Is the Social Mobility Commission catching up with recent Conservative politics? Katharine Birbalsingh’s comments on ‘small steps up the ladder’

The Chair of the Social Mobility Commission has set out a new approach to the problem of social mobility. Improving access to the professions for people from disadvantaged backgrounds has been the dominant theme over the past 20 years, but this approach is now described as ‘not enough’, writes Joseph Maslen. He explains why the Commission seems to have changed tack, and what its new ‘broader view of social mobility’ really means.