Read: The journey to ‘Levelled Up’ is a long one but we took important steps forward in 2021
As we approach the end of the year, tackling COVID-19 remains very much an ongoing challenge. Although as a country we made huge strides in developing and administering our vaccine programme, the latest variant, Omicron, continues to disrupt our society and economy, heightening uncertainty and inequality.
At the start of the pandemic every organisation was forced to change how it operated. Most responded with determination and innovation. The best have taken what they learned over that period to further develop new ways of working, not only to address the challenges of COVID but also to shape a better and fairer future for their colleagues, clients and communities.
There’s a long way to go, but we can all be responsible for taking the steps forward that we need. And it’s clear that we should meet these challenges in the same way as we’re meeting those on COVID – working together in partnership, sharing ideas, best practice and a set of common goals.
In 2020 we launched the Purpose Coalition, a group of leading private and public sector organisations committed to developing talent and widening opportunity, as a response to the lack of opportunity across the country and to the impact of COVID-19 which shone a light on that inequality, especially for the most disadvantaged communities.
Its first major piece of work has been the development of the Purpose Goals, in Britain known as the Levelling Up Goals. These provide a common framework for action and break down the challenges of equality of opportunity into 14 key goals. They focus on the issues that can act as barriers from education to fair recruitment but also extend to other things that can hold us back, such as the digital divide or good health and wellbeing. The aim is to create a framework for the S in ESG for organisations to map best practice, report outcomes, track progress and ensure a measurable impact on their staff, customers and the communities they serve.
The Purpose Coalition has continued to grow in 2021 and the Purpose Goals architecture has been adopted by some of our biggest companies including Amazon, UK Power Networks, Sodexo, bp, Co-operative Group, Pennon Group, Adecco, Compass Group, Cisco, Centrica and Virgin Money. More than 50 other organisations including 20 UK Universities, 13 NHS organisations and 10 UK Councils have also signed up. They are all using the Goals to develop plans which will help guide their social mobility strategies and drive real change.
We know that what gets measured gets done so, working with the Office for National Statistics, the Purpose Coalition has now developed metrics for each Goal to ensure a common approach to measuring impact. And to measure their internal impact, Purpose Coalition organisations are steadily adopting equality of opportunity metrics and asking key questions designed by the Government and the Social Mobility Commission to better understand their own socio-economic diversity. That way they can be sure that their organisation is fit for purpose – not just open for business but as a place where anyone with talent can get in and get on.
Of course, expectations are high that the Government should also step up to the plate with its Levelling Up White Paper, now delayed until January next year. As we approach the end of 2021 the scale of Government ambition, and whether its promises will be matched with detail, is still unknown, though many local authorities are rising to the challenge and becoming part of our collective push on improving social mobility. In our work with the Purpose Coalition, we have seen over and over again the power of local knowledge and local experience in action. Let’s hope that the Government’s 2022 levelling up plans recognise and harness that local motivation to drive change on the ground. Devolution should be about Whitehall helping city and town halls across the country deliver its levelling up plans further and faster - whether passing on resources or decisions - and allowing local partnerships to take the reins in delivering different creative solutions that are tailored to the communities they serve. We need devolution with a purpose - levelling up.
Our Purpose Coalition mission in 2022 will be to continue to expand our ‘coalition of the willing’ to drive forward the change we need to level up the country and make a real difference. There may be a long way to go, but I’m proud that together we’ve already made a positive start, setting out a framework for action, developing plans and measurements and finding out what works through action on the ground. Bringing together the expertise and ambition of all our partners – and using their commitment to create opportunities for everyone - will best help us achieve a lasting legacy of equality of opportunity for all.
By Rt Hon Justine Greening