The timing could have been better. Launching a social mobility white paper in the midst of what business leaders call a ‘frightening deterioration’ in the UK’s economic prospects might seem a tad Pollyannaish.
And badging it New opportunities: fair chances for the future – when only pawnbrokers and bargain-basement retailers are recruiting – could be seen as positively perverse.
If the government did not manage to improve social mobility in the good years, what are the chances now – with child poverty targets shot to pieces by the recession, and graduates competing for shelf-stacking jobs?
But ministers are in a must-do-something mood. ‘Golden handcuffs’ for teachers in tough schools, grants for carers returning to work, new apprenticeship and volunteering programmes, and help for low-income applicants to university – the white paper is full of worthy aims.
There’s even a job creation scheme for former health secretary Alan Milburn, who has returned to the fold as a kind of social mobility czar. He will be charged with tackling the old boy network by encouraging state school pupils into high-flying jobs.
However, this is small fry compared with the potential impact of a proposed new duty on public sector bodies to narrow the gap between rich and poor. In theory, this would mean prioritising spending on the poorest children and families, and increasing benefits and other forms of support.
The brainchild of equalities minister Harriet Harman, this new strategic duty has been denounced by the Conservatives as smacking of ‘class war’. But the protestations are premature.
The government is merely ‘considering’ legislating on socioeconomic disadvantage, and is a long way from imposing new obligations on crunch-hit local authorities. It’s pretty obvious why.
For the equalities duty to stick, there would need to be performance targets, measurable outcomes – and large tranches of new money.
The ‘new social order’ of fairness and equality promised by Harman might be some time coming. In the meantime, there is optimism of the will – and a mission statement.
