As of August 2024 the commissioners are:[2] The SMC's stated aim is to "create a United Kingdom where the circumstances of birth do not determine outcomes in life".
In Scotland an equivalent body is the Social Justice and Fairness Commission announced by Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister of the Scottish Government in April 2019.
In July 2015 a Commons statement on the renaming of the commission as the SMC was made by Iain Duncan Smith[nb 1] as Work and Pensions Secretary: "Governments will no longer focus on just moving families above a poverty line.
Severely criticising this scope creep as a climbdown from the principles of the Child Poverty Act, the paper argued: "In truth, neither the letter nor the spirit of the law has been fully adhered to, and only a lack of sustained public or media attention has spared the government the embarrassment of anyone noticing how far its policy and strategy falls short of its professed goals.
"[13] Apart from this push factor away from ending child poverty, it has also been theorised sociologically that the pull towards headlining social mobility in government policy during the 2010s occurred due to growing "underclass anxiety" about the political and social actions of the economically disadvantaged, especially following the 2011 England riots and latterly the vote for Brexit in the 2016 EU referendum.
[14] In this context, the SMC has been seen to be part of a trend among governmental agencies towards portraying social mobility simplistically (and conveniently, in this view) as a set of "component pieces which can be tackled with specific ameliorant policies", and shying away from acknowledging (more accurately, in this view) how "the class system" creates a fundamental structure of inequality.
Milburn's letter of resignation, dated 2 December, explained to Prime Minister Theresa May the reasons for their decision, including roles on the Commission being vacant for almost two years and his belief that the Government was "unable to devote the necessary energy and focus to the social mobility agenda".
It also recommended that the commission should always have at least seven members in addition to the chair, and have an extended remit to: Robert Halfon as the committee's Chair argued that the extended remit would give the Commission "real teeth" as "a new social justice body in the heart of Downing Street with the levers and powers to coordinate action to drive forward initiatives and implement solutions".
[29] However, upon the relaunch of the SMC in December 2018 it was announced that, in accordance with the greater responsibilities arising from the commission's new budget, the Education Secretary had decided to remunerate the role.
[32] The commission has been praised for identifying "the social closure at the upper echelons of society and the isolation of those at the bottom" as key issues, thereby "recognising where the real 'problem of mobility' lies".
[34][35] It has also been criticised for viewing education as a silver bullet for social mobility, and therefore focusing excessively on school effectiveness and the behaviour-management of pupils, teachers and parents.
[36][37] A critical discourse analysis of Commission's report Cracking the Code published in the Journal of Education Policy in 2018 found that its recommendations relied heavily on the 'marginal gains' philosophy associated with Dave Brailsford, and questioned the implementation of such a philosophy in everyday school life.
[39] This lack was addressed by the commission's report Downward Mobility, Opportunity Hoarding and the Glass Floor, which acknowledged and discussed the issue (pp.
In January 2016 the Commission produced a Social Mobility Index of children's life chances in different local authority areas, including data published as a MS Excel spreadsheet, with an update to the data published in a similar spreadsheet in November 2017.
[42] The commission's Index was also used by the DfE to designate "opportunity areas" that would receive extra government funding "to address the biggest challenges they face".
Six opportunity areas were announced in October 2016 (West Somerset, Norwich, Blackpool, Scarborough/North Yorkshire Coast), Derby and Oldham) and a further six in January 2017 (Bradford, Doncaster, Fenland & East Cambridgeshire, Hastings, Ipswich and Stoke-on-Trent).
Although only indirectly responsible for the scheme, the SMC maintained an active interest, visiting Blackpool and Oldham as part of a "north west tour" in October 2019.