Social Mobility Commission - State of the Nation 2027

Location

United Kingdom:

Description

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. Its annual State of the Nation report is the Commission's main publication on UK-wide progress on social mobility and is laid before Parliament. The Commission is seeking a supplier to provide analytical support, methodological development, statistical quality assurance and interpretation for the 2027 State of the Nation report (with possible extension for the 2028 report). The supplier will work closely with the SMC secretariat. The emphasis of this contract is on robust analysis, reproducibility, interpretation and selected methodological improvements, rather than routine production work where SMC already has established in-house code. The Social Mobility Index provides the framework for State of the Nation. It includes mobility outcomes, intermediate outcomes and drivers of social mobility. The current indicators are available through the SMC State of the Nation data explorer: https://social-mobility.data.gov.uk/

Renewal Options

If the contract is extended, it will be extended to 29th December 2028, with an increased cost of £50,000 (ex VAT). If extended, the strategic priorities for 2028 are: - Support the transition to the transformed Labour Force Survey (tLFS), including changes to variable names, weights, quality, discontinuities and comparability over time. - Investigate equivalent longitudinal resources for Scotland and Northern Ireland if access and feasibility allow. - Deliver a distinct topic of interest for the 2028 report. Explanatory geographical analysis may be considered as an example topic, subject to SMC priorities, feasibility, budget and timetable. - Continue the emphasis on reproducible R code, plain-English technical documentation, accessible Excel outputs and GitHub-based code sharing. The extra deliverables, if extended, would be the following: Deliverable 1: 2028 tLFS transition and comparability plan - 30 September 2027 - A review of changes arising from the transition from LFS to tLFS, including variable names, weights, data quality, breaks in series and implications for comparability over time. - Advice on whether and how existing LFS-based indicators should be updated, bridged, caveated or temporarily paused. - Updated or new code where required to adapt existing analysis to tLFS variables and weights. - A plain-English note for use in the report explaining any discontinuities or limitations in the time series. Deliverable 2: 2028 feasibility review: Scotland and Northern Ireland longitudinal resources - 30 September 2027 - A short feasibility review of equivalent or complementary longitudinal resources for Scotland and Northern Ireland. - Advice on access routes, governance requirements, coverage, comparability and analytical value for State of the Nation. - A recommendation on whether any such resource should be used in the 2028 report, deferred to a later year, or treated as unsuitable for the current purpose. Deliverable 3: 2028 topic of interest - 30 September 2027 - A distinct analytical contribution for the 2028 report, to be agreed with SMC during the contract. - The topic may include explanatory geographical analysis, for example using Census 2001, 2011 and 2021 to relate occupational-structure change to education, inactivity, unemployment, GVA and other local conditions. This is included as an example option, not as a firm requirement. - For any agreed topic, the supplier should provide a scoped analysis plan, analysis or methodological advice as agreed, QA, interpretation and reproducible documentation. - If the topic is not feasible within the contract timetable or budget, the supplier should provide a short rationale and recommend a narrower alternative. Deliverable 4: 2028 reproducibility, accessibility and publication support pack - 31 July 2028 - Quality-assured analytical outputs for new work conducted for the 2028 report. - Accessible Excel files containing the underlying data for charts and tables used in the report or data explorer, using an SMC-supplied template where provided. - Technical documentation sufficient for SMC analysts to rerun or audit the analysis. - Support for checking the final report, data explorer and press materials so that the statistics are interpreted accurately. Deliverable 5: Final handover - 29 December 2028 - Complete, documented code and outputs for all new analysis conducted under the contract. - A final limitations and lessons-learned note, including recommendations for the 2029 State of the Nation analytical cycle. - A handover meeting with SMC analysts to walk through code, outputs, outstanding caveats and any recommended next steps.

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 79315000 - Social research services

Indicators

• Renewals are available.

Other Information

Please see more details in the attached document of the tendering requirements. Bidders must submit their Bids before 12:00 midday on 19th June 2026. All Bids must be submitted to contact@socialmobilitycommission.gov.uk. Failure to return Bids by the time and due date or in the required format may disqualify Bidders from consideration. ** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. **