Writing for the BBC, Judith Burns discusses new analysis of backgrounds for top professions.

The UK is “deeply elitist” according to new analysis of the backgrounds of more than 4,000 business, political, media and public sector leaders.

Small elites, educated at independent schools and Oxbridge, still dominate top roles, suggests the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission study.

It says key institutions do not represent the public they serve.

The Headmasters and Headmistresses Conference of top private heads called the study “unreasonable and unfair”.

HMC chairman Richard Harman, headmaster of Uppingham School, said that to suggest that a high number of people in positions of influence were there simply because they went to private schools was “lazy stereotyping and underestimates the diversity within the sector”.

The Sutton Trust, which campaigns for greater social mobility through education, welcomed the recommendations.

“It is clear more needs to be done at government level to address the issue,” said policy director Lee Elliot Major.

Read the full article here.

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