Bridging the gap: Size shouldn't be bar to social mobility progress

It's no secret that UK businesses are in the midst of one of the most difficult economic periods for many decades.

Weathering such challenges does not simply boil down to the tightening of belts.

Commentators of every political hue acknowledge the importance of companies in all sectors seeking ways to boost their competitiveness.

One notable ingredient – improved social mobility – was the subject of a report published by the Socio-Economic Diversity Taskforce in November.

The taskforce’s aim was to come up with recommendations for building a more socio-economically diverse financial and professional services sector.

The sweep of the taskforce's research was very much national. I was privileged to participate in one of the roundtables held across the country to canvas views of diverse stakeholders.

Its findings underlined problems with social mobility. For instance, despite state school pupils being more likely than their peers from the independent education sector to feature among the top performing law firm trainees, their progression in the legal profession is comparatively worse.

Whilst the taskforce’s report did not analyse the situation beyond the professional and financial services sector, it identified issues which are arguably of much broader significance.

The size of the problem

There were an estimated 5.5 million UK private sector businesses in 2022. Of these, 5.47 million were small businesses, 35,900 medium-sized businesses and 7,700 were large businesses.

According to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, there were 9,623 law firms in England and Wales as of November last year.

This gives a sense of the size of the job at hand when it comes to improving social mobility.

I believe it's critical to address the scale of the problem affecting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

According to government research, companies in all industries employing fewer than 10 people make up 95% of all private business and account for 19% of total private sector turnover (£808 billion).

However, there is a risk that policy can be overly influenced by larger organisations, which naturally have louder voices.

Take the Employer Advisory Group, established by the Social Mobility Commission just over a month ago. Its membership is dominated by professional services consultancies, a City of London law firm, a major construction company and one of the UK's biggest utility businesses, among others.

Smaller businesses will perhaps be forgiven for looking at that grouping and wondering how they might be heard.

Yet it is to everyone's benefit that they have a seat at the table and that they understand how they can contribute to the overall solution.

After all, the Socio-Economic Diversity Taskforce wisely noted that there is a need to 'close the gap between...policies (what should happen) and actual behaviours (what does happen).'

The Social Mobility Commission has resources to help employers widen the socio-economic diversity of their workforces.

Even so, many of the very micro-businesses which are fundamental to the country's overall economic success may be unaware of how they can access these materials.

Some may labour under the misapprehension that the Apprenticeship Levy exists solely to fund apprenticeships for larger companies. It does in fact provide funding for companies of any size to bring in apprentices.

Raising awareness across the entire business community is, in my opinion, imperative. This information is going to be key to improving social mobility now and into the long-term.

There are firms, of course, who might not regard improving social mobility as a priority in a recession and who may think they should be focused instead on enduring the downturn.

However, a lack of social mobility may be a barrier to the sort of competitiveness which can help increase a company's prospects of survival. Poor social mobility may also deny them the momentum they will need to recover once the headwinds of recession have passed.

 

Alice Kinder is an associate solicitor at Bexley Beaumont and a social mobility ambassador for the Law Society of England and Wales