Social Mobility Commission Quarterly Report: August - October 2021
Updated 3 December 2021
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1. Summary
Between August - October 2021, the Social Mobility Commission published a policy and research report on career advice, continued to support employers to create greater socio-economic diversity and inclusion in their workforces, and prepared for the transition from one Commission to the next.
2. SMC’s policy priorities for government
In this period The Commission continued to promote the policy priorities set out in the ‘State of the nation 2021: Social mobility and the pandemic’ report.
- Geography and local power – A levelling up agenda that promotes equal outcomes for people living in under-invested places, and not just strategies that improve places generally.
- Poverty and living standards – The UK Government should make benefits more generous and account for different sized households in its calculations, starting by reducing child poverty by about a third.
- Early years – Higher pay and a better career structure for a workforce crucial to social mobility. Expansion of the 30 hours childcare offer regardless of education or training status.
- Education – A bigger focus on long-term deprivation, funding targeting, post qualification access to university and a student premium for those aged 16 to 19. They also support calls for education catch-up to be funded to the tune of £13.5-15bn.
- Apprenticeships and adult skills – Increase the share of apprenticeships from disadvantaged backgrounds and make sure more get on to the higher levels.
- Digital access – Access to affordable broadband and digital devices for all households, as well as the skills to thrive in a 21st century world.
- Work and career progression – Ensure that all employers measure the social diversity of their workforce and focus on career progression for those from lower socio-economic background, including those in low paid jobs.
3. Policy and evidence
The Commission published and engaged in the following this quarter:
- Pathways to success used a randomised controlled trial built on behavioural insights methods to convince poorer young people to engage in a greater breadth and depth of careers advice materials in online platforms. The interventions did not change young people’s behaviours but it was nevertheless useful for helping employers and charities identify the barriers and opportunities to improve careers advice.
- Tax roundtables: Commissioners convened tax experts in September to discuss how tax policy can be used as a tool for social mobility, and to discuss ways HMT could consider ‘paying for the pandemic’ in a way that does not hit the most disadvantaged the hardest.
The following policy and evidence work had been in development, but was paused by agreement between the old and new Chairs. The Commission’s new Chair and Deputy Chair took up their posts in November 2021 and will review the work programme to decide how/if they want to proceed with:
- A refreshed Social Mobility Index which improves upon the index used in the State of the Nation 2017, providing a measurement framework to promote and measure changes in social mobility over generations and within geographical areas. We have consulted with the Index of Opportunity and the Levelling Up Unit on this work.
- Physical health and social mobility, which explores the implications of poor health on social mobility and examines the impact of preventing and managing long-term chronic conditions.
- Mental health and social mobility - the first time a systematic review has been done on the topic of mental health and social mobility.
- Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on young people across the UK: An evidence synthesis, In collaboration with the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Commission.
4. Employers programme
The employers programme continued to impact social mobility in the UK by changing the behaviours of employers. The programme encouraged employers to incorporate socio-economic background in their diversity and inclusion agendas and task those early adopters to influence change. The programme provided practical advice to employers across multiple sectors, including through our microsite which houses guidance, toolkits, resources and case studies.
4.1 Publishing new employer toolkits and resources:
Creative Industries toolkit: Over 50 trade bodies, employers and charities across the sector collaborated with us to design and deliver this toolkit for employers in the sector to build socio-economic inclusion in their workforce. Nadine Dorries, Culture Secretary endorsed the toolkit, saying, “This new toolkit will help support creative firms become more inclusive and give people the chance to forge a successful career in this exciting sector.” Accessed 1,535 times since its launch, it was also referenced in the media by trade publications including The Arts Professional, The Stage, Design Week and also by the BBC. Many have been championing it within the industry - such as the Advertising Association adopting it as part of their three-point ‘All-in’ plan for diversity in the sector.
Apprenticeships: Over 60 apprentices, employers, training providers, end point assessment organisations, quality assessors, charities, education providers and policymakers collaborated with us to design and deliver this practical toolkit which provides employers, training providers and apprenticeship practitioners with guidance on how to make apprenticeships work for all. It built on our policy report in 2020, putting evidence into action. Accessed 600 times since its launch, it also appeared in the media, including FE Week and Youth Employment UK.
A Maturity Assessment - published in August - allows companies to assess where they are in their social mobility journey and how they can improve outreach, hiring practices, progression and organisational culture. The assessment has been used by 208 unique users since its publication.
Our ‘Let’s talk about class’ resource: this was launched to coincide with National Inclusion Week (end-Sept) and provides employers with the resources to promote open discussion on socio-economic background within the workforce, and to encourage the creation of working groups/opportunities for colleagues to share their experiences and discuss how barriers to employment/progression can be tackled. The campaign has so far been seen by around 20,000 people, and the pdf resource has been viewed over 4,000 times on LinkedIn and on the campaign website.
4.2 Continued to promote the programme through:
- The microsite, which recorded over 14k website interactions from over 10k users in the quarter, which is an increase of 26.1% since Q2
- Held two launch events for our new toolkits. These were for- ‘Be inspired to make the change: Social mobility in the creative industries’ where 250 participants registered with 152 attending and ‘Apprenticeships and social mobility’ with 474 registrations and 252 attendees
- Held two masterclasses on the topics of: Hiring with Co-op which received 242 registrations, with 160 attendees and on Outreach with Speakers for Schools, JP Morgan and Bentley Motors receiving 136 registrations and 67 attendees
4.3 Other employers-focussed work in development (also currently paused):
- A Retail Toolkit, which could support retailers to tackle socio-economic diversity and inclusion
- A Foundation Toolkit, aimed at providing SMEs with the building blocks to tackle socio-economic diversity and inclusion
- Partnering with others (including the Social Mobility Foundation and Sutton Trust), to develop an #AskTheQuestion campaign, to drive employers to collect the socio-economic background data of their workforce, and to highlight the one key question to ask (occupation of main earner in the family when the respondent was 14).
5. Advocacy and engagements
There has been considerable engagement with government and employers on the following: our Navigating the labyrinth report, with DfE on post-16 technical education and apprenticeships, and with Ofqual on education catch-up.
5.1 Interim Co-Chairs’ engagements
The interim Co-Chairs met the Minister for Equalities, Kemi Badenoch, on 9 September 2021 to discuss the government’s response to the CRED report and recommendations from the State of the Nation 2021 report. The interim Co-Chairs held a handover meeting with the incoming Chair and Deputy Chair on 21 October 2021. The interim Co-Chairs undertook 18 engagements during this period. A full list of the interim Co-Chairs engagements is at Annex A.
5.2 Commissioners’ engagements
Key activities during this quarter included continued advocacy on: the State of the Nation 2021 report recommendations, including roundtables with the devolved administrations, engagement in the work and launch of the creative industries and apprenticeships toolkits and continued influence and engagement on 16-19-year student premium.
Commissioners undertook 36 engagements during this period. A full list of Commissioners engagements is included at Annex B.
5.3 Secretariat engagement activity
Key activities this quarter included the following events:
- A PricewaterhouseCoopers Social Mobility Forum event looking at data collection
- A Prince’s Trust Leadership event looking at the gap between disadvantaged young people and their more privileged peers
- An FIA 2021 International Derivatives Expo panel session on how the sector is performing on the drive to improve the representation of diverse members of the community in finance
- A presentation to the Music Education Council on the creative industries toolkit
- Meeting with the East of England APPG on the levelling agenda
- A Social Mobility Forum session on advocacy with heads of Diversity and Inclusion/CSR/HR and Social Mobility Network Chairs from government departments.
- Speech to the APPG on Social Mobility and diversity within the Civil Service
- Speech to the UK Screen Alliance and Animation UK on the Creative Industry toolkits and the class crisis within the creative industry.
5.4 Media and campaigning
The Commission was mentioned around 840 times in media outlets between August and October. Much of this was associated with the announcement by the Equality Hub, whom the communications team worked closely with, on the appointment of the new Chair and Deputy Chair. Other major pickups related to our ‘State of the Nation 2021’ report, which continues to be referenced in the media.
The Commission’s statement responding to GCSE and A Level results resulted in a BBC online story highlighting that the education divides are becoming even wider.
The Commission placed a commentary piece written by Commissioner Saeed Atcha about levelling up in the Yorkshire Post using evidence from the State of the Nation and other reports.
From 9-15 September, KPMG and PWC became the first UK employers to publish their ‘class pay gaps’, while also outlining strategies to close the gap alongside ambitions to increase the number of employees from lower socio-economic backgrounds. The SMC published largely supportive statements in response to each company’s announcements ( PWC Response, KPMG response ).
At the end of their term the outgoing Commissioners published an open letter to the Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Combined, the SMC statements were seen over 25k times, and received over 750 reactions.
5.5 Digital media highlights
Digital campaigns
The Pathways to Success report launch was amplified by short social media campaigns on both Twitter and LinkedIn. A long-read analysis of the findings targeting employers was published on Social Mobility Works. The launch thread on Twitter received 1,700 impressions and was engaged with 81 times. It was retweeted 9 times. The LinkedIn campaign received 19.5k impressions, 431 reactions and was shared 107 times. The launch of the report on LinkedIn drove a spike in the numbers of people viewing SMC posts by 219% on the previous day - a spike which was largely sustained through the week that followed. The long read analysis has been viewed 250 times since publication in mid-October.
For the Creative industries toolkit, the Twitter launch thread received 14,104 impressions, 2,865 engagements and 24 retweets; the toolkit has been mentioned 196 times; those showing support for the toolkit on Twitter included Caroline Norbury, CEO, Creative Industries Federation, Deborah Bull, Co-Chair of the Creative Diversity APPG; Five Campaign posts on LinkedIn received a total of 10.4k impressions and 115 reactions. The most popular was the launch post, which saw c. 5,000 impressions and 23 reactions. Engagement rate (percentage of impressions converting to clicks) on launch date was above average through the duration of the campaign.
The Apprenticeships toolkit launch on Twitter received 1,894 impressions and a total of 43 engagements. Stakeholders and contributors to the toolkit supported the social media launch, driving 70 external promotions of the toolkit by organisations including the Sutton Trust, BAME Apprenticeship Alliance, the 5% Club, Yorkshire Learning Providers, National Society of Apprentices, Amazing Apprenticeships, Institute for Student Employers and the National Foundation for Educational Research. On LinkedIn, the truncated campaign received c.10k impressions, 193 reactions and was shared 26 times. Organisations and contributors including Allen and Overy and Multiverse publicly endorsed the toolkit.
On Twitter between August and October the Commission received: 748k impressions; 104 profile visits; more than 800 new followers which took the account to having over 14.2k followers; 783 retweets without comments; 1.7k likes; 770 mentions; 3.7k link clicks.
The top performing tweet this quarter supported the comic Rob Beckett speaking up about being a working-class person entering and progressing his comedy career. The tweet has had 333k impressions and engaged 4,766 accounts, including Rob and other comedians.
The Commission wrapped up its campaign on Instagram called #WorksForMe which helps existing and new followers get the job they want. #WorksForMe provided weekly advice and inspiring stories from case studies which the Commission has sourced. In September, the Commission shared case studies of people who have chosen apprenticeship work routes, and sparked conversation by asking followers for their apprenticeship experiences using quotes and insights from the apprenticeship toolkit. It further shared an Instagram Live which reached 320 people with Commissioner Jessica Oghenegweke and Kasim Choudhry from BAME Apprenticeship Network to mark the launch of the apprenticeship toolkit and discuss how it is relevant to young people.
Between August and October, Instagram posts reached 2,231 accounts, engaged 307 accounts, and gained 218 followers. On 31 October the account had a total of 1,417 followers. It shared 22 posts, 55 stories, one video and one Instagram Live.
Between August and October, LinkedIn followers have increased by 25% to 10.4k. SMC updates were seen 603k times between August and October and received 25k clicks. SMC LinkedIn has the second highest engagement of pages deemed to be our closest competitors, and sees significantly higher engagement than the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Sutton Trust and Social Mobility Foundation.
6. Governance
The Commission held two board meetings during this quarter. The minutes of these meetings can be found here.
6.1 Oversight and Risk Board (ORB)
The Commission Oversight and Risk Board met on 11 October to approve the assurance process for the Commission’s governance, risk management, procurement and finance processes and to sign off the Commission’s completed FY 2020-2021 accounts.
6.2 Commissioner appointments
The Commission’s previous commissioners’ contracts ended on 31 October.
The recruitment campaign for a new Chair and Commissioners is the responsibility of the Sponsorship department and is cleared through the HM Government Public Appointments. The campaign ran from 30 April 2021 to 11 June 2021. Sifting and interviews for the new Chair was completed in July 2021.
Katharine Birbalsingh was announced the Government’s preferred candidate for Chair. On Friday 29 October the Women and Equalities Select Committee released its report following Katharine’s pre-appointment hearing, setting out their view that she was an appointable candidate. Alun Francis will be Deputy Chair.
The secretariat has been preparing for the new Chair and Deputy to ensure that we are ready to support them on their priorities. Katharine has initially set these out at ‘families, education and routes to work.’
6.3 Senior leadership team (SLT)
The SLT consists of the Director of the Secretariat, Deputy Director - Policy & Evidence, Deputy Director - Stakeholder Strategy and Advocacy and Head of Operations. Both our Director and Deputy Director of Policy and Evidence will both be starting a period of leave in December 2021 and January 2022 respectively.
The secretariat is working to mitigate the risk of a knowledge gap within the SLT and the Commission, to ensure continuity within the Commission - along with working with the sponsorship team to look at ways to support the Commission until new appointments are made.
6.4 Recruitment independence
In preparation for the Machinery of Government move to the Cabinet Office, the Commission received permission to use the programme budget to recruit six appointments within the team in Q1 and Q2 of this year. These appointments have meant the Commission was able to reduce the number of contractor roles to key positions within the team, providing significant value for money.
Building on this the Commission has sought to embed its independence in other aspects of recruitment in order to get greater autonomy to:
- approve labour contracts via our programme budget, allowing us to offer more permanent/ longer term positions
- backfill contractors via our programme budget
As part of the role, the Oversight and Risk Board assures the HR and recruitment processes for the Commission. In order to gain greater autonomy, the board was advised to send a submission detailing the benefits of HR independence to Lord Agnew, Minister for the Cabinet Office. This was submitted on 1 October 2021 and the Commission is still awaiting an outcome of the submission.
7. Annex A: Interim Co-Chair’s engagements
| When | Activity | Organisation | Activity |
| Sandra Wallace and Steven Cooper | |||
| 3 September | Meeting with SMC Secretariat SLT | SMC | Discussion about Commission business and forward planning |
| 9 September | Meeting with Minister for Equalities, Kemi Badenoch | Treasury | Discussion about CRED report and State of the Nation recommendations |
| 10 September | Meeting with SMC Secretariat SLT | SMC | Discussion about Commission business and forward planning |
| 14 September | Meeting with SMC Secretariat SLT | SMC | Discussion about Commission business and forward planning |
| 17 September | Meeting with SMC Secretariat SLT | SMC | Discussion about Commission business and forward planning |
| 20 September | Meeting with SMC Secretariat | SMC | Update on Commission business and Q&A session |
| 21 September | Meeting with SMC Secretariat SLT | SMC | Discussion about Commission business and forward planning |
| 22 September | Commission meeting | SMC | Discussion about Commission business and Commissioners reflection session |
| 28 September | Meeting with SMC Secretariat SLT | SMC | Discussion on Commission business and work plan |
| 1 October | Meeting with SMC Secretariat SLT | SMC | Discussion on Commission business and work plan |
| 5 October | Chairs meeting with SMC Secretariat SLT | SMC | Discussion on Commission business and work plan |
| 12 October | Chairs meeting with SMC Secretariat SLT | SMC | Discussion about Commission business and work plan |
| 19 October | Commission meeting | SMC | Commissioner’s reflection session |
| 21 October | Handover over meeting with incoming Chair and Deputy Chair | SMC | Handover meeting with incoming Chair and Deputy Chair |
| Sandra Wallace | |||
| 7 September | Tax Roundtable | SMC and external experts | Discussion on tax and social mobility |
| 11 October | SMC Oversight and Risk Board | SMC | Discussion about the process for quality assuring the Commission’s governance, risk management, procurement and finance processes and sign off SMC’s completed FY 2020-2021 accounts |
| 12 October | Panel discussion on data collection | Law Society, Society of Research Administrators and RA and Prime | Panel discussion on data collection |
| 22 October | Meeting with all SMC Secretariat staff | SMC | Commission business and Q&A session |
8. Annex B: Commissioner’s engagements
| Date | Activity |
| Saeed Atcha | |
| 5 August | Meeting with Investec Plc to discuss participation in upcoming sustainability and reducing inequalities campaign |
| 6 August | Meeting with Stacey Hill, Director at Sky |
| 2 September | Meeting with The Co-op Public Affairs Team to discuss Levelling-Up campaign |
| 22 September | Commission meeting – SMC business and Commissioner’s reflection session |
| 27 September | Visit to Manchester Communication Academy and speech to pupils on levelling up |
| 30 September | Inspiring School Leaders Conference: Speech on social mobility |
| 12 October | Meeting with Jessica Leigh Jones, Non-Executive Director of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education |
| 14 October | Panel member - FleishmanHillard UK Event on ‘Is meritocracy a myth? The case for socioeconomic diversity in our working lives |
| 18 October | Meeting with Lorna Williamson, Director of Early Careers at ACCA |
| 19 October | Commission meeting - SMC business/Commissioners’ reflection session |
| 21 October | Hosting Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham’s GMACS Pledge 5 event supporting businesses to create career opportunities for young people |
| Alistair Da Costa | |
| 21 September | Roundtable with Wales officials on the State of the Nation report recommendations |
| 22 September | Commission meeting – SMC business/forward planning |
| 19 October | Commission meeting - SMC business/Commissioners’ reflection session |
| Pippa Dunn | |
| 21 September | Roundtable with Scotland officials on the State of the Nation report recommendations |
| 22 September | Commission meeting: Commission business and forward look |
| Sam Friedman | |
| 21 September | Roundtable with Northern Ireland officials on the State of the Nation report recommendations |
| 22 September | Commission meeting – SMC business/Commissioners’ reflection session |
| 19 October | Commission meeting/Commissioners’ reflection session |
| Harvey Matthewson | |
| 22 September | Commission meeting – SMC business/forward planning |
| Jessica Oghenegweke | |
| 14 September | Meeting with SMC Secretariat to discuss the apprenticeship toolkit launch |
| 16 September | Meeting with Amazing Apprenticeships to discuss the toolkit launch |
| 22 September | Commission meeting/Commissioners’ reflection session |
| 29 September | Apprentice Nation webinars filming |
| 7 October | Rehearsal for Apprenticeship launch |
| 11 October | Meeting with the Association of Apprentices |
| 14 October | Apprenticeships Toolkit launch event |
| Farrah Storr | |
| 11 October | Creative industries toolkit launch. Lead Commissioner for this toolkit, involving several days of work over this quarter |
| Jody Walker | |
| 10 August | Meeting with the SMC secretariat to discuss the retail sector toolkit |
| 19 October | Commission meeting – SMC business/Commissioners’ reflection session |
| Liz Williams | |
| 9 September | City of London Socio Economic Diversity Taskforce meeting |
| 16 September | Pro Bono Economics and The National Lottery Community Fund’s - panel discussion around the role of civil society and technology in shaping our future |
| Sammy Wright | |
| 15 September | Meeting with NACRO/MPs re 16-19 funding |
| 19 September | Comprehensive future panel member ‘What makes a socially just education system?’ |
| 22 September | Commission meeting/Commissioners’ reflection session |
| 4 October | Meeting with Standards and Testing Agency (STA) to discuss SoN SATs recommendations |
| 19 October | Commission meeting/Commissioners’ reflection session |