Read: New access to regional data will add depth to social mobility strategies
Access to more detailed regional data will help deliver more effective social mobility strategies across the country. As the voice of purpose-led organisation, the Purpose Coalition and its partners – leading businesses, universities, NHS Trusts and other third-sector organisations – are working together to explore how opportunity can be spread more widely across the country, particularly in social mobility cold spots. Its work shows that the best solutions are the ones most closely tailored to the needs of their communities, and those decisions are much better supported if they can be based on accurate local data. It was an approach advocated by the Coalition’s Chair, Justine Greening, in her work on social mobility while Education Secretary, alongside setting goals and measuring progress.
Better, and more wide-ranging data, is also the aim of a new online Data Explorer Tool unveiled by the Social Mobility Commission (SMC) this week. It will help government policymakers, businesses, local authorities, academics, think tanks and the general public, to explore social mobility data by region across a range of key issues and groups for the first time, and to get a clearer picture of the inequalities that already exist.
The Data Tool was previewed at an online event, Mapping the UK: an analysis of social mobility across regions, which also looked at potential regional solutions to poor social mobility and how they could be boosted by local leaders in education, employment and business, working together on local initiatives. Social mobility is a national issue but it affects different regions in different ways and presents different challenges as a result. That’s why national solutions imposed from the top down have not always worked and why a series of regional approaches, developed by stakeholders who understand their local areas and who are often already engaged in work to support them, might be more effective.
The SMC’s Data Tool will go live in September when the Commission’s next State of the Nation annual report is published. That will include new data and analysis for the regions, protected characteristics and a five-part division of socio-economic background. More granular data that is easily accessible and user-friendly will be of huge benefit to those that are making economic and business decisions that relate to the local area, focusing not just on jobs but on the other issues that impact social mobility like health and wellbeing. Employers, particularly, will be able to use the data to help determine where they set up their business, their workforce distribution, how and who they recruit, outreach activity and how they can bring in opportunity into the region and support its communities.
The event also featured a presentation from the South West Social Mobility Commission, the UK’s first regional partnership aimed at tackling social mobility on a local level, with discussion on whether this model could be adopted more widely. In a region often overlooked by social mobility commentators, the team explained why a regional focus is the best way of tackling social mobility and what they hope to achieve, emphasising the value of using what was already working well. Crucially, the initiative will set a number of goals to track and measure activity so that institutions can be held to account for their progress. A report on its work will be published this summer.
The Purpose Coalition has worked closely with the SMC over many years to encourage organisations to evaluate what they are doing and produce more detailed data in order to evaluate where barriers to opportunity exist and where there are gaps. In particular it collaborated with the SMC on measuring the socio-economic background of employees and potential recruits to better understand what needs to be done to improve workforce diversity, as part of its Equality of Opportunity Coalition work. The Data Tool can make a positive contribution to the debate, driving a more regional approach where local communities can be their own decision makers.
