A new Public First report for the Social Mobility Commission looks at public perceptions and experiences of social mobility in Rochdale and Cheshire East. It focuses on two contrasting areas in the North West: Cheshire East, a local authority ranked as a ‘Favourable’ area for social mobility according to the Social Mobility Commission’s Promising Prospects index, and Rochdale, ranked as ‘Unfavourable’.

Public First’s report explores people’s understanding of social mobility, perceptions of how this has changed over time and what they think should be done to enhance social mobility in the local area. The aim is to help policymakers understand how place-based policy could and does impact the social mobility prospects of local people, both in terms of perceptions of opportunity and the factors which are influencing their ability to access them.

Key findings:

• Traditional measures of upward social mobility – higher income and career advancement – were consistently ranked by participants in both areas as less important than stability, personal happiness, work–life balance and community connections. While participants viewed social mobility as generally positive, they prioritised feeling safe, secure and content over material advancement. Income and wealth were understood as important ‘utilities’ that underpin a good life rather than as ends in themselves.
• What participants in both groups felt constituted a ‘successful life’ was said to have changed over recent generations. Success now entails being happy and healthy over material wealth, although all participants recognised that income is an increasingly important determinant of the stability and security required to achieve a good life. Feeling safe, secure and happy were the most common elements of participants’ own definitions of success and having a good life
• One of the key differences between the two places was that participants in Cheshire East considered it possible for people to be successful and stay in the area, whereas successful, upwardly mobile individuals in Rochdale often left “as quickly as possible” in order to find better jobs and careers, as there was a significant ceiling on what could be achieved locally.
• Many people in Rochdale made conscious decisions to stay, despite the challenges and even if moving might have offered better economic opportunities, because of family ties and a sense of belonging to their local community. The decision to remain was framed not as a lack of ambition, but as a conscious trade-off in favour of stability.

You can find the full report here and a supporting methodology note here.