The next Labour government will launch a Social Justice
Commission and focus on social justice rather than social
mobility, Labour Leader and Shadow Education
Secretary will announce today.
Declaring social mobility a failure, Labour is promising a new
approach that will focus on giving every child the chance to
flourish, not just a “lucky few”. Labour argues that the concept
of social mobility has given credibility to the idea that “only a
few talented or lucky people deserve to escape the disadvantage
they were born into”.
Announcing the change in direction the next Labour government
will introduce, the Labour Leader and Shadow Education Secretary
will say that a focus on social mobility without addressing
social inequality has meant that the “privileged remain
privileged, while people from working-class backgrounds are
denied opportunities.”
Outlining plans to create a new Social Justice Commission to
replace the Social Mobility Commission at a education policy event in
Birmingham, and will set out Labour’s
commitment to building a country in which there are opportunities
for everyone to develop their talents and progress, not just a
lucky few. Labour will:
- Replace social mobility with social justice as a measure of
government policy and a stated aim of government policies;
- Grant the new Social Justice Commission wide-ranging
statutory powers and genuine independence to hold the next Labour
government – and all future governments – to account for
improving social justice;
- Empower the new Social Justice commission to give advice to
Ministers on policies that could improve social justice, with
such advice to be made public;
- Enable the new Social Justice Commission to carry out social
justice impact assessment on government policy (green papers,
white papers, legislation) to assess the impact that each aspect
of government policy will have on social justice;
- Create a new Minister for Social Justice, working across
government departments to drive the social justice agenda across
all aspects of Government.
The move represents a major shift from previous governments –
both Conservative and Labour.
The next Labour government will focus on social justice rather
than social mobility, arguing that social mobility helps just a
lucky few to move up the social hierarchy, whilst leaving the
hierarchy of entrenched inequality and disadvantage firmly still
in place. Labour is committing itself to a radical transformation
of society so that every child has the chance to flourish, not
just a lucky few
Labour Leader is expected to
say:
"For decades we’ve been told that inequality doesn’t matter
because the education system will allow talented and hard-working
people succeed whatever their background. But the greater
inequality has become, the more entrenched it
has become.
"Social mobility has failed, even on its own terms. The idea that
only a few talented or lucky people deserve to escape the
disadvantage they were born in to, leaving in place a social
hierarchy in which millions are consigned to the scrap heap,
results in the talents of millions of children being
squandered.
"Education is one of the most powerful means we have to overcome
disadvantage. But our current system is mirroring and reinforcing
the inequality in our society. The privileged remain privileged
while people from working-class backgrounds are denied
opportunities.
"We need a new approach - an education system that will unlock
the potential of every child, not just a lucky few. We need to
give everybody the chance to flourish."
On replacing social mobility with an aim of social justice,
Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Education is expected to
say:
“Focusing only on a lucky few leaves inequality entrenched and
those from disadvantaged backgrounds with few opportunities to
get on. That was the damning verdict of the government’s own
Social Mobility Commission, which Tory Ministers have shamefully
ignored.
“The Tories like to talk about people like me who had a difficult
start but got on in life as evidence that anyone can succeed on
their own. But actually my life shows the exact opposite. Any
success I have had is thanks to Labour governments that provided
the council house, minimum wage, tax credits and Sure Start
children's centre that enabled me to achieve it.
“That is social justice. Not one person doing better than the
people they grew up with but all of us working together to give
everyone the chance to reach their full potential. The very
opposite of what the Tories believe or do.
“The next Labour government will be different. We won’t stand for
a society in which only a lucky few succeed while inequality and
poverty hold back millions. We will focus on social justice,
not just social mobility, to build a society in which everyone
can develop their talents and succeed regardless of their
background. That is the radical transformation of society only
Labour will deliver.
“And unlike the Tories, we are prepared to be held to account on
our promises. So we will turn the Social Mobility Commission in
to the Social Justice Commission, and give it genuine
independence and power to guarantee that social justice is what
the next Labour government delivers.”
Ends
Notes to Editors:
- According to the United Nations’ special rapporteur on
poverty is becoming “systemic” in the UK as a result of
Government policies
https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23881&LangID=E
- The government’s own data shows that absolute poverty among
children rose by 200,000 between 2016/17 and 2017/18 to reach 3.7
million, meaning that more than 1 in 4 children are growing up in
poverty
Department for Work and Pensions, Households Below
Average Income: 1994/95 to
2017/18 (28th March
2019), Summary Results, table 4b, figures cited are
absolute low income after housing costs
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-199495-to-201718
- According to the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies,
relative child poverty is expected to rise by almost 7% between
2017/18 and 2021/22, with income inequality also going to rise
over the same period.
Institute for Fiscal Studies, Living standards, poverty,
and inequality in the UK: 2017-18 to 2021-22, p6
https://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/comms/R136.pdf
- In their most recent report, the Government’s Social Mobility
Commission found that social mobility had been stagnant in all
areas of life for four years, while inequality was entrenched in
British society.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/798404/SMC_State_of_the_Nation_Report_2018-19.pdf
- The data shows that inequality is entrenched at every stage
of our education system, from a very young age upwards:
-
- By age five, 57 per cent of children entitled to free
school meals (FSM) reach a good level of development,
compared to 74 per cent of their more advantaged peers;
- Inequality appears to widen in primary schools. In Year 1
the gap in phonics between pupils eligible for FSM and their
more affluent peers is 14%, but by the end of Key Stage 2
these rise to 18% in reading and mathematics and 20% in
writing;
- According to the Social Mobility Commission, funding cuts
for 16-19 students are “leading to cuts to the curriculum and
student support services that harm disadvantaged students”;
- Although the number of students from low-income families
entering higher education has increased, they are still far
less likely to do so than the more affluent peers (25% do so,
compared to 43% of their better off peers);
- The Social Mobility Commission is an independent statutory
body tasked with monitoring progress towards improving social
mobility in the UK and promoting social mobility in England.
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/social-mobility-commission/about
- In December 2017 Alan Millburn, the then Chair of the Social
Mobility Commission, resigned, alongside his fellow
Commissioners, citing the Government’s lack of progress in
addressing the challenge of social mobility. The Commission then
sat vacant for nearly a year.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/02/theresa-may-crisis-mass-walkout-social-policy-alan-milburn
- The legislation that created and underpins the Commission
only empowers the Commission to give advice to Ministers on
request, , rather than proactively analysing the impact that
Government policy will have on social mobility. This creates a
situation in which a supposedly independent body can only act at
the behest of government Ministers, and does not scrutinise
policy proposals of legislation at the time when they are debate
or introduced.
s6 Welfare and Work Act 2016
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2016/7/contents/enacted
- The Social Mobility Commissions lacks the powers needed to
hold the government to account on the impact of its policies on
social mobility and ensure that the government is improving the
life changes for disadvantaged young people. In addition to this,
the advice provided by the Commission is not public and the
Government has not set clear goals on improving social mobility
and there are no clear benchmarks against which the Commission
can judge the Government, making it more difficult to hold the
Government to account and creating a lack of public awareness
around the impact of government policy on social mobility. The
cross-party Education Select Committee published a report on this
issue, calling for expanded powers and a wider remit for the
Commission.
House of Commons Education Committee, The future of the
Social Mobility Commission, https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmeduc/866/866.pdf
- The new Minister for Social Justice will be based in HM
Treasury but will work cross-departmentally, including with
Labour’s new Department for Women and Equalities about how to
tackle the intersection of socio-economic and other inequalities.
- The IPPR have challenged the use of social mobility as a
guiding concept for politics and policy
https://www.ippr.org/research/publications/move-on-up
