Restrict phones to improve child social mobility in UK, says commission chair

Katharine Birbalsingh, head teacher at Michaela school in London. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

Schools and parents can improve the social mobility of disadvantaged children by restricting access to smartphones, the chair of the government’s social mobility commission has said.

Katharine Birbalsingh told the Association of School and College Leaders annual conference: “If we genuinely want things to be fairer, and we want our disadvantaged children to be socially mobile, the best thing I can do for them is getting them not to have a smartphone.”