Contributor(s): Professor Julian Le Grand | Despite rocky times in the financial markets, Professor Julian Le Grand, Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at LSE and senior policy advisor to the government between 2003-05, argues that the principle of market competition can still offer solutions to public sector problems in this Big Ideas video. Professor Le Grand says: 'Schools have been given the freedom and opportunity to experiment, innovate and to do their own thing. This can only improve the education standards of the country.' He argues that the government should pick up the idea of a 'pupil premium' in order to give young people from disadvantaged backgrounds greater access and choice of schools: 'At the moment when the school takes on pupils they get a fixed sum of money for each pupil. The idea of the pupil premium is that the amount of money would be greater for those that come from so called poor postcodes.'