Transparency data

Social Mobility Commission Quarterly Report: April 2019

Updated 3 December 2021

Dame Martina Milburn was appointed as Chair of the Social Mobility Commission last summer and, under her leadership, the Commission was relaunched on 11 December with 12 new Commissioners, many with a strong social mobility story.

The Commission

We attracted a regional spread of Commissioners and appointed people from a diverse range of backgrounds.

The new Commissioners are:

• Alastair da Costa – Chair, Capital City College Group
• Liz Williams – Director Digital Society, BT
• Farrah Storr – Editor in Chief, Cosmopolitan
• Harvey Matthewson – Aviation Activity Officer, Aerobility
• Jessica Oghenegweke – Anti-bullying Project Coordinator, The Diana Award
• Jody Walker – Senior Vice President, TJX Europe
• Pippa Dunn – Founder of Broody
• Saeed Atcha – Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Xplode Magazine
• Sam Friedman – Associate Professor in Sociology, London School of Economics
• Sammy Wright – Vice Principal, Southmoor Academy
• Sandra Wallace – Joint Managing Director Europe at DLA Piper
• Steven Cooper – Chief Executive, C.Hoare & Co

We have also recruited new staff to the secretariat, currently situated in the Department for Education, including a new director, Sasha Morgan, previously the Chief Operating Officer at the National Infrastructure Commission.

Dame Martina has met a number of ministers and leaders of influential organisations in the social mobility area. These include:

• Damian Hinds, the Education Secretary
• Nadhim Zahawi, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families
• Amber Rudd, Work and Pensions Secretary
• Robert Halfon, Chairman of the Education Select Committee
• David Willetts, Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation
• Sir Kevan Collins, Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation
• David Johnston, Chief Executive of the Social Mobility Foundation
• Sir Peter Lampl, Chairman of the Sutton Trust

We are keen to work with these groups to help inform a wider audience about the barriers to social mobility.

The Commission and research

The Commission is committed to furthering the evidence base around social mobility and is keen to identify interventions that can make a difference. We have recently published a report on Adult Skills (January) and have three further pieces of work in the pipeline:

• A guide to support employers on social mobility: This is a user-friendly and practical guide, underpinned by cutting-edge research on the ‘business case for socioeconomic diversity’. It is designed to help businesses at all stages of their diversity and inclusion strategies incorporate socio- economic diversity.
• Research on how extra-curricular activities can help young people develop skills: This is being conducted by the Commission at the request of the Secretary of State’s priorities in this area. Interim themes emerging suggest there are huge socio-economic disparities in provision and participation of extra-curricular activities. Children from more affluent families tend to participate in a wider range of activities, and engage with them more often.
• Research into how disability intersects with social mobility: This is looking into the relationship between social mobility and special educational needs. The research is considering the impact of special educational needs on the likelihood of being socially mobile and whether this impact differs by a person’s socio-economic background.

These reports will be published this summer.

The research fund

Beyond this current work programme, the Social Mobility Commission has secured £2 million of funding to set up a new research fund to ensure the recommendations we make are evidence based. The first round of research tenders will go out to market shortly. They consist of at least one project for each life stage and range from a project on stability of the Early Years workforce, to how to deliver an adult education and training system to help workers progress out of low pay.

We plan to launch a second round of research in the summer. This will focus on careers advice and in-work progression. We expect it will be more interventions focused and we are assessing the viability of randomised control trials to look at progression in work.

Ways of working

Commissioners are divided into their particular areas of expertise, which enables them to have more detailed discussions on particular aspects of social mobility.

Three task forces have recently been established to look at: Early Years and Schools; Apprenticeships and Further Education; and Higher Education and Working Lives.

We have now set up a pattern of monthly board meetings to which we sometimes invite guest speakers. Recently we heard from the broadcaster Byron Vincent following his Radio 4 documentary ‘The Trouble with Social Mobility’. We followed through on our commitment to travel to the regions with a Commission visit to a school in Sunderland and a National Citizen Service project in Newcastle. We also hosted a social mobility round-table in the north east where we brought together local leaders from government, housing, schools and charities to discuss region-specific challenges and help facilitate a medium-term strategy for transforming social mobility.

We are publishing our annual State of the Nation 2018/2019 report on 30 April, followed by a Commission meeting at No.10. The report takes a comprehensive look at social mobility at different life stages, including early years, schools, further and higher education and apprenticeships. We will also make a number of policy recommendations for government, schools and employers.

Future activity

In May we are planning a strategy day looking specifically at communication. We want to start taking full advantage of wider channels – including social media - to inform the public about what social mobility is and how people can help shift outcomes. We want people to understand why social mobility matters and that it should be about having an informed choice at each life stage.

In the summer we expect to publish our strategy which will set out the full forward work programme of the Commission. More detail of the outcomes will be given in our second quarterly report.

We have been pleased to see a number of small government initiatives on social mobility including: free access to educational apps for parents of young children in disadvantaged areas to support early language and literacy in pilot areas, and £24 million to help support up to 30 schools as part of the Opportunity North East initiative.

We hope there will be much more cross-departmental working to help boost social mobility and support disadvantaged groups over the coming months.