What is Social Mobility?

For decades, social mobility has been the focus of governments across the political spectrum. But despite wide-ranging support for action, social mobility in Britain remains low, with poor performance across several social mobility measures, nationally and internationally. And although politicians have long referenced the ideas and issues underlying the social mobility challenge, the term itself has ebbed and flowed in fashion. While at times a more “traditional”, and much more narrow concept of the term dominated – focused only on elite education and professional pathways – this definition always left out much of the social mobility story.

This briefing lays out a modern, relevant definition for social mobility in 2025. One that includes social mobility at all levels. From access for young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds to elite education and professional pathways, to ensuring that the same group of young people are not disproportionately likely to become NEET (not in education, employment, or training), are equally able to secure a decent job and a good standard of living as their more advantaged peers, and have equal access to high quality vocational and technical training routes.

Using the latest data on national and local social mobility measures, this briefing also reviews how well the UK performs across key social mobility measures and how it performs in an international context.

Finally, drawing on 30 years of research from Sutton Trust and others, it explores factors linked to better social mobility, and how the UK can best improve its level of social mobility going forward. This briefing is published alongside the release of the Sutton Trust’s new Opportunity Index.

The Sutton Trust is grateful to Esme Lillywhite for researching this briefing.

Overview

A country with high social mobility is one where someone’s background – the place they were born, the school they went to or their parent’s income or occupation – has little influence on their own life chances.
Income inequality is closely tied to social mobility. In more equal societies, the gaps between social and economic ‘rungs’ on the ladder are smaller. This not only likely makes it easier for people to move upwards, but also reduces the consequences of falling down the ladder.
Social mobility is not just about ‘rags to riches’, but widening opportunity at every level. That means reducing the number of lower income young people becoming NEET, increasing the number going on to gain both technical and academic qualifications, and closing the access gaps to university. It means creating educational and economic opportunities in every community across the country.
Despite being a core goal of multiple governments for decades, from the Conservative’s ‘Levelling up’ to today’s Labour government’s ‘Opportunity Mission’ – social mobility in the UK remains low, and has barely shifted for decades. Young people born today have similar income mobility rates to those born in 1970.
Internationally, the UK performs well on educational mobility. However, it is ranked middle to low on both income and social class mobility when compared to other high-income countries – with the country ranking below Nordic countries like Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden, as well as countries like Spain, Canada, Australia and Japan on an OECD measure of intergenerational income mobility.

Recommendations

The following recommendations are from the Sutton Trust’s Opportunity Index report:

Gaps in opportunity open up early. To close them, the government should have a renewed national focus on closing the attainment gap between lower-income children and their peers. This should include:

Equalising access to early education, by making at least 20 hours of provision available to all three- and four-year-olds.
Reforming the National Funding Formula, to rebalance funding back towards schools serving the most disadvantaged communities.
Ensuring no child is hungry in school by expanding free school meal eligibility to all children on Universal Credit. Reducing social segregation in schools by making admissions policies fairer.
Funding evidence based interventions in schools, like tutoring.
Incentivising the best teachers to work in the most disadvantaged schools, by making changes including enhancing financial incentives and increasing flexibility.
Restoring pupil premium funding in real terms, and extending it to post-16 institutions. The attainment gap doesn’t end at 16, and neither should dedicated funding.

While changes in the education system do matter, the education system alone cannot eradicate the attainment gap. The government should implement a comprehensive plan to reduce, and ultimately to end child poverty in the UK.

Steps should be taken to increase the supply of apprenticeships for young people, and tackle barriers for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. This should include increasing financial incentives for employers, ringfencing Levy funding for younger age groups, and a review of support provided to young apprentices.

Government should redouble efforts on access to Higher Education, including increasing the maintenance support available for students, and stronger regulatory expectations for universities with a focus on socio-economic disadvantage – including encouraging a clear and consistent approach to contextual offers.

Barriers to accessing professional jobs for those from disadvantaged backgrounds should be tackled, including banning unpaid internships and contextual recruitment practices.

Economic policy should focus on spreading opportunity across the country. Opportunities for social mobility will only be available nationwide if there is a more even spread of economic opportunities across the country. This should be a sustained effort across government, potentially including greater devolution of powers and reforms to funding for local government, as well as greater investment in infrastructure regionally – including transport, and opportunities for education and training.

Related Research

The Opportunity Index

Social mobility and opportunity

Fair opportunity for all