On 24 March, Matthew Hancock, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, gave a special announcement about social mobility at St Thomas More Catholic School. He spoke passionately about the power of education to improve social mobility, pointing out St Thomas More's exceptional results to that end.
The Civil Service is keen to have a more diverse workforce, at present it is less diverse than Oxford University, and has developed a social mobility index in conjunction with dozens of major businesses. It will be using this to ensure that it can monitor not just gender, race and other protected characteristics but also ensure that opportunities are available to all, regardless of background. It is important to reward ‘effort over upbringing, potential over polish, ability over what accent you have’, as stated by Matthew Hancock in his announcement.
This was followed by a speed networking event, organised by ‘Inspiring the Future’, with students from Years 7 to 13. Civil Servants from the Ministry of Defence to the Foreign Office, who are involved in Space Technology to Diplomacy, spoke to students. The Minister commented that it was the most attentive school he had spoken at and the questions were both thoughtful and unusually challenging. ‘Having spoken to you, I am sure the top jobs in the civil service will be taken in 50 years by those sat in this room!’ The students meanwhile left with pages of notes and a clearer idea of what it means to work in government.
