In an op-ed for The Telegraph, IEA Editorial & Research Fellow Prof. Len Shackleton argued that the best way to level-up education by helping the most disadvantaged pupils is to focus on the needs of parents and stop top-down policies which can hinder improvements to education.

Len picked apart a new report from the House of Commons Education Committee, saying it “fails to consider sufficiently the scores of policies already aimed, in part at least, at helping educationally disadvantaged groups. Many of these don’t work very well.”

Len argued: “The Committee may have its heart in the right place, and there is value in spotlighting poor educational achievement. But these parliamentarians have too much faith in the powers of top-down government spending, and too little focus on understanding parents and families“.

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