Launch Event: State of the Nation 2021: Social Mobility and the Pandemic

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The Social Mobility Commission invites you to join us on Thursday 22nd July for the launch event of our report: ‘State of the nation 2021: Social mobility and the pandemic’ – charting the evolving social mobility landscape across the United Kingdom.

Due to publish this month, the SMC State of the Nation 2021 will draw on an extensive body of research to bring together the clearest picture of social mobility trends in the UK and devolved nations.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit the UK in early 2020, it prompted an unprecedented social and economic crisis which saw teachers, pupils, employers and their workforces forced to adapt to remote provision overnight. Millions of employees were furloughed or made redundant in the months that followed. The impact of the pandemic added unprecedented challenges to the UK’s already complex social mobility landscape – in many cases increasing existing inequalities or reversing progress made in key areas.

‘State of the nation 2021: Social mobility and the pandemic’ is the result of a comprehensive review of the data across a range of settings – including early years, foundation and post-16 education as well as in the labour market. The report examines the impact of government policies, economic shifts and the coronavirus pandemic on social mobility in the UK.

It identifies a series of important priorities for policymakers centred around tackling child poverty and place-based inequalities, accompanied by a series of recommendations to Government on critical measures to ensure that an individual’s outcomes in life are not determined by their circumstances at birth.