Today is Social Mobility Day, a day focused on championing equitable employment opportunities for all. The official website for the campaign states that ‘to improve social mobility in the UK, employers need to put socio-economic diversity, equity and inclusion at the heart of their organisation. At the FDA we couldn’t agree more. As a union, we have been championing this cause since our inception in 1919 and it is still our focus today. The theme for Social Mobility Day this year is #sharemoments and I would like to share some of the great work we do in the FDA to support social mobility in the civil service. 

Recent research from the Social Mobility Commission shows that 18% of senior civil servants are from working-class or low socio-economic backgrounds, while the figure is 43% among the most junior grades. 1 in 4 of those in the Senior Civil Service went to independent schools. In addition, women from working class backgrounds are more likely than men from the same background to find it difficult to progress, and we know that ethnic minorities from similar socio-economic backgrounds face barriers to gaining a career in the civil service at all. So, for people from disadvantaged backgrounds, even if you do manage to get into the civil service, you will not always get on. 

I strongly believe that being a member of any civil service union, greatly improves your chances of career progression. Trade unions have always been vital to improving working class prospects. We fight for the right to speak up in the workplace and negotiate better terms and conditions and there is clear evidence globally that where trade unions are strong, inequality declines. However, if you are a member of the FDA in particular, you have a wealth of support available to you through every stage of your career. This includes our recent wins on pay for our fast stream members, our vast FDA Learn offer of career development and success profiles training, and our significant involvement and investment in the ‘Women into Leadership’, ‘Ethnic Minorities into Leadership’ and ‘Unlocking the SCS’ programme of conferences every year. 

So, on this day in particular, I want to flag up a really important FDA project that focuses on helping people from working class backgrounds to ‘get in’ to the civil service in the first place. The elaborately named Public Sector Development and Mentoring Scheme, or PSDMS for short, is aimed at supporting people from working class backgrounds to apply for careers in the civil service. It has been running, in various guises, since 2014 and last year alone we engaged with over 1200 students and existing civil servants to support them with advice, mentoring and training in order to give them that extra edge when applying for civil service graduate schemes. For people from disadvantaged backgrounds, a career in the civil service can appear totally out of reach, but we know that the support we offer enhances the individual’s chances of success by a factor of 3 to 1. We have over 120 mentors with shared lived experience offering support all year round and the people we have supported through PSDMS contact us daily to tell us how important the support they received from the FDA was to their success. Many remain involved and become mentors themselves. 

This is just one of the many things that we do as a union to support social mobility. We will be offering the PSDMS programme again this year and are already talking to university partners and matching people with mentors. If you are interested and want to find out more then drop us a line at info@fda.org.uk.