The education inquiry will take place on Friday 25 October, 2.30pm-4pm at Oasis Academy, Hollins Road, OL8 4SA.  

We want the Oldham Fairness Commission to engage with communities so we are holding meetings in public and would like to invite people to send in their questions so that our Commissioners can ask the education experts’ panel their questions. So please send in your questions to us as soon as possible. We would especially like to have questions from young people in Oldham as it’s mainly their future we will be discussing!

To submit a question, please e-mail oldhamfairnesscommission@yahoo.co.uk or tweet Debbie Abrahams on @debbie_abrahams 

Members of the public are also welcome to attend the session, but there may be limited capacity depending on the room the Commission is provided with, so please e-mail in advance for details. 

The Commission will be hearing from a wide range of local and national experts on education and inequality, including:

• Tim Mitchell, Positive Steps
• Kevin Merrison, Barnados
• Rob Jackson, The Children’s Society

Local Educational Inequalities

• Data from the Office of National Statistics for 2012 shows 15.7% of the resident population in Oldham have no qualifications compared with 11.1% regionally and 9.5% nationally.  
• 77.3% of Oldham residents have an NVQ1 and above qualification, compared with 83.1% regionally and 84.2% nationally.
• Only 22.1% of Oldham residents have a NVQ 4 and above qualification, which is lower than the regional (30.3%) and national (34.2%) figures.
• Data from the Department of Education suggests 6.8% of young people aged between 16-18 in Oldham are not in employment, education or training (NEET). However there are  noticeable variations in the numbers of NEETs across the constituency.  For example NEET levels rise to 11.6% in Alexandra ward compared with 2.1% in Saddleworth North.  

Background to the Education Inquiry

The Commission has invited a range of national and local organisations to provide written and oral evidence to the education inquiry.

The Commission has asked for evidence which would contribute to its understanding of:

• The current and historical differences in educational attainment for different population groups i.e. men/women, BAME groups, people with disabilities, different socioeconomic groups, Looked after children, adult learners;
• The underlying causes for these inequalities, with particular attention to current issues;
• The current national and local policy context and how this is affecting these inequalities;
• What other interventions are needed to address these inequalities, including evidence of their effectiveness.

The session will run in ‘Select Committee-style’, with an analysis of data, policies and evidence, written evidence submissions and oral hearings from expert witnesses. The session will be held in public and the minutes from these meetings will be published on this website.