The corporate world has focused on widening out opportunities – for women, on ethnicity, disability and sexuality.

For some time, the corporate world has focused on widening out opportunities – for women, on ethnicity, disability and sexuality. On all these fronts, there’s been an important concerted push to reach a broader community than in the past. So perhaps the debate has come full circle as it now switches to boys and young men, often – but not exclusively - white working-class boys. The Centre for Social Justice’s recent report, Lost Boys, highlights it as a group struggling in education, more likely to take their own lives or be involved in crime and less likely to get into stable work. It’s worth reflecting on how all these groups can be a priority – can that really be possible? If everything’s a priority, doesn't that risk meaning nothing is a priority? 

Actually, we can see an explanation when we view the drive to equality of opportunity more as a process. As a nation, we’ve made real progress to ensure that everyone can bring their talent to the table. The Gender Pay Act and subsequent mandatory gender pay gap reporting, the Parker Review into the ethnic diversity of UK boards, the Disability Discrimination Act and the Equality Act have all brought more transparency and better targeted action to break down the barriers that previously prevented people in those underrepresented groups from getting on.  

These steps forward have all been necessary, but we have to be clear-sighted that they’re only part of the solution if we are to have true equality of opportunity. We have undoubtedly created more capacity for more people to get in and get on in employment but there's more to do. The reality is that progress has been made by those most able to make it – those with fewer barriers to overcome who could take advantage of it. In practice, they were often those from higher socio-economic groups who had previously faced discrimination, on gender or ethnicity or in other protected characteristic areas. Having addressed that barrier and with relatively few others remaining, they have perhaps been able to access advice, resources and networks and progress in employment. It may be that what the Lost Boys report tells us is that whether you have a protected characteristic or not, those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds find it far less easy to take advantage of any extra capacity to access the opportunities we have built into corporate Britain. As a result, those communities are still not getting the breaks. Too many remain out of reach of good opportunity, and that’s the case for everyone living in them – including boys and young men, as well as those groups we’ve more traditionally focused on with protected characteristics. It’s a waste of individual talent and a block on economic growth.  

We need a national effort to connect all those from underprivileged communities to opportunities. Businesses and other organisations should not only ensure that those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have access to the right information and advice so that they are clear about the opportunities on offer, but also provide upskilling, reskilling and mentoring to enable them to progress at the same rate as others from more privileged backgrounds. It’s more than just how we respond to the Lost Boys challenge. Without this we’ll find it far harder to take our next steps, for example, in reaching gender parity and on ethnicity, because those people are part of left behind communities too. 

This isn’t an either/or situation. The challenges of sexism and racism mean we absolutely need to continue our efforts to address them. But we need to recognise that ultimately none of those protected characteristics barriers are fully addressed until we fix social mobility and see them through the lens of lower socio-economic background. In Britain, it means businesses looking across their diversity and inclusion activities to redouble their efforts by targeting them towards social mobility cold spot communities. 

Let’s recognise that a successful and fairer future lies in actively lifting up lower socioeconomic groups wherever they are across the country to unlock potential and create opportunity for all. That’s why the work of the Purpose Coalition is so crucial, because it aims to do just that.