Nick Clegg chairs meeting on educational inequality in Sheffield

Back in January, the Social Market Foundation, a think tank, established its cross-party Commission on Inequality in Education. It wants to tackle the disparity of attainment and break down barriers it identified relating to where you live, your family's income and your ethnicity.

Last week Nick chaired a meeting of the Commission at Sheffield Hallam University.

Nick said:

On launching the commission, our research showed that where young people live now has more impact on their performance at school than used to be the case.

It is not just the relative wealth of parents that holds lots of bright kids back: it is postcode inequality too. What part of the country a child grows up in has a real impact on their life chances.

Some places have been better than others at breaking that link between disadvantage and doing badly at school. But parts of Sheffield are struggling.

We think that problems in hiring and then keeping hold of good teachers are a big part of what drives these differences. This is why we're bringing together a group of teachers and school leaders from across the city to talk about the challenges they face and what needs to change.

The Commission will make its recommendations early next year.