We are a coalition of 300 organisations working together to make education fair.
The Fair Education Alliance is a coalition of 300 organisations tackling educational inequity. We unite behind a shared vision: no child’s success is limited by their socioeconomic background.
Our members represent the voices of young people, charities and social enterprises, research organisations and think tanks, businesses and foundations, unions, universities, and schools. Together, our members provide direct support to over six million young people annually, across every local authority in England, as well as indirect support such as funding, training and campaigning. Our members are active in over 24,000 education settings – crucially, this includes 95% of schools in the most deprived income areas.
We’re working toward an inclusive education system which values skills and wellbeing alongside attainment and prepares all children and young people to thrive – whatever their background. For the last decade, we have monitored gaps between children from low-income households and their peers across five measures: attainment at primary school, attainment at GCSE, socioemotional competencies and skills, post-16 destinations and access to higher education. Despite the efforts of successive governments, educators, businesses, charities and social enterprises, these gaps remain – and some groups have fallen even further behind.
Rising poverty, increasing inequity and insufficient school funding all contribute to the stark reality that, on average, a child growing up in poverty is already five months behind other pupils when they start primary school. This increases to nearly two years behind by the time they take their GCSEs.
We won’t address these deep-rooted issues in isolation. We need to shift the conditions that are holding the problems in place at all layers, including policy, practice, power and mental models. We take a joined-up approach and work together to drive systems change.
“We are delighted to be part of the Alliance. It allows us to make a difference in a more concerted way and offers the chance to learn from others, which we value highly.”
At the Fair Education Alliance we have five impact goals and a vision for how we can achieve them
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To narrow the gap in literacy and numeracy at Primary School
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To narrow the gap in GCSE attainment at Secondary School
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To ensure young people develop key strengths, including resilience and wellbeing, to support high aspirations
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To narrow the gap in the proportion of young people taking part in further education or employment based training after finishing their GCSEs
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To narrow the gap in university graduation, including from the most selective universities
Our approach
Our Secretariat is the backbone of the alliance and works to achieve four outcomes:
A unified collective message, vision and action
We bring people together to decide what we want to do, what we need and how we will achieve it, and use this to drive policy and practice. We create opportunities for young people and members to come face-to-face with policymakers, using our collective voice to advocate more effectively and promote our priorities for Government.
Connectivity and co-ordination across the eco-system
We foster trust, the cornerstone for meaningful collaboration. Information and connections need to flow so that organisations and individuals can avoid duplication, learn from each other and act together to drive systems change. We host collective action working groups, roundtables and the Fair Education Summit, and send regular updates to our members. Our digital tools and Ecosystem Map connect members working across every local authority in England.
Diversity of leadership of the collective agenda
We give a platform to those with insights, evidence and lived experience, so they can bring their experiences to the fore and be part of leading change. Through our youth engagement work, co-led by our Youth Steering Group, we develop young people’s skills, amplify youth voice and build capacity for member organisations and education policy institutions to strengthen their own youth engagement.
Solutions are supported to scale systemically
We find, fund and support new ideas through our Innovation Award, and provide training to spread best practice, enabling other organisations to increase their impact. Our Scaling Award supports and funds proven initiatives to target and reach young people who can most benefit through training, connections and leadership development.