Education Secretary Justine Greening has announced a £23m fund to support bright children from poorer backgrounds in England whose talent might otherwise be "wasted". The aim is to reverse a trend in which bright poor pupils are overtaken in school by less able wealthier children.

It is part of a new Department for Education social mobility strategy.

Labour's Angela Rayner said the plans were "rhetoric" against a background of funding cuts and lower real-terms pay. The Future Talent Fund, drawn from existing Department for Education budgets, will test new ways of supporting the able youngsters from deprived areas. There will be a tendering process for ideas to tackle the problem of poorer youngsters who show great ability when they begin school but who do not fulfill their potential.

The education secretary highlighted the importance of a good start in children's early years, with £50m reallocated to support the opening of nurseries in areas without enough childcare provision.

Ms. Greening warned that too often if children fall behind in the first years of education they might never catch up - and could face a "whole lifetime of missed opportunities".

Read the full article by Sean Coughlan about education inequity from BBC