An independent inquiry into White Working Class Educational Outcomes has begun a second phase examining early years and the choices facing teenagers aged 14 to 19, with the backing of Education Secretary Lucy Powell. Its focus is on improving children’s start at primary school and the routes older pupils take into study and work.
Commissioned by the multi-academy trust Star Academies and supported by the Department for Education, the inquiry focuses on 1.25 million white British pupils in England who are eligible for free school meals. That defines the group under examination, rather than white British pupils as a whole.
Its first report, published in summer 2026, concluded that once-in-a-generation reforms were needed to address a system “not serving the interests of white working-class children”. The new phase moves from that assessment towards considering what changes are needed at the beginning of education and during the transition towards adult life.
Powell said she was backing the inquiry to “get to the heart of the barriers holding children back”. Co-chair Baroness Morris, a former education secretary, said the next phase would consider “what needs to be done”, while stressing that responsibility extends beyond schools.
A stronger start at school
The early years strand will examine the period before children enter primary school. The aim is to improve the start they get, placing attention on their experience before formal schooling as well as on the education system they subsequently enter.
Early years provision forms part of the wider education landscape, but children’s lives before school are not shaped by education settings alone. Morris’s emphasis on responsibility beyond schools is therefore relevant to the inquiry’s scope: its consideration of educational outcomes is not confined to what happens in classrooms.
For London readers, this is an England-wide inquiry rather than a separate programme for the capital. Its potential relevance lies in the policies and educational routes that serve children and young people across England, including London. The Department for Education’s support gives the work a connection to national policymaking, although support for an inquiry does not itself amount to adoption of its recommendations.
Routes through study and work
The teenage strand covers ages 14 to 19, a period spanning secondary education and the move into further study, training or employment. Its purpose is to examine the routes available to older pupils and how those routes can provide a better transition from school towards working life.
That gives the inquiry potential significance for technical education as well as for early years policy. Technical education connects learning with occupational skills, while the broader question of progression concerns how young people move between school, further learning and work. The inquiry’s recommendations could help shape policy in these areas, but their content and practical effect remain to be established.
The work sits alongside a wider examination of youth worklessness. Nearly a million young people in England are classed as not in education, employment or training. That figure describes a wider group, not the number of white British pupils eligible for free school meals who are outside education or work.
Alan Milburn’s final report on youth worklessness is due in the coming weeks. The inquiry and that review address related questions about young people’s prospects, but have distinct remits: this inquiry examines educational outcomes for a defined pupil group, while Milburn’s work concerns youth worklessness.
From findings to recommendations
The first report’s call for major reform provides the starting point for the next phase. Its assessment was of the system serving the pupils within its scope, and should not be read as a claim about every child’s experience or as a general comparison of attainment between ethnic groups.
The next task is to develop proposals for early years and teenage pathways. With Milburn’s final report also approaching, attention will turn to what each exercise recommends and whether those recommendations lead to changes in provision or policy. The inquiry’s backing is clear; the measures that will follow are not yet known.
