Invitation to Tender (ITT) For Social Mobility 'State of The Nation' 2023

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.

As part of its remit, the Commission undertakes an annual State of the Nation report. This report is part of the Commission's statutory duty to monitor UK-wide progress on social mobility each year. The production and synthesis of key statistics related to social mobility will be the central part for the report, which will be published by 31 March 2023, in order to examine, for example, social mobility 'hot' and 'cold' spots in the UK, and break down social mobility by protected characteristics.

For 2023, the SMC will, for the first time, fully operationalise its new Social Mobility Index: a refreshed measurement framework (the SMI). The new framework completely revises the previous social mobility index, which ran from 2016 to 2017.

The new and improved SMI offers a much more accurate and robust framework to measure social mobility. It includes four main components: drivers (or enablers), intermediate outcomes (such as educational attainment) and their relationship to socio-economic background; the overlap between socio-economic background and characteristics such as sex, ethnicity, disability and place; and eventual social mobility outcomes with respect to occupation, income, education, housing and wealth.

The 2023 report will therefore have some similarities to the 2017 and 2022 State of the Nation Reports. It will build on the work of these reports to analyse the social and economic drivers and indicators of people's social mobility. As the old index did, we envision this updated one to also assess how social mobility outcomes compare in national, regional and local geographic places. We focus on measuring the extent to which rates of social mobility are improving over time in the UK and across the different parts of the UK, and which specific groups in society have greater or lesser chances of social mobility.

The SMC is looking for a supplier who can provide robust analyses both from cross-sectional and longitudinal perspectives, and interpret these statistics to give a clear narrative about what they mean for social mobility. The SMC is seeking a supplier who can work with the secretariat to provide analytical and statistical outputs and provide clear instruction for how the team can conduct the same analyses in future. Replicable analytical procedures form a key component of what we require to ensure the team gains analytical independence to conduct the same analyses in future. The SMC also expects a supplier to bring a high level of quality assurance to the work, arranging for independent analytical checks throughout the project.

Additionally, having the ability to interpret and support the SMC to provide a narrative around these findings is vital, particularly in light of the wide-ranging impacts of Covid-19 on social mobility. The SMC will therefore be assessing bids both for evidence of being able to deliver the analytical work and interpreting the findings in a wider social mobility context.

Please see the Jaggaer e-procurement portal. crowncommercialservice.bravosolution.co.uk/web/login.html ↗

for the Invitation to Tender (ITT) document and further details.

Bidders must submit their Bids before 12 Noon on 2 May 2022. All Bids must be submitted through the Jaggaer e-procurement portal. crowncommercialservice.bravosolution.co.uk/web/login.html ↗

Failure to return Bids by the time and due date or in the required format may disqualify Bidders from consideration.