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Teachers in white working-class communities should be offered targeted salary uplifts and retention payments, an independent inquiry has recommended.

The of white working-class children has suggested that the government should move away from “broad national approaches” to teacher recruitment and retention and instead focus on supporting communities where workforce challenges and disadvantage are most concentrated.

It calls for existing incentives, including bursaries, salary uplifts and retention payments, to be directed more deliberately towards these areas.

The inquiry also recommends stronger pathways into teaching through a reformed teacher degree apprenticeship, as well as changes to teacher training to better reflect the realities of teaching in white working-class communities.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson welcomed the report, saying that white working-class children “have never lacked talent” but had been “written off” for generations.

But social mobility charity the Sutton Trust said the findings should not be seen as setting disadvantaged groups against one another.

Outcomes for white working-class pupils

The inquiry found the 1.25 million white British pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) in England experience some of the weakest outcomes in the country across all stages of education.

In 2024-25, 63 per cent of white British pupils receiving FSM reached the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check, compared with 83 per cent of non-FSM pupils, according to government data.

By the end of primary school, 43 per cent achieved the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at key stage 2, compared with 69 per cent of non-FSM pupils.

At GCSE, 36 per cent achieved a grade 4 or above in English and maths, compared with 72 per cent of non-FSM students.

The inquiry, co-chaired by former education secretary Baroness Estelle Morris and Star Academies chief executive Sir Hamid Patel, says the education system is “not set up to serve white working-class children and families”.

It also finds that white working-class communities and schools are often misaligned in how they define success and the purpose of education.

The report says the issues “cannot be explained away by low aspiration or lack of effort”, and are instead rooted in long-term economic change, place-based inequality and weakening trust in institutions.

Nick Harrison, chief executive of the Sutton Trust, said the issue was about “the interaction between disadvantage and place, entrenched poverty, communities that have been left behind, and too few routes to good jobs and better lives”.

He added that disadvantaged young people from Black Caribbean backgrounds are “just as unlikely to become top earners”.

Reading and transition focus

The report sets out many recommendations for schools and government, including making reading fluency a national priority for white working-class children.

Pupils who fall behind should receive rapid and sustained intervention, including access to small-group tutoring, it says.

KS3 should be reprioritised as a “critical phase” of secondary education, amid concerns that engagement, attendance, behaviour and confidence decline at this point, the report recommends.

To achieve this, schools and trusts should place greater emphasis on teaching quality, pastoral support and students’ wider school experience during the first three years of secondary school, it adds.

The government announced a KS3 “alliance” in March, led by Rebecca Boomer-Clark, chief executive of Lift Schools, and Dame Lesley Powell, chief executive of the North East Learning Trust.

Vocational routes for students

The government should also develop high-quality vocational and applied pathways at KS4 alongside a strong academic core, the inquiry recommends.

The Labour Party has already pledged to “transform” further education and help young people to attain “higher skills”.

Prospective prime minister Andy Burnham leant into this in a speech on Monday outlining his vision for government, in which he said he will bring to an end “the days of a school system configured entirely around the university route”.

Calls for enrichment funding

The report also calls on the government to provide “substantial” additional funding to support schools and trusts serving white working-class areas in providing enrichment activities.

The Department for Education has said it will invite 400 schools in the most deprived areas of England to take part in the £22.5 million “Enrichment Expansion Programme” to help them hit new .

The inquiry report urges a “properly funded enrichment entitlement” for sport, arts, culture, volunteering and outdoor activities.

Ensuring ‘fair’ admissions

The government should also take more “deliberate action” to ensure that top-performing state schools admit a “fair share of disadvantaged pupils”, the inquiry adds.

Experts have previously warned that the government’s focus on inclusion in mainstream schools is watered down by a failure to look at school admissions.

Other recommendations in the report include extending 30 hours of free childcare to all disadvantaged families currently ineligible, reducing the financial risks associated with further and higher study, and introducing free local public transport for all under-21s.

The independent inquiry was commissioned by Star Academies, funded by The Christopher and Henry Oldfield Trust and conducted by Public First.

Ms Phillipson said the government was taking action through measures including lifting the two-child benefit limit, expanding opportunities through sport and the arts and renewing family services.