Peter Lampl: ‘Poshness’ test and social mobility

Rachel Sylvester is right to urge the prime minister to seize the chance to tackle social mobility (“Tories have chance to shatter the glass ceiling”, Opinion, June 16). Research for the Sutton Trust last year found that 51 per cent of leaders in the banking sector went to independent schools, echoing the “poshness” report from the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission. We found that private equity and asset management were the least representative of the wider community in the financial services industry, with 68 per cent and 61 per cent of their leaders, respectively, attending independent schools.

Addressing social diversity at our leading financial and legal firms requires better access to good schools and top universities for young people from low and middle-income homes, but it also requires renewed efforts by companies to improve their recruitment practices. We are working with leading firms in law and the City to change that mindset, but we need a concerted drive from the top if we are radically to improve social mobility in Britain.

Read it on the Times website here