Recent findings from the Institute for Fiscal Studies highlight the dire state of social mobility in the UK. Coupled with alarming NHS data, revealing a surge in mental health emergencies among children and young people, it paints a bleak picture of our current societal challenges.
As Chief Executive of NCG, a group of seven colleges across the UK, I have seen our sector face our fair share of challenges in recent years, and I have seen the disparities and the challenges that face the communities that our colleges are part of.
Social mobility has always been at the heart of NCG’s provision for our further and higher education students – in fact, our mission is to enable social mobility and economic prosperity through exceptional education. I absolutely believe that your beginning doesn’t determine your ending, and that education is a transformative and powerful tool that can enable change.
The data makes for challenging reading, but I thoroughly believe that a focus on social mobility from both government and the education sector will have a positive impact on mental health and wellbeing outcomes.
The data on mental health and social mobility
The research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies was carried out last autumn and showed that UK social mobility is at its worst in over 50 years. In a society where we focus on progress, that’s a lot to take in.
The picture of mental health in the UK is also sobering. NHS data from February 2024 shows the number of children referred to emergency mental health care in England has soared by more than 50% in three years. This aligns with the picture across our colleges, where we have seen a rise in young people accessing our support services, particularly since the pandemic.
The frequency of mental health problems like depression are on the rise in adults too. A government study between October 2022 and September 2023 shows around 1 in 6 adults (16%) experienced moderate to severe depressive symptoms, up from 10% pre-pandemic.
Rethinking the direction of travel
Having spent more than 20 years working in education, I often come across the assumption that social mobility means going upwards all the time; a misconception that being ambitious means needing to climb the corporate ladder.
That is not social mobility. Social mobility is about enabling an individual to go in any direction. Not everybody wants to go up the ladder, we can go sideways, or we can stay still. For me, social mobility is knowing that we can move and having that inbuilt confidence that allows us to do things differently and change direction away from that which we've come from.
Good mental health and education go hand in hand
Education has long been championed as the gateway to social mobility. As the leader of a college network of 40,000 students and 2,500 staff, I see the many doors that open to students through education on a daily basis.
Enabling social mobility and economic prosperity through exceptional education is something we live and breathe every day here at NCG, but it is not without its challenges. The rise in mental health issues and poor mental health is one significant one.
Good mental health and wellbeing can often be key to success – without it our learners are unlikely to be in the right frame of mind to learn and progress to where they want to go next. They’re also unlikely to be motivated to see those possibilities, which can lead to poor standards of work, lateness, and non-attendance. It’s all linked.
Education is about the brain and mental capability, so for me, mental health and wellbeing is fundamental to a good educational experience and vice versa. You can rarely have one without the other, which is why education providers, like me, have reason to shout about it.
Making the solutions accessible and safe
It’s also important that educators work together to help find solutions. Although we’re unfortunately unable to address the external factors that impact our mental health, we can provide the support and the tools that our learners need to develop strong mental fitness ad and resilience.
Whether students want to talk about academic challenges, personal struggles, or mental health problems, it’s important that they can talk about these concerns and that they have a support network they can turn to for advice. It may be that joining a sports team or book club would help them, or perhaps they need signposted to some counselling or to their own GP. Whatever it is, we need to support students to find the solution that works for them, so the rest of their educational journey can become easier to navigate.
Familiarity and shared experience are often key to opening up. I discovered this first-hand in a previous role, leading student support services at the University of Salford. We created what was the first integrated student support service, located within the student union, and overhauled the system so that our student counsellors were new graduates who looked and sounded like those seeking out help - wore the same clothes, spoke like them. We removed the barriers where we could, to ensure a safe and supportive space, and I think that really is key.
Refugees - the social mobility superheroes
There are few people more challenged by social mobility and the potential for poor mental health than a refugee. According to the Mental Health Foundation, those seeking asylum are five times more likely to have mental health needs than the general population, but they are much less likely to receive support.
We are living in a time where we have a skills crisis, and the government is trying to grow the economy following really challenging times over recent years. We also have many thousands of refugees coming into this country who have life experience, skills, and resilience. Yet, they experience ‘otherness’ as they seek refuge, and many people overlook the huge potential and skill they bring with them.
I think it is incumbent upon those of us in the further education sector to embrace and welcome our refugee community and support them to become socially mobile.
Across NCG’s colleges we support our refugee communities through the Our Community is Your Community initiative, helping them to overcome the barriers they face when arriving in a new country where they don’t speak the language.
From navigating local transport and setting up bank accounts and bills, to social events and access to entrepreneurial opportunities, we aim to give people back a sense of purpose, confidence and a strong community.
Importantly, we also need to offer refugees the technical English skills that allow them to share their skills, make a purposeful contribution to their new home and become an integral part of our economic recovery and our flourishing communities.
All of these things are crucial to their mental health, their social mobility and their integration into the community.
Gathering evidence and taking support to the next level
There’s a long way to go in the UK when it comes to addressing both social mobility and mental health problems.
The stark figures are part of the reason why NCG has partnered with Activate Learning and signed up to be part of the largest college-based Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) using a mobile mental health app called eQuoo, developed by PsycApps Ltd.
That trial launched in February, with a sample size exceeding 8,000 students across both college groups, focusing on the mental health issues that contribute to non-attendance, students dropping out of college, behavioural issues, and academic struggles.
There is nothing more powerful in the world of education than evidence-based research. Participating in this research will support the creation of an evidence base, which will tell us what does and doesn’t work, rather than us guessing what our learners need from us. Working together, we can use the research and our voice in the education sector to share those outcomes with policy makers, the health system and industry.
My hope is that the data which comes out of this will result in positive change around how things are funded and perceptions around mental health. The results will ultimately shape the way we support students with their mental health and their educational journey – making sure that social mobility is an option – going forward.