team today on unpaid internships! @ericaholtwhite.bsky.social & @carlcullinane.bsky.social doing excellent work as usual 👏

Hard to overstate how brutal the London rental market is. Finding a room means enduring an X-Factor style process where you basically have to market yourself lol. If you're one of the lucky few to get through, you’re rewarded with a nice box room for a small fee of ~£800 (or more). It’s great!

🗣️"We absolutely should not be having a situation where some families and some children are locked out of certain schools because of the high cost of uniforms." @beckymontacute.bsky.social discussed the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill with @cathkemi.bsky.social on BBC News this morning ⤵️ 📺

Great reporting on Greater Manchester as usual by @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social! People in Oldham (and the Eastern side of Greater Manc more broadly) had to deal with naff services and high fares for ages. Hopefully the franchised network changes that. I like seeing the yellow buses around town 🚌

No child should be going hungry. Sadly, our research has shown that more and more pupils are now coming to school on an empty stomach. One way to tackle this problem is by widening access to Free School Meals so that it covers all families who receive Universal Credit ⤵️

Early Christmas reading! This has on my bookshelf for about 2 years… Just a couple of chapters in and it’s already really interesting!

The UK parliament has joined Bluesky, with proper verified domains and everything: • @houseofcommons.parliament.uk • @houseoflords.parliament.uk • @ukparliament.parliament.uk • @commonsspeaker.parliament.uk

I’m in Paris and as I got off my metro stop the driver leant out of his door, shouted me over, gave me an apple, and pointed at some guy for me to give it to. Was obvs very confused but this man hugged me twice then pointed at my hat and shouted gleefully “C’est bleu!!!!” lol I love France.

Growing up in Oldham I watched the Metrolink network transform Greater Manchester. Connectivity has opened up so many opportunities and experiences for people across the region, especially young people. I had no idea the expansion we’ve seen was in large part thanks to EU funding!

Using annual leave to have a smoother, cheaper train journey from Manchester to London only to be delayed twice, diverted, stand up on a packed train, and arrive 2 hours late… Ticket wasn’t even that cheap - even with railcard! Also the lack of comms when trains are disrupted is remarkably bad 😫

A really important piece on a subject that is far too often overlooked. Really glad the wider crisis in SEND is being covered. My sister is as a teaching assistant in a SEND school, and every day she comes home with worrying stories where staffing issues and capacity are causing big problems.

It’s scandalous that Leeds doesn’t have a tram network! The cost is obviously very steep - especially when you look at how cheaply other European cities can build. But if we’re going to grow the economy, we have to fund new infrastructure projects! www.thetimes.com/article/a31f...

State schools have closed the gap with private schools in GCSE results, once we adjust for socioeconomic differences in their intakes. New findings in our paper published today in Cambridge Review of Education: https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2024.2420611

Sobering new @trusselluk.bsky.social stats out today. In just 1st 6 months of this year, food banks in the Trussell community provided 1.42 million emergency food parcels. 508,000 were for children. Close to record levels of need, 69% higher than 5 years ago. 1/7🧵 www.trussell.org.uk/news-and-res...

My landlord decided to end my tenancy recently so I’ve been looking for a new place in London. Can confirm the market is crazy, as usual. Average rent much higher. Landlords asking for >£1k/PM for a room with 4 housemates. Enduring an X-Factor style audition process simply to find a new home etc..

🚨 Free webinar on inequalities in creative industries 🚨 Our upcoming webinar will focus on class inequalities in access to careers in the creative industries, as well as in access to creative degrees. Join our expert panelists on 4th December ⤵️ www.suttontrust.com/a-class-act-...

More than 1 in 3 children living in poverty. Of the 16m people in poverty, 1 in 10 of are from families in full time work. Really worrying stuff. Poverty impacts individuals, families, and wider society in so many ways. This has to be a top priority for Govt.

“The dancing people are on insta” excuse me Dara there is a subset of people who enjoy both dancing *and* rigorous policy analysis, thank you

A great way to find comms people in the research and policy space!👇

Hello Bluesky 👋 If you want to find members of the Sutton Trust team on Bluesky, use our starter pack! Follow our team: go.bsky.app/D2CHsRr

🚨 New research out today from the team. Lots of discussion in recent years about the relationship between class and the creative industries, so it’s great we’re able to highlight the extent of the problem in various professions!