Social Mobility Commission - Perceptions of Social Mobility Research

The Social Mobility Commission (SMC) monitors progress towards improving social mobility in the UK and promotes social mobility in England. It is an independent statutory body created by an Act of Parliament and is sponsored by the Cabinet Office.

The SMC is interested in understanding more about how people perceive social mobility in the UK. We are seeking expert suppliers who can conduct primary polling on public attitudes towards social mobility, as well as how people in the UK perceive their own prospects in relation to that of their parents across key areas like education, employment and housing. The successful supplier will provide a range of deliverables, including assistance with questionnaire design, fieldwork, full data tables and quality assurance over final outputs. For the survey, we require a sample of at least 4,000 adults across the UK (aged 18 and above). We also require specific demographic data to be collected to allow for comparison between groups across each of the survey questions - these are sometimes referred to as 'crossbreaks'.

The SMC wishes to continue building and improving on our evidence base. Our State of the Nation research provides a comprehensive evidence base on how the UK has 'performed' across different indicators of social mobility (ie, educational, occupational and housing mobility), as well as the underlying drivers of social mobility. We aim to supplement our evidence base, assessing the extent to which people's perceptions of social mobility, align with the findings from our State of the Nation research. We would also like to explore how the perceptions of social mobility might differ across different demographics, social classes and regions.

We have worked with external suppliers on perceptions work previously, through our Social Mobility Barometer research. We would be interested to see if and how attitudes/perceptions of social mobility have changed over recent years.

Like with previous iterations of this research, this analysis is designed mainly to be descriptive and informative. We do not expect this research to provide definitive causal conclusions, nor do we anticipate this research will be used to inform or shape policy directly. Ultimately, the Commission requires this research to provide a snapshot of the overarching sentiments towards social mobility in the UK in a clear and robust manner.

Bidders must submit their Bids before 4pm Friday 25th October 2024. All Bids must be submitted to contact@socialmobilitycommission.gov.uk. Failure to return Bids by the time and due date or in the required format may disqualify Bidders from consideration.