In June this year the Independent Inquiry into White Working Class Educational Outcomes (WWCI) released its report. It had five major findings:
- “The education system is not set up to serve white working class children and families”
- “White working communities and the education system are misaligned in how they define success and the purpose of education”
- “White working class families have a poorer experience of the school system than their peers.”
- “Transitions are key pressure points where gaps widen and engagement declines for white working class young people.”
- “White working class educational outcomes are shaped by both the education system, and wider community and economic conditions” (WWCI, 2026a).
As someone who has worked in education for years including in settings in areas both extremely high and extremely low levels of deprivation, I think creating a narrative around ‘white working class’ children is dangerous. I think looking at educational outcomes and what the future looks like for our children is vital, but I think the nature of the conversation is wrong and feeding into toxic narratives pushed by right-wing forces. I want to set out what it really means to the working class in 2026, why I think focusing on the white working class in isolation is dangerous, and what can be done to give children better futures. Ultimately I do believe white working class children are failed NOT because they are white but because they are working class.
What the report didn’t do well?
In a report so dependent on the idea of ‘working class’ it failed to coherently define what it meant to be working class. Being working class can be defined as many things to many different people, this is something which will be discussed later on. To its credit, the report acknowledges this in Section 1.1 (WWCI, 2026a). However, throughout the report it used a mixture of metrics such as Free School Meals which does not cover all children who are working class, teacher’s own judgement of pupils and the NRS social grades. The NRS social grade categories different groups by assigning them a letter. ‘A’ means higher managerial, administrative or professional roles. ‘B’ means intermediate managerial, administrative or professional roles. ‘C1’ are supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional roles. ‘C2’ are skilled manual workers. ‘D’ are unskilled and semi-skilled manual workers and ‘E’ are part time or casual workers and pensioners in receipt of state pension only as well as those on unemployment benefits. The idea is that if you are C2DE you are working class. However, this is flawed because many jobs that fall into C1 have similar or worse pay than C2 or D jobs. For example, admin assistant and teaching assistant are both C1 yet are paid between £21,000 and £28,000 and £19,000 and £26,000 a year respectively according to the National Careers Service (2026a)(2026b). Its failure to define what it means by working class weakens the report’s argument because it misses some who are working class and may even include some who are not.
Another major weakness of the report is that it makes a distinction between white working class areas and non-white working class areas. The reality is that white and non-white working class people live cheek by jowl. In fact some of the areas in the North East with the highest level of relative deprivation after housing costs are also the most ethnically diverse. In North Tyneside Chirton has a relative deprivation level of 53.9% and a white population of 93.5% making it one of the three most ethnically diverse areas in North Tyneside. In the seat of Newcastle Central and West, the Elswick South area has a relative deprivation level of 72.2% and is 54.3% non-white. In Middlesbrough, the area of Arysome has a relative deprivation rate of 102.1% and population which is 55.2% white.(Francis-Devine, 2026) (Barton, 2026). This shows that across three different parts of the North East the most ethnically diverse areas are also the poorest. This is the reality which the report fails to acknowledge, working class people live together black and white. It can be argued from this that they face the same material challenges which affect children’s education.
Finally, the findings and recommendations actually relate more to poverty, austerity and the working class as whole rather than something specifically impacted by whiteness. This included parents acknowledging wider socio-economic factors (WWCI, 2026a). It also pointed to the systematic issue of schools being under-resourced. Furthermore, it recommended improving mental health services for children, greater enrichment opportunities, greater opportunities for apprenticeships and free travel for under 21s (WWCI, 2026b). These are not things which affect working class children because they are white, they affect working class children because they are working class and we have had successive governments take a sledgehammer to education, healthcare and public transport.
Did the report do anything well?
Although I disagree with the sentiment that these issues are white working class issues, the report did highlight some problems which face the UK and make the lives of all working class people harder. De-industrialisation, basically the loss of heavy industry like factories, mines, shipyards and so on, has significantly affected the job prospects of many young people. This is something the North East knows well whether it was ICI on Teesside, mines in Northumberland and Durham or the shipyards of the Tyne, the North East has been decimated in terms of heavy industry. In fact in 1997, 20% of the UK economy was industry; ten years later this had slumped to 12% (Jones, 2016, p.145). Owen Jones (2016, p.145) notes that supermarkets now take on a large proportion of the employment now for people in post-industrial areas. Further to this, it can be argued that changing the nature of the economy particularly affects men moving from ‘masculine’ manual labour jobs to jobs in service sectors traditionally occupied by women. This changing economy has affected how men see themselves (Lively, 2025). The lack of manual labour jobs has an effect on how men and young boys feel about their future.
What is the working class in 2026?
At its simplest class could be thought of in a traditional Marxist sense. On one side there is the bourgeoisie who own the things that make money (factories, railways, airports warehouses, call centres etc.) on the other side there are the working class people who sell their labour to the bourgeoisie in order to live. From this point of view if you need to work and receive a pay check to live rather than using your assets to sustain your life then you are working class. However, this creates a problem. What about small business owners? Small business people are caught between the working class and ruling class. They own their livelihood but are also squashed by larger companies despite their assets paying for them, if they stopped working they wouldn’t be able to live. With deindustrialisation, discussed above, many people have become tradespeople, Dan Evans (2023, p.2) notes that this is his experience of returning to his home town in Wales. A key thing about the working class is that their position in society gives them some form of power to improve their pay and conditions. If they strike, they can generally either increase pay or gain better conditions. The working class only have this power as a collective. Tradespeople, small business owners and even freelancers don’t have the same power. This could indict that although these people may feel culturally working class, in reality they are not. As Ash Sarker argues in Minority Rule, previously working class identity was not something which can be acquired through what you choose to buy. It was the result of your experiences living, working and struggling as a collective (2026, p144). At this point, I think it’s clear that class is messy and it is difficult to define, however, for the report to not even try to use a working definition and use statistics which are quite easy to find flaws with – flaws they acknowledge – weakens a report that uses the term working class so much.
White working class: a gift to the right
One question that might be justified to ask now is why should we care? Dividing the working class weakens us all, it keeps people divided rather than allowing working class people to do this which improves all our lives. In order to improve the lives of working class people in this country we should focus on what we have in common which is that we are working class. This is not to say that we should discard race (or gender and sexuality) far from it. Clearly someone’s race does impact how they interact with the world and how the world interacts with them but the idea of the white working class turns racial realities on its head.
The issue with the notion of the ‘white working class’ creates a divide between the experiences of white working class people and non-white working class people blaming gains made to make the lives of non-white people in this country better. It flips the reality of racial injustice inside out claiming that being white is a site of oppression in a country where the majority of the population in white. The reality is that black people are disproportionately represented in the UK prison population, making up 12% of the population of prisons but only 4% of the general population of the UK (Danechi and Cooney, 2026, p.22). It is not just prison in which non-white people are over-represented: in Northumbria police’s jurisdiction 7.99 black people 1000 and 5.82 Asian people per 100 are stopped and searched compared to 2.12 white people per 1000 (Police UK, 2026a). In the Durham police area, 7.56 black people per 1000 are stopped and searched compared to 1.84 per 1000 for white people (Police UK, 2026b).
In health there is also racial disparity, good housing generally equates to better health and BME people are more likely to live in housing which is not considered ‘good’ therefore negatively affecting their health (Walcott and Nightingale, 2025, p.43). Further to this it has been found that poverty also leads to poorer health (Walcott and Nightingale, 2025, p.30). This is also supported by geographer Danny Dorling (2019, p.134) who found that those with top 1% wealth live longer than the other 99% sometimes by more than 10 years. As already discussed above, BME are more likely to live in poverty (Walcott and Nightingale, 2025, p.30). There are racial differences in treatment of BME people too with Black and Asian women more likely to have a negative experience of maternity services (NHS Race and Health Observatory, 2025, p.9).
From the data we can reasonably draw the conclusion that it is BME people who are discriminated against because of the colour of their skin. Despite this the right uses the idea of the white working class to roll back anti-racism and progressive policies won through struggle over decades. Legitimising the idea that the white working class is a distinct category which needs attention draws people on to territory comfortable for the right. As well as debunking their ideas we give people a sense that life for working class people is getting better and something to be proud of. This is done by fighting austerity and rebuilding class power.
What is to be done?
Many of the issues noted in the report as ‘white working class issues’ are actually the result of austerity policies and neoliberal dogma. The logical conclusion to be drawn from this is that we must reverse austerity. We must fully invest in our schools making sure there is enough staff to support all children and enough resources so that SEND children can access learning too. We must make sure all parts of our NHS from GPs to hospitals, dentists to opticians and pharmacies to ambulances are given what they need. Increased welfare budgets to at least in line with other European nations which send much more on welfare than us.
Many people may say I’m just asking for money to be thrown at the problem but building up community services and things we share is good for all of us. It breaks down the ideological root of neoliberalism being that the individual is more than the collective. By challenging this argument and building up the collective again which builds class power which helps ground working class people with a sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves. It gives people a sense they haven’t lost something. As the old saying goes “yes it is bread we fight for but we fight for roses too”. We have to address the economic and social problems but also address the feelings people have too that life has worsened. Trade unions, although decimated by anti-union laws, are also vital for building class power.
Although the report set out a bleak outlook, let’s ditch the term white working class and build a world where everyone’s needs are met, instead of greed, so we can all thrive.
References
- Barton, C. (2026) ‘Constiuency Data: Ethnic Groups.’ https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10566/ (Accessed 6th July)
- Dorling, D. (2019) Inequality and the 1%. 3rd edn.Verso.
- Danechi, S and Cooney, F. (2026) Prison Population Statistics. House of Commons Library. https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN04334/SN04334.pdf (Accessed 6th February)
- Evans, D. (2023) A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petty Bourgeoise. Left Book Club.
- Francis-Devine, B. (2026) ‘Constituency Data: Child Poverty’ https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10522/ (Accessed 6th July 2026)
- Independent Inquiry into White Working Class Educational Outcomes (2026a) ‘Findings’https://educationaloutcomes.org.uk/findings/ (Accessed 5th July 2026)
- Independent Inquiry into White Working Class Educational Outcomes (2026b) ‘Our Recommendations’ https://educationaloutcomes.org.uk/recommendations/ (Accessed 6th July 2026)
- Jones, O. (2016) Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class. 3rd edn. Verso.
- Lively, S. (2025)’ ‘Class and Masculinity are Connected – When Industry Changes, So Does What it Means ‘to be a Man’’, The Conversation, 30 June. Available at: https://theconversation.com/class-and-masculinity-are-connected-when-industry-changes-so-does-what-it-means-to-be-a-man-258857 (Accessed 7th July 2026)
- National Careers Service (2026a) ‘Job Profile: Admin Assistant’ https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/admin-assistant
- National Careers Service (2026b) ‘Job Profile: Teaching Assistant’ https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/teaching-assistant
- National Education Union (2026) ‘Press Release: NFER Report on teacher recruitment and retention’ https://neu.org.uk/latest/press-releases/nfer-report-teacher-recruitment-and-retention
- NHS Race and Health Observatory (2025) The Cost of Racism. https://nhsrho.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/NHS-RHO-Report-Cost-of-Racism-March-2025.pdf
- Police UK (2026a) ‘Stop and Search in Northumbria Police’ https://www.police.uk/pu/your-area/northumbria-police/performance/stop-and-search/
- Police UK (2026b) ‘Stop and Search in Durham Constabulary’ https://www.police.uk/pu/your-area/durham-constabulary/performance/stop-and-search/
- Sarkar, A. (2026) Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture War. Left Book Club.
- Walcott, S. and Nightengale, G. (2025) How Racism Affects Health. The Health Foundation and Runnymede Trust. https://www.runnymedetrust.org/publications/how-racism-affects-health
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