Family Learning is part of a government agenda to tackle social exclusion in areas of greatest poverty and deprivation, and where communities are fractured along cultural or racial lines. Many studies show that home backgrounds are the biggest influence on educational achievement and life chances.

"The Department for Education and Skills' own research suggests that parental involvement in a child's schooling is a more powerful force than any other family background characteristic, including social class. Children who lack this secondary learning environment are the truly disadvantaged, but they aren't just in our most deprived areas, they are everywhere, even in the leafy suburbs."
Fiona Millar, Tuesday June 28, 2005, Education Guardian