Fair School Admissions Hub to address access inequalities

The Sutton Trust has launched a free ‘hub’ of resources to support schools in reviewing their admissions policies, in response to evidence of social segregation in high performing state schools, and of teachers’ lack of awareness of the issue.

The Sutton Trust began working directly with schools to introduce fairer admissions practices in August 2023. Since then, 118 schools have joined the Fair School Admissions Pledge.
 
The Sutton Trust has now developed a Fair School Admissions framework, drawn from this evidence and practical experience, which sets out recommendations for how government and school leaders can work collaboratively to make admissions more inclusive.
 
The Sutton Trust believes that the use of Pupil Premium priority in admissions has significant potential to reshape the admissions landscape. Through its Fair Schools Admissions project, the Trust has seen 22 schools introduce a Pupil Premium priority, an increase of over 50% in the number of secondary schools doing so nationwide, with the Hub now making these materials available to thousands more schools.
 
The recent Schools White Paper sent a clear directive that schools should become more inclusive and set a target to halve the disadvantage gap by 2035. However, Sutton Trust data shows that wealthier pupils are 50% more likely to access top performing schools than those eligible for Free School Meals, even if they live in the catchment area.
 
Polling of school staff in 2025 by Teacher Tapp for the Sutton Trust found that school staff’s awareness of income-based segregation in the intake of non-selective state schools has remained limited, with only 34% agreeing that there is a problem. And it is lowest in the schools with the fewest pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.
 
Many school staff believe that the housing market is in part to blame, with over three quarters saying that where families can afford to live is the main contributing factor. However, the reality is more complicated. New data analysis shows that two thirds of the gap in FSM levels between the highest attaining schools and the average school is attributable to social selectivity within catchment, and just a third to the location of such schools in better-off areas.
 
A student from a most affluent neighbourhood is almost twice as likely (86%) to attend a high attaining school compared to those from a least affluent neighbourhood, even within the same catchment area.
 
School staff also cite accountability pressures as one of the main reasons for social segregation. 30% of school staff in the most disadvantaged schools thought league table concerns contributed to popular schools not taking their fair share of disadvantaged pupils, compared to only 21% in the least disadvantaged schools, with a similar pattern for Ofsted ratings.
 
And those who also have special educational needs and disabilities face additional barriers. Previously published research by the Sutton Trust revealed that the top 500 secondary schools are effectively shutting out local disadvantaged pupils with SEND.
 
The Framework also provides guidance for schools on how factors such as the cost of attending school and access to clear information can contribute to improving access. Polling shows that these are more likely to be considered in the most deprived schools. 57% of school leaders at the most deprived schools reported considering school costs (uniform, transport, equipment and extra-curriculars and enrichment opportunities), compared to 46% in the least deprived schools.
 
There were also stark differences between schools ensuring that all communications on FSM support, behaviour and SEND strategies were written in simple language, with 41% of the most deprived schools taking this approach, compared to 26% of the most affluent schools.
 
The School Admissions Pledge has demonstrated that there is appetite from school leaders for change in admissions. As such, the Sutton Trust has developed and launched the Fair School Admissions Hub to broaden access to the support school leaders need to make changes to admissions.