Transparency data

Commission Meeting Minutes 21 July 2021

Updated 9 November 2021

Attendees

Commissioners

Sandra Wallace (Interim Co-chair)
Steven Cooper (Interim Co-chair)
Saeed Atcha
Sam Friedman
Pippa Dunn
Farrah Storr
Jody Walker
Liz Williams
Sammy Wright

Apologies:

Alastair DaCosta
Harvey Matthewson
Jessica Oghenegweke

Welcome

1.1 The Co-chairs began with a welcome and acknowledged the enormous amount of work that the secretariat had done on the State of the Nation 2021 report. The report which was published on 20 July 2021 was already having an impact with stakeholders.

1.2 The Co-chairs gave an update on the process for recruiting a new Chair. Interviews had taken place and an announcement on the preferred candidate was imminent. The preferred candidate would need to attend a Select Committee pre-appointment hearing. Current commissioners’ period of appointment ends on 31 October 2021. The new Chair would be involved in the recruitment of new Commissioners.

State of the Nation Advocacy

2.1 The secretariat led a discussion on the Commission’s stakeholder engagement activities for the State of the Nation report. The secretariat noted that there had been much press coverage on the child poverty headline. Steven held an interview with the Financial Times, Sandra appeared on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme and Saeed gave an interview to BBC 6 O’Clock News. Further op-ed pieces were planned for over the summer. The Communications team would send Commissioners an updated Communications brief.

Action:

• communications team to circulate an updated brief

2.2 The secretariat sought Commissioners’ views on the following points; along with their ambition for the State of the Nation advocacy after the initial round of communications and stakeholder engagement:

• how hard should the Commission continue to push on the 7 pillars and top recommendations?
• whether the Commission should prioritise 2-3 recommendations?
• Commissioners’ collective appetite for further engagement?

2.3 Steven invited Commissioners to offer their views.

• Sam’s view was that the Commission should push hard on some of the more specialist areas such as the higher education workforce. He was content to lead a meeting with Vice Chancellors
• Farrah said her priority key recommendations were ending the two-child limit; raising universal credit; tailoring the apprenticeship levy and drawing up measures to track social mobility. Farrah sought views from Sasha Morgan, Secretariat Director, on whether any of the recommendations were easier to rally around
• Sasha responded to Farrah on the recommendations and how the Commissioners need to make clear choices about how much they want to push the 7 pillars
• Steven emphasised that the Commission had a mandate to talk about the State of the Nation report. He expressed that a shake up of the social welfare system was key. He also said that the apprenticeship levy did not need more funding by the government but needed restructuring to enable more people from disadvantaged backgrounds to rise through the apprenticeship levels
• Liz commented that there was a lot of rich data in the report but that the report size made it difficult to read. She suggested packaging parts of the report into easily digestible thought pieces and targeting organisations that use the data in their day-to-day activities. For example, organisations such as Movement for Work and the Association of Apprentices could be helped to understand the data on apprenticeships and work experience. She also suggested that the Secretariat lay on briefing sessions
• Jody agreed with what other Commissioners had said and suggested prioritising the welfare and benefits system. He felt there was growing traction around the recommendation and there was an opportunity for the Commission to support the conversations. He also endorsed the suggestion that the Secretariat run briefing sessions
• Saeed affirmed that the Commission should push very hard on the 7 pillars and suggested the Secretariat explore how this could be bolted on to the levelling-up strategy. He also favoured education catch-up, post qualification applications to universities and indicated his readiness to be involved in further stakeholder engagement activities
• Sammy said his top three recommendations were poverty, welfare and benefits and educational recovery. He was content to lend his support to any further stakeholder engagement.

2.4 Steven sought the secretariat’s views on whether there was enough feedback from Commissioners to work with. The secretariat confirmed that and agreed to follow up.

Action:

• Secretariat to consider commissioners comments and follow up as necessary.

Social Mobility Data for Policy Making

3.1 Commissioners received an update from the secretariat on a new SMC report to help departments tackle deprivation and poor mobility effectively, with the aim of embedding structural change that can leave a long-term legacy. The aim of the project is to identify the biggest areas for data reform across government. The big data gaps highlighted were household data for social mobility and deprivation.

3.2 Commissioners were invited to comment on the two case studies: 1) a household dataset to assess inter-generational mobility and 2) measures of disadvantage and mobility. Along with commenting on the next steps for data improvement set out in the paper.

3.3 Sam commented that he recognised the importance of this work as a legacy of this Commission and was very supportive. He also recognised the limitations in the current data available, particularly within government and cited the lack of coherence in data use with different types of measures being used. He felt that if there was the ability to be able to derive parental occupation when administrative data was pulled on parental earnings and benefits, that that would be incredibly useful. The Commission worked hard to come up with recommendations that are now used routinely by employers to capture the SEB of their staff and parental occupation should be at the forefront of that.

3.4 Sammy stated that it was really important that this work was seen as part of the same recommendation we were making in terms of differential pupil premium. It would be worth using the data set to link this with what we are saying in our recommendations to extend 16-19 .

3.5 Liz suggested that we should also be thinking about data sets around digital access and progression. The secretariat agreed. Liz agreed to follow up with the secretariat.

3.6 Farrah raised a question about whether Commissioners were choosing between the two case studies. The secretariat confirmed that both case studies were top priority and would go together.

Action:

• Secretariat /Liz to have a follow-up discussion on digital data sets.

Stakeholder Strategy and Employers Programme

4.1 The secretariat reminded the Commissioners of the State of the Nation launch event on 22 July and encouraged Commissioners who wished to attend to register, as the event was almost sold out.

4.2 The secretariat outlined that following publication of the State of the Nation report, the new Stakeholder Strategy and Advocacy team were looking to overhaul the strategy to include:

• refreshed stakeholder mapping
• a revamp of the Ambassadors programme
• parliamentary and government engagement
• broader events strategy

4.3 The secretariat would give a full update at the 22 September meeting. Today’s discussion would focus on the Employers programme.

4.4 The secretariat highlighted the excellent work that had taken place on the Employers programme and the plans for the next few months. Commissioners’ views were sought on:

• leadership organisations or bodies that the Secretariat should approach for speaking opportunities
• Commissioners involvement in the launch of the employer toolkits

4.5 The secretariat also gave a status update on the sector-specific toolkits.

4.6 Jody was invited to provide a quote for the Retail Toolkit and to take part in the launch event.

4.7 Farrah quizzed the secretariat on how they were keeping track of follow-ups from events. The secretariat responded that the newly expanded team was considering follow up measures.

4.8 There was also a question about how speeches were being prioritised. The secretariat confirmed its intention to be SMART with invitations, focussing on those with the highest impact and where there was a large demand, the Commission would organise its own events. Saeed asked the secretariat to keep Commissioners informed of the framework they were developing to prioritise SMART requests.

Action:

• Secretariat to circulate the framework for identifying SMART requests once it is developed.

Project Pipeline

5.1 The secretariat presented to the Commissioners the pipeline of projects up to 31 October 2021. The Commissioner’s views were sought on their further engagement on reports versus engagement on State of the Nation report recommendations, and whether any of the upcoming projects should be de-prioritised. In discussion:

• Farrah questioned the need to have two campaigns running at the same time. The secretariat agreed to consider further.
• Liz suggested that some components of the State of the Nation report could be packaged and forwarded to social mobility stakeholders.
• Steven proposed that his priorities were: Influencing the Government’s Levelling Up White Paper, Toolkits,30 years framework, though the 30 years framework would move into the next Commission who potentially would want to put their own stamp on it.

Action:

• Secretariat to consider Commissioners’ suggestions and revisit the de-prioritisation of SON recommendations.

The next Commission meeting was confirmed for 22 September 2021.