The Sutton Trust’s Elitist Britain report finds that across a range of sectors, the UK’s most powerful and influential people are still 5 times more likely to have attended private schools than the general population and that little has changed since 2019.
Recommending that opportunities should be more evenly spread across Britain, and social class should be put at the heart of the diversity and inclusion agenda, it includes some specific recommendations to employers:
* Employers should use organisations working with young people to target outreach and work experience opportunities to under-represented groups.
* Take a sector leadership role if they are making significant efforts to tackle social mobility, and share best practice. (Highlighting that sector collaboration is key, PRIME’s model in the law sector is referenced as an example).
Collaboration is at the heart of PRIME. Collaboration between our members, between our partners and collaboration between law firms and their clients. It is only through working together that our industry can change. If your law firm or in-house legal team is interested in joining PRIME, please get in touch. We can support you with developing an impactful work experience programme for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds and you can get involved in our virtual legal insight workshops for schools in social mobility cold spot areas, helping to change young people’s perceptions of who can have a career in law and increase their understanding of the routes into law.
