Rt Hon. Alan Milburn reflects on the 2021 Social Mobility Employer Index

This is the fifth year we have published the Social Mobility Employer Index.?

In that time it has become the authority on employer-led social mobility: growing from 98 entrants to 203 this year. In total this year’s entrants employ 1.35m people.

Over those five years employers have taken significant strides forward in their social mobility practices, guided by the counsel provided by the Social Mobility Foundation.

These are welcome developments. They are also more necessary than ever. The pandemic has exposed and exacerbated deep inequities in our society. If older people have been on the health frontline of the pandemic it is the young who seem doomed to suffer the biggest economic and social consequences. More than half of under-25s had been furloughed or lost their jobs by last June. Half a million of them are currently unemployed. In schools, the disruption caused by Covid has put poorer children seven months behind their more privileged peers at school. Grandparents and parents alike are concerned that the social progress they enjoyed will not be repeated for this and future generations of young people. They are right to be worried. There is a very real risk that already anaemic levels of social mobility will go into reverse as a consequence of Covid. Britain cannot afford a lost generation if we are to have any chance of levelling up our country.

Thankfully more and more employers are stepping up to the plate. The growth in the Index – especially the number of firms within sectors that have typically struggled with socioeconomic diversity – demonstrates that social mobility is no longer a niche interest. Instead, it has rightly become a core aspect of the diversity and inclusion agenda. The focus on the S in ESG has been sharpened. This is timely, given the growing public expectation that employers will play a role in solving the biggest challenges facing society.?

I want to thank all the employers who entered the Index this year given the continued uncertainty and disruption they undoubtedly face. Spurred on by successive lockdowns, some employers have innovated in their social mobility practices, such as rethinking outreach activity and university visits. The private businesses and public sector organisations in this year’s Index are taking practical action of their own to level up Britain. They are ringfencing more internships for young people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, adding social mobility sponsors at board level and working with clients to improve socioeconomic diversity in the supply chain.

In other areas of social mobility practice, however, there has been a lack of progress – particularly the lack of targeted interventions in social mobility geographical cold spots. More work is needed too on career progression, socioeconomic background data collection, training for managers and engagement with external recruitment support. Higher-level apprenticeships, long heralded as the silver bullet for social mobility, are offered by fewer employers in this year’s Index and evidence is growing that they risk becoming the preserve of the middle classes.

There is clearly still a long road ahead. Looking to the next five years, social mobility cold spots must be an unrelenting focus for employers alongside government. There can be no levelling-up if such deep geographical inequity persists. In addition, persistently unrepresented sectors, such as tech, must follow the lead of those newly represented this year, like leisure, sport and tourism, if we are to rescue the fraying promise of a meritocratic society?

More and more employers are committed to playing their part. A particular thank you and congratulations to the 38 firms who have participated in every year of the Index. I hope these firms have their sights set on ten years of participation, and that newer entrants take inspiration from such long-term commitment to creating more social mobility. All of the employers represented in the Index are showing that it is possible to create a society where it is not background or birth but aptitude and ability that dictate progress in life. They are providing it is possible to build back better.?

Rt Hon. Alan Milburn

Chair

The Social Mobility Foundation