Community: The Union for Life

On Tuesday 8 January, the Rt Hon David Blunkett MP launched a major new pamphlet,

‘The Inclusive Society? Social Mobility in 21st Century Britain’

published by Progress and supported by Community the Union

Mr Blunkett also presented a social mobility package to be aired on Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday morning. The pamphlet and broadcast are the culmination of conversations David has conducted about social mobility across Britain, both with academics and with people in their local communities.

Mr Blunkett said,

“Social mobility, aspiration and social cohesion have been key Labour themes since 1997. Now is the time to renew and extend this commitment, and build on this progress. From Sure Start to massive investment in skills, and from the Children’s Plan to the development of the Child Trust Fund, building blocks have been put in place to raise achievement, develop assets and make work and empowerment a fundamental pillar of overcoming poverty.

“It is clear that the decline in social mobility that took place during the 1970s and 80s has been halted, yet a further step change is required to ensure that mobility begins to increase to create equality and overcome poverty of aspiration. Six months into Gordon Brown’s government, this pamphlet contains ideas that have come from conversations I’ve had across the country. It builds on major policy publications over recent months and years, and is a continuation of radical and progressive proposals in support of the future success of the Brown premiership.”

The pamphlet was launched at Portcullis house Westminster. Amongst the speakers was Community and Communitas' Allan Sharp.

Allan shared his person experiences of redundancy. Allan had worked on a production line for Delta Cables before his redundancy. With the aid he recieved from Community, Allan was able to retrain and is now the Operations manager for Communitas.

Allan strongly belives that access to education opens the door to lifelong opportunities. Allan shares Community's belief that social mobility requires lifelong learning opportunities for all members of society.

Other speakers included:

Rt Hon David Blunkett MP, former Home Secretary

Rt Hon John Denham MP, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities & Skills

Allan Sharp, Operations Manager, Communitas

Carly Covelle-Scott, YWCA England & Wales

Polly Toynbee, The Guardian

Key ideas to promote social mobility include:

• Promoting asset-building through a dramatic expansion of the Child Trust Fund on the basis of a ‘something-for-something’ approach, linked to a British secondary school graduation ceremony. This would also include a progress assessment and action plan for further education, training and progression for every school student.
• Creating a foothold in the housing market through a shared ownership programme for those in receipt of housing benefit who have entered into, and fulfilled, a contract of commitment to functioning families and strong communities.
• Expanding whole family learning and family intervention programmes to build on a culture of work rather than benefits dependency.
• Providing access to affordable credit, micro credit and building a commitment to saving alongside decent financial advice (see Note to Editors).
• Targeted entitlement for disadvantaged young people to break the intergenerational cycle of deprivation through a Personalised Supplementary Educational Allowance This would start at an early age and would be paid through the school to build on talent, confidence and provide support. In the early phase, this could potentially be funded by taxing the child benefit received by top-rate tax-payers for those who are older than 16 – raising an estimated £100m/£120m?
• Overhauling the careers information, advice and guidance service by basing it on early intervention and taking it forward through a school graduation ceremony and personal plan for the future.
• A workplace entitlement to continued learning that builds on the Trade Union Learning Fund, and the work of trade unions such as Community and Unison. Such an entitlement would offer those in low-paid, low-skilled jobs the opportunity to achieve progression through a career and make lifelong learning a reality. An annual five day national entitlement to education or training for those in permanent work would offer a foundation for both individual mobility and would contribute to the skills of the nation.

 

Community was proud to support the launch of this pamphlet on this important issue. Community has long been a champion of lifelong learning through its training arm Communitas and is grateful that the government has chosen to recognise the growing demand in this area.