In launching a new centre, the partnership will deliver on our shared goal of widening participation in education and raising aspirations across our community.
Individually, we have all contributed to making impactful change in our communities, together we aim to create even more opportunities for our young people on Merseyside, helping them realise their full potential.
Why do we need a new centre?
We aim to work with children and communities who need support the most. The need for such support for young people extends across Merseyside. It is a sobering truth that we could open a learning centre in almost any part of the region due to the widespread deprivation and density of high-need schools in Liverpool, with over 100 primary schools meeting criteria for support.
The IntoUniversity team use Free School Meals (FSM) as an identifier of disadvantage. Children accessing FSM are 28 times more likely to leave school with fewer GCSEs than their wealthier peers. Five of the six boroughs in the Liverpool City Region have more students in receipt of FSM than the national average, and in some local schools more than 50% of enrolled students are eligible for FSM.
There is a clear link between young people growing up in poverty and school attainment, which feeds into a cycle of disadvantage affecting their later life. We know that Higher Education can significantly improve social mobility. For someone on FSM, a degree significantly increases their chance of being a higher income earner by the age of 30 from 6% to 22%.
Planning for a new centre
Five years on from establishing the Anfield learning centre, we want to replicate the strength of this winning partnership to establish a second centre on Merseyside. In deciding where to establish a new centre, we have focused our research towards some of the most disadvantaged communities in the Liverpool City Region (LCR).
One such area is Kirkby, in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, which is one of five areas in the LCR where students in receipt of FSM exceed the national average. In Knowsley, substantial areas are among the 10% most deprived in the country, with Kirkby being the most deprived area of the local authority, particularly in the north and centre.
By the time young people in Kirkby reach their GCSEs only 37.3% of young people are achieving more than five pass grades, which is much lower than the Knowsley average of 44.4% and the national average of 56.6%.
Our research in Knowsley has illustrated the acute need for the provision of another IntoUniversity learning centre, which is why we have decided to locate our second centre in the borough.
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