The Social Mobility Commission could be abolished, shifting responsibility for tracking social opportunity directly to ministers and departments. Ministers have placed the commission under a broader Cabinet Office review of arm’s-length bodies and are considering options that include strengthening the organisation or winding it up. Any move to close the commission would remove an independent statutory monitor of life chances and transfer those tasks into Whitehall.
Labour figures, including Bridget Phillipson, the equalities minister, and others argue the work of improving life chances for poorer children and families should be delivered from within government rather than outsourced to a small statutory body. Critics of the commission say its remit has narrowed and its influence is limited, noting it has no power to set government policy or compel public bodies. Statutorily, its duty is essentially to publish an annual state of the nation report on social mobility.
The commission was created under Gordon Brown’s government in 2010. It was renamed the Child Poverty and Social Mobility Commission in 2012, and after legally binding child poverty targets were removed in 2016 it became the Social Mobility Commission. The organisation is chaired by Alun Francis, supported by two deputy chairs, four commissioners and a secretariat of about 20 civil servants based in the Cabinet Office.
Supporters of reform point to a history of frustrated attempts to give the body stronger powers. Alan Milburn, who chaired an earlier iteration while leading a review of young people not in education, employment or training, resigned in 2017, saying government was "unable to devote the necessary energy and focus to the social mobility agenda." A 2018 education select committee report had recommended giving the commission "real teeth," proposals ministers at the time rejected.
The commission’s latest state of the nation report warned that former industrial areas across large parts of Britain face persistent disadvantages and extreme regional differences, citing poorer childhood conditions, fewer job opportunities and long-running economic decline in places including Yorkshire, the north-east and the Midlands, as well as Wales and Scotland. Downsizing or absorbing the commission would place direct responsibility for monitoring and responding to those regional inequalities on ministers and departments rather than an independent body.
A Whitehall source said ministers are examining options to ensure government is "set up to deliver the change people want to see in their lives as quickly and effectively as possible." Any decision to abolish or absorb the commission would not be immediate. Because the commission is established in statute, disbanding it would require new legislation, and ministers expect to announce their choice during this parliamentary term, subject to the legislative process.
