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Commission Meeting Minutes 28 July 2020

Updated 9 November 2021

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-mobility-commission-board-meeting-notes/commission-meeting-minutes-28-july-2020

Attendees: Commissioners

Steven Cooper (Interim Co-Chair)
Sandra Wallace (Interim Co-Chair)
Pippa Dunn
Jess Oghenegweke
Farrah Storr
Liz Williams

DfE Sponsor team

Robert Arnott, Director
Jonathan Clifton Michael
Messum Clive
Palmer Cristina Inceu

Apologies

Sam Friedman
Sammy Wright
Alastair Da Costa
Harvey Matthewson
Saeed Atcha
Jody Walker

1. Introduction

1.1. The Co-Chairs began with apologies and an overview of the agenda.

1.2 Commissioners used the first half of the meeting to prepare for their meeting with the Department for Education (DfE) sponsor team who were attending the second half of the meeting.

1.3 Commissioners were keen for sponsor colleagues to understand the Commission’s delivery objectives, its business planning process, and the resources and operational support required for the Commission to achieve its vision, including agreeing a framework agreement with DfE.

1.4 The Director of the Secretariat welcomed and introduced DfE sponsor colleagues to the meeting. This was the first meeting between all Commissioners and the sponsor team. The aim of the session was to give the sponsor team greater understanding of the Commission’s work objectives and Commissioners’ ambitions to push forward workstreams.

1.5 Commissioners talked about their social mobility journeys and presented the key blocks of work which they were leading. There was an interactive discussion with sponsor colleagues raising searching questions to understand some aspects of Commissioners’ priorities.

1.6 The Interim Co-Chairs raised the risk with sponsorship team that if the Secretariat was not given permission to backfill senior policy positions and resolve ongoing resourcing and operational issues, including signing a framework agreement, there was risk in the Commission’s ability to deliver its statutory report on time.

1.7. The following actions were noted from the discussion:

  • the Commission agreed to share external feedback on its research reports with the sponsor team

  • sponsor team agreed to promote and advocate the Commission’s work more widely across Whitehall

  • sponsor team would help SMC Secretariat work with DfE HR to unblock recruitment issues

  • sponsor team would review best practice provided by MoJ Centre for Excellence within the ALB framework to reach consensus on SMC’s framework agreement

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