Report

Choices for children

This report from UK think tank the Centre for Policy Studies highlights the need for children in care to be given the chance to attend independent or boarding schools.

While the UK has made significant progress in education over the last two decades by giving parents the right to express a preference over which school their child attends, a new report by the Centre for Policy Studies argues that more still needs to be done, in particular, for the country’s poorest students.

Written by Andrew Lewer MP, ‘Choices for Children’ highlights the need for children in care to be given the chance to attend independent or boarding schools through the expansion of a current program run by the Royal National Children’s SpringBoard Foundation.

The program, which could be implemented at negligible cost to the taxpayer, would allow students from poorer backgrounds to benefit from the structure and standards of an independent school while also giving parents a ‘Parent Premium’, to be spent on tuition or after-school activities.