Sutton Trust

The Sutton Trust is an educational charity in the United Kingdom which aims to provide educational opportunities to young people from non-privileged backgrounds. The charity was set up by the millionaire philanthropist Sir Peter Lampl.

University projects
It currently runs summer school programmes at some of Britain's more established universities: Bristol, Nottingham, St Andrews, Oxford and Cambridge.

With other co-sponsors, it has also established an extended version of the summer school scheme at other leading research universities, including: Birmingham, Nottingham, and Manchester. In 2006 meanwhile it launched with the College of Law the 'Pathways to Law' scheme providing help for law students from non-privileged backgrounds.

School projects
Major pre-university projects have included:

An Open Access scheme at the Belvedere School in Liverpool which enabled able children to attend an independent day school, regardless of their financial circumstances.

Into University - a centre based in North Kensington offering out-of-school study and support for children aged 7 upwards.

'Room to Play' -- a drop-in centre based in a shopping centre offering support for 'hard to reach' parents during the early years of their child’s development.

According to the Trust's 2006 annual report, the Trust and co-sponsors have committed £21.8 million to its activities since being established in 1997. See http://www.suttontrust.com/ for more details.

Research
The Trust also funds an extensive research programme looking into the issue of educational inequalities.

Social mobility
A highly influential project funded by the Trust revealed in 2005 that social mobility in Britain is at a very low level and has fallen in recent decades. In other words, it has become harder for a young person from a poor background to climb the social ladder and make it to the top. The researchers from the London School of Economics found that one reason for this trend was that the expansion of higher education in the UK has disproportionately benefited those from better off backgrounds.

Media coverage
In 2006, the charity published a report on the number of 'top jobs' going to private school pupils has increased since the Labour Government came to power in 1997.