Social mobility progress in the UK could go further and faster but is being held back by a lack of economic growth and innovation, and not enough focus on regional differences, the Social Mobility Commission warns today.
The traditional approach to social mobility focuses on disadvantaged young people’s access to higher education and professional careers. However, while the expansion of universities has given new opportunities to many, the Commission argues that this approach is too narrow and only a small minority benefit from it.
For large-scale and widespread upward mobility to be possible, we need more opportunities for people to move up into. Whilst our recent State of the Nation reports tell us progress on social mobility is a mixed picture overall, the rate of upward income mobility has declined for those born from the mid-1980s onward (see notes to editors). And we also know that productivity growth in the UK has stagnated since the 2008 global financial crisis.
In its new strategy document Innovation Generation – next steps for social mobility the Commission sets out a radical approach to change the debate about social mobility by changing the way policy makers think about the supply of opportunities.
’Innovation Generation’ builds on the findings of State of the Nation 2024 and other research and insights published by the Commission this year to create a new strategic approach that can influence government policy and delivery. It sets out how an innovative economy embracing enterprise and entrepreneurialism, place-based policies reflecting local needs, and a joined-up skills and employment strategy are all vital to ensure the disadvantaged and disengaged can access opportunities. As part of this, it wants to make sure that a wide variety of education and training routes are available rather than a “one size fits all” strategy.
“Until now there has been too much focus on the academic route of getting young disadvantaged people into top jobs via elite universities,” said Alun Francis, SMC Chair. “But this approach only favours the lucky few. We must realign social mobility policy so that it addresses a broader range of people in a wider range of places. What we have done here is rethink social mobility so that it is much more aligned with the real obstacles to opportunity experienced in this country. This means recognising the key role of economy and geography.”
The role of economy and geography
An “innovative” economic strategy, which fuels growth by increasing productivity, is urgently needed to create job opportunities, says the document. This must include improving productivity away from London and the south-east, where the financial and professional service sectors are heavily concentrated. This can be helped by supporting entrepreneurs and innovators in the regions, high quality research and removing barriers to fair competition. The Commission is setting up a new expert group to look at how best to stimulate an innovative economy and overcome the lack of investment in many communities and regions.
“The lack of economic growth since the financial crisis and the consequent slow-down in the rise of professional jobs is holding back opportunities and social mobility,” said Rob Wilson, SMC Deputy Chair. “We need a greater focus on economic productivity and innovation, particularly outside London, to ensure that we are creating new opportunities for everyone.”
A place-based strategy is also essential, says the report. The SMC’s State of the Nation 2024 revealed big geographical disparities in social mobility outcomes with the lowest opportunities generally found in post-industrial, coastal and rural areas. These included areas in the north-east and north west such as Barnsley, Hull and Rochdale as well as Cornwall and the Scilly Isles.
The State of the Nation also found that favourable areas for innovation and growth are mainly in London and the South East including Oxfordshire, Milton Keynes, Southampton and Slough, although Warrington is also one. Less favourable areas included Cornwall and Scilly Isles, Durham, Lincolnshire and Barnsley as well as some areas of Scotland and Wales. The Commission will work with local leaders and metro mayors to help develop tailor-made social mobility programmes to meet these local needs.
Skills and training
More attention should be given to those people with the least training and qualifications to give them a better chance of finding a good job, the document says. It acknowledges that overall educational performance, in terms of the number of young people gaining qualifications and progressing to university, has improved over the last 20 years but says “the acute problems at the bottom end remain and are at risk of being overlooked completely.”
ONS figures, for example, show that one in eight young people aged 16 – 24 are not in education, employment or training (NEET) and SMC research confirms that those from lower working-class backgrounds are more likely to become NEET. According to the 2021 ONS census nearly one in five adults (aged 16 and over) say they have no qualifications at all and 21.8% of the working age population (9.3 million people) are economically inactive. The latest government figures also show that in 2022 a third of all job vacancies were due to skill shortages. This was up 22 per cent from 2017.
This challenge could be addressed by more joined-up initiatives, says the document. Responsibilities for people who are NEET are now split between the Department for Education and the Department for Work and Pensions as well as local authorities. But this risks more young people falling through the cracks of statutory provision. The Commission calls instead for local partnerships – including educators, employers, the voluntary sector and other agencies – to deliver wrap-around support to young people to get them into work.
The traditional social mobility focus has been on getting more people from disadvantaged backgrounds into university to secure good jobs. Whilst this has been reasonably successful, more than half of all young people do not go to university and far less attention is paid to this group. The Commission wants to ensure that other routes to skills acquisition and qualifications are a competitive alternative to university, including further education and apprenticeships.
The government’s recent replacement of the apprenticeship levy with a new growth and skills levy is welcome, but the Commission also calls for a wider geographical spread of high-quality apprenticeships and more research into whether they help social mobility. The Commission also welcomes the new White Paper Get Britain Working, which seeks to start addressing a number of the challenges the Commission has been raising for many years, and which are covered in this report.
Next steps
Innovation Generation sets out the Commission’s commitment to an important new range of research and wider, cross-country engagement. This includes a project on the role of the economy in improving social mobility, research into perceptions of social mobility and a programme of “deep dives” into geographical areas with high and low social mobility to understand what does and does not work and why.
The Commission argues that the evidence suggests that education alone is not always enough to secure social mobility, and that policy makers and others need to look at regional, local and community level ways to tackle barriers to opportunity.
“Our long-term goal is to reach a point where there are multiple routes to success in any local area,” said Mr Wilson. “This in turn will allow us to address entrenched disadvantage, unlock greater opportunities and create a vibrant, innovative economy for the generations ahead.”
ends
Notes to editors – social mobility progress
Education mobility: has been increasingly successful over the past few decades, and the links between parental education level and children’s education levels are less significant than before.
Occupational mobility: in terms of jobs, generally people are more likely to be upwardly mobile. But the data shows that the gap between the upwardly mobile and the downwardly mobile is narrowing, so this is why a greater focus on the economy is needed.
Income: It’s a similar story with income mobility. People are more likely to earn more than their parents did at the same age, but the proportion of people earning more than their parents has declined.