Measuring Socio-economic Background in your Workforce ...

1 Measuring Socio-economic Background in your Workforce : recommended measures for use by employers May 20182 Acknowledgements With thanks to: Jon Thompson, Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary of HM Revenue and Customs. Bernadette Kelly, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport, Social Mobility Permanent Secretary Champion. Cross Government Social Mobility Network Fast Stream Opportunity Network Cabinet Office Analysis and Insight Team Accenture Aspire Group Ltd Bank of England Ernst & Young Grant Thornton KPMG Linklaters Mears Group Solicitors Regulation Authority Standard Life Telefonica O2 UK TeachFirst Business in the Community Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion Sutton Trust Social Mobility Commission Social Mobility Foundation The Bridge Group3 Foreword We want to create opportunities for all: a society in which everyone has the chance to go as far as their talent and hard work will take them, regardless of Background .

2 We want the Civil Service to be a role model for other employers, giving talented individuals the opportunity to succeed in public service and acting to ensure our policies and services better reflect the needs of communities of this country. Broadening access to opportunities available in the workplace is crucial if we are to break down barriers to employment and improve social mobility. There is already much the Civil Service has achieved, and we expect that continuing to implement the recommendations made by the Bridge Group Report in February 2016 will help increase in the number of talented people from disadvantaged backgrounds participating in our flagship Fast Stream graduate programme. Our progress on increasing diversity in our Workforce is something we should rightly be proud of. But as one of the biggest employers in the country, the Civil Service recognises that we have more to do to attract people from less privileged backgrounds and ensure they can thrive in our organisations.

3 We will achieve this by building an inclusive culture, embracing diversity and attracting individuals based on merit and potential yet we can only target action where it is most needed and be sure of progress made if we can accurately measure Socio-economic diversity. That is why we commenced groundbreaking work with a range of employers, industry partners and experts, leading the development of a commonly agreed set of Socio-economic Background measures. The results of that collaborative endeavour are published in this report. This forms a major part of our overall efforts to increase social mobility in the Civil Service and other sectors in the economy. In October 2017 we published our Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, which confirms our commitment for the Civil Service to be the most inclusive employer in the UK by 2020, sets out a plan of action across the twin priorities of greater representation and inclusion that are essential to achieving our ambition, and builds on the significant advances we have already made.

4 In the strategy, we committed to establishing - by 2020 - a baseline of data on Socio-economic Background in the Civil Service. This report will be a breakthrough not only for the Civil Service, but also for other employers. It will standardise the way we understand Socio-economic diversity in our workforces. and help indicate where we should prioritise improvement. Answering questions about Socio-economic Background is not easy. We are grateful to all those who have shaped this work: from organisations who have shared insights from the data they have been collecting over the years, to those who responded to our more recent calls for evidence. Use of these measures by employers is entirely voluntary but we expect that the measures we are4 recommending in this report will be used in a similar fashion to the data employers gather on other characteristics of their employees, with the data used anonymously and never to form the basis of individual recruitment decisions.

5 The data these measures will enable us to gather will be of crucial importance, helping us to measure the impact of our policies and actions to increase social diversity in the Civil Service and beyond. This Government is committed to breaking down any existing barriers to a successful and enjoyable career while increasing social mobility and increasing diversity and inclusion. Only by doing so will we successfully build a country, economy and society that truly works for everyone. We look forward to seeing the data collected using these measures shape our efforts to increase social mobility, helping to make the Civil Service and other employers more inclusive and diverse, more closely reflecting and better serving the diverse communities of our nation. Oliver Dowden MP, Parliamentary Secretary at Cabinet Office Sir Jeremy Heywood, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service5 Contents Introduction 6 Chapter 1: Methodology and key findings 8 Chapter 2: Recommendations on measures 13 Chapter 3.

6 How we will collect and use the data in the Civil Service 15 Chapter 4: Guidance for employers 176 Introduction common measures of Socio-economic Background is a core component of the Government s efforts to understand and address barriers to social mobility in the Civil Service and elsewhere. That is why we have been collaborating with a group of employers, academics and other experts who are recognised champions of the social mobility agenda and who are interested in enabling a consistent approach to gathering evidence on Socio-economic Background , enabling benchmarking across sectors. top 50 employers in the Social Mobility Employer Index was published for the first time in June 2016.

7 The Index, which is a joint initiative between the Social Mobility Foundation and the Social Mobility Commission, ranks Britain s employers on the actions they are taking to ensure they are open to accessing and progressing talent from all backgrounds and it showcases progress on improving social mobility. One of the key findings from the Index is that employers are now increasingly asking both new and current employees about their Socio-economic Background , using measures such as parental occupation, parental qualification and eligibility for free school meals. This work, to establish common, industry standard measures for social mobility, is therefore a major element of our work on inclusion and diversity overall. clear conclusion from our early discussions with employers, experts and academics was that there was a need for well-understood measures of Socio-economic Background for use by employers: without these, employers ability to identify barriers to social mobility is limited, as is the scope for Measuring and benchmarking progress.

8 Background a view to developing a set of Socio-economic Background measures that could be used by both the Civil Service and other 1 employers, we undertook a public engagement exercise in summer 2016 . As part of this, we gathered the views of over 40 employers and other experts in social mobility on a long list of 26 potential measures of Socio-economic Background . This feedback enabled us to refine the set of potential measures, arriving at a short list of 12 measures. then piloted a series of test questions for these 12 measures across the Senior Civil Service (SCS), with the aim of arriving at a set of three to five measures of Socio-economic Background . Other employers also piloted the same 12 measures or shared insights with us from the Socio-economic Background data they were already collecting. These insights and pilots 1 enabled us to identify a small number of measures which leading employers and experts could agree should be commonly used across sectors.

9 Summer 2017 we invited views on our analysis of the survey findings and preliminary recommendations on common measures, from our partner employers and experts. We have taken on board their constructive views in determining the measures which we think should be used in the Civil Service and by other employers. Summary: recommendations on measures and their use are recommending four measures to be commonly used by employers, including the Civil Service. These are measures of: parental qualifications; parental occupation; type of school attended and eligibility for free school meals. Some employers may well wish to use other measures in addition to the ones which we are recommending. In the Civil Service we will also use a fifth measure: self-assessment of Socio-economic Background . The recommended wording for these measures is set out in Chapter 4.

10 Adopting a set of common measures, our engagement work and pilots indicate that employers will need to ensure, and make clear to their Workforce that: Data are collected on a voluntary basis; Data are analysed at an aggregate level, so individuals responses cannot be identified. Data derived from the measures do not influence individual recruitment and promotion decisions - these should always be on merit. Guidance on ensuring engagement with and high response rates to SEB measurement is set out in Chapter 4. the Civil Service we will use the measures to identify areas for improvement and assess the impact of our policies and other actions to increase diversity in the Civil Service. We anticipate that other employers will want to use their data for similar purposes, and we know there is a high degree of interest in Chapter 1: Methodology and key findings have arrived at our final list of measures through open online engagement which sought views on 26 potential measures, followed by piloting of twelve measures in the Civil Service through a survey of Senior Civil Servants, and building in insights from other employers and experts with a keen interest in social mobility.