New analysis shows little progress on social mobility over the last 20 years

New analysis by the Social Mobility Commission has shown that 20 years of government efforts to improve social mobility have failed to deliver enough progress. The commission, an independent body that monitors progress on social mobility, calls on current and future governments to learn five key lessons from the mistakes and successes of the past 20 years.

Time for change, the analysis report, examines various public policies pursued over the last 20 years and assesses the impact they have had on social mobility in Britain. It covers four life stages from the early years and school through to training and further/higher education and then into the world of work. It gives ‘red’, ‘amber’ and ‘green’ ratings depending on how successful governments have been in translating policy into positive social outcomes. The stark result is that the report was not able to give a single ‘green’ rating to any of the life stages.

While the report says that some policies - such as increasing employment and getting more working class young people into university - have had a positive impact, overall the report concludes that ‘too little’ has been done to break the link between socio-economic background and social progress. The report highlights five key lessons from the past and makes recommendations for government which includes:

- successive governments have failed to make social mobility the cornerstone of domestic policy - so in future they should develop a strategic cross-departmental social mobility plan
- long-term progress has too often been sacrificed to short-term change - so ten year targets should be implemented to ensure public money is spent effectively
- how policies have been designed has often been misaligned from the objective of securing higher levels of social mobility - so public policy should be subjected to a new social mobility test
- public resources have not been properly lined up behind social mobility policies - so future budgets should identify how public spending addresses geographical, wealth and generational inequalities
- governments have overly limited their scope of action - so in future they should be more active in building a national coalition with councils, communities and employers to improve social mobility

For more details and a link to a copy of the report, you can visit the GOV.UK website.