Social Mobility Commission

The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission is an advisory Non-Departmental Public Body of the Department for Education. It was created by the Child Poverty Act 2010, as amended by the Welfare Reform Act 2012.

Its role is "to monitor the progress of the United Kingdom government and others in improving social mobility and reducing child poverty".

Reasons

Children born to poverty stricken families may have a harder time moving upward socially than their peers born to privilege. Factors may include the county in which one attends school, the opportunities afforded due to the school one attends, and the availability of parents while a child is in school. For example, this passionately written article on children in low income schools states " Money and education go hand in hand. When money is lacking there is more testing, a lack of options for scholars due to the lack of programs, and this makes it all harder. It is harder to give students the necessary tools to push through a flawed system that diverts their dreams from the moment they are born, from the moment they enter school" (Strauss). This highlights several issues from the opportunities to succeed, Strauss also talks about students from upper class schools being awarded scholarships to go to conferences, they miss days of school and are applauded for doing wonderful things in the world. There is opportunity for those in affluent areas that is not always there for those in poverty stricken areas. Parents factor into their children's future in many ways as well. Some of the factors include their daily presence in their children's lives. If a parent is not around to help a child with their homework, the child may not have the same education provided to them as a child whose parents are present. Parents may be absent due to work, and it may be because they have a high power job that requires long hours, or it may be because they are working to make ends meet. However, for those students whose parents make more money, it is be more likely the parents will hire a tutor or other care provider to fill the role they cannot. "In the past 40 years, families with the highest social standing have increased spending in the areas of SAT prep, private tutors, computers, music lessons, astoundingly they moved from spending $3,500 to nearly $9,000, that's an increase of $5,500 per child every year. In contrast, the families with a significantly lower income have increased their spending from by a mere $450 dollars, equating to a total of $1500" (Greenstone)

Responsibilities

The main responsibilities of the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission include:

• Publishing an annual report setting out its views on progress made in improving social mobility and reducing child poverty in the UK, including against the targets in the Child Poverty Act 2010, and describing the measures taken by the Scottish and Welsh governments.
• Providing published advice to ministers (at their request), including on how to measure socio-economic disadvantage, social mobility and child poverty.
• Acting as an advocate for social mobility beyond government by challenging employers, the professions and universities, amongst others, to play their part in improving life chances.

The formal Terms of Reference for the Commission are published on its website

Commissioners

The Commission is chaired by The Rt Hon Alan Milburn, the former Secretary of State for Health in the Labour administration of Tony Blair. Its Deputy Chair is The Rt Hon Baroness Gillian Shephard, the former Secretary of State for Education and Employment in the Conservative administration of John Major.

There are eight other Commissioners drawn from across business, academia and the voluntary sector:

• Tom Attwood (the former Managing Director of the Intermediate Capital Group)
• Anne-Marie Carrie (the former Chief Executive of Barnardo's)
• Paul Cleal (Government and Public Sector Leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers)
• Professor Paul Gregg (Professor of Economic and Social Policy and Director of the Centre for Analysis and Social Policy at the University of Bath)
• Christian Guy (Director of the Centre for Social Justice)
• Douglas Hamilton (Director of the RS McDonald Charitable Trust, appointed to the Commission by the Scottish Government)
• David Johnston (Chief Executive of the Social Mobility Foundation)
• Catriona Williams OBE (Chief Executive of Children in Wales, appointed to the Commission by the Welsh Government)

Key Publications

Since being made fully operational with the appointment of its Commissioners in December 2012 the Commission has published a number of reports, pieces of advice and research:

• Measuring child poverty consultation: Commission response (advice to Government)
• Higher Education: the Fair Access Challenge (social mobility advocacy)
• Public attitudes research on social mobility (research)
• Social mobility: the next steps (social mobility advocacy)
• Business and Social Mobility: A Manifesto for Change (social mobility advocacy)
• Mapping the Occupational Destinations of New Graduates (research)
• State of the Nation 2013 (annual monitoring report, laid before the UK Parliament on 17 October 2013)

External links

• https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/social-mobility-and-child-poverty-commission

Greenstone, Michael, Adam Looney, Jeremy Patashnik, and Muxin Yu. Brookings. June 2013. 08 03 2015. <http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2013/06/13-facts-higher-education>.

Strauss, Valerie. Washington Post. 29 January 2015. Blog. 08 03 2015. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/01/29/teacher-i-see-the-difference-in-educational-privilege-every-day-i-live-it-i-am-disgusted-by-it/?tid=sm_fb>.