Opportunity to be an Expert Adviser on the Social Mobility Commission's Policy and Evidence Advisory Panel

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.

The SMC is establishing a Policy and Evidence Advisory Panel of subject-matter experts to provide advice on a range of issues that impact social mobility:

Academic roles: 1. Education (Lot 1) 2. Measurement (quantitative analysis) (Lot 2) 3. Routes to employment and the labour market (Lot 3) 4. Families expert (Lot 4)

Policy roles: 5. Education (schools) (Lot 5) 6. Education (further education) (Lot 6) 7. Families expert (Lot 7) 8. Levelling up - geographic/ place inequalities (Lot 8)

The panel will consist of both academic leaders in their field as well as seasoned policy experts. The panel will consist of both academic leaders in their field as well as seasoned policy experts.

The final number of experts recruited will depend on the quality of bids received and budget considerations but is expected to be approximately 8 individuals.

Being an expert on the Policy and Evidence Advisory Panel provides a unique opportunity to help shape the SMC's mission of improving social mobility for all. We intend to use advice arising from this contract to inform our thinking - we do not expect suppliers to engage on our behalf.

A key task will be to review and provide input into the Social Mobility Commission's annual statutory report, The State of the Nation. This is laid before Parliament each year. In 2022 we expect to launch the report in April, so this will be one of the Panel's first tasks. On a more ongoing basis, we will request panel members to be a sounding board for us - on our research pipeline, our policy recommendations, as well as when we are scoping new areas that may have causal links to social mobility.

Anyone holding a role on the panel will not be excluded from bidding for future contracts offered by the SMC. Nor will holding a role on the panel provide anyone with any advantages in being considered for future bids for SMC contracts. To avoid a conflict of interest, experts on the panel would not be expected to advise on work they have been separately contracted by the SMC to do. In this case, we would aim to allocate experts to work where there is no such conflict of interest.

Length of Bids A. Bids should not exceed a total of 2 pages per role (excluding CV, publications list, declarations/annex). a. Any bids above that will not be considered. The font size should not be smaller than 11. Embedded links or files will not be considered. B. Bidders must also please complete and submit the 'Declarations' (Document 5). C. Bidders must also complete and submit the 'Conflict of Interest' (Annex One).

Bidders must submit their Bids before 12 Noon on Monday 14 February 2022, to: [email protected]. Failure to return Bids by the time and due date or in the required format may disqualify Bidders from consideration.