✅ Why public relations needs a social mobility revolution
Talent is everywhere, but opportunity isn’t. As Socially Mobile publishes its 2025 Impact Report on Social Mobility Day, we’re calling on the industry to step up.
I’m from a working-class background in Preston, Lancashire, in the UK.
I can pinpoint the exact moment when the door opened for me to join the middle classes, and my life took a significant turn. In 1989, a council grant enabled me to study engineering in Manchester.
It enabled me to get a job in London, work in an agency, and then access the networks and raise the capital to start my own agencies and, latterly, a professional advisory firm. It’s been the route to writing 12 books and studying for a PhD in management and public relations that will hopefully help contribute to proving the value of our function.
It ultimately led me to find an ally in Sarah Waddington and to start Socially Mobile to try and make a difference to the diversity of the public relations industry in the UK.
The myth of meritocracy and why hard work isn’t enough
Hard work as a means of social and economic progress was part of the social contract in the UK at the end of the last century.
We’ve known since Larisa Grunig’s work as part of the Excellence Study published in the 1980s that diverse public relations and public affairs teams have better cognition and produce better outcomes. The work has been built on by critical and feminist researchers ever since. So, 40 years on, why is there still such an underrepresentation in practice across all diversity characteristics?
A quarter of practitioners who responded to the CIPR State of the Profession Survey in 2020 went to private school, compared to seven per cent of the general population.
The only possible reason is that the social and cultural forces within society, as well as the industry forces that protect the status quo, are too strong to be broken.
It’s the reason I masked my Lancashire accent, erasing part of my identity to fit in. It’s the reason I was shamed into extending my overdraft by my first agency boss, who insisted I buy some decent suits.
These are my stories from the 1990s. You’ll hear far worse if you talk to Black and ethnic minority colleagues, the LGBTQ+ community, women returners and those with disabilities.
Unlocking management as the missing link in diversity strategies
There are three well-proven interventions to change the make-up of a professional community.
Recruit widely and open access to the whole of society. This is the school's initiative and apprenticeships programme championed by the PRCA.
Support practitioners from diverse backgrounds with community and mentoring, so that they feel a sense of belonging to the profession and aren’t rejected.
Provide learning and development opportunities to enable diverse practitioners to advance into management roles.
Socially Mobile is focused on the last intervention. We’ve published our Impact Report for 2024 today, coinciding with Social Mobility Day.
The programme provides fully funded and low-cost training for mid-career practitioners from underrepresented and lower socio-economic backgrounds. The ten-week course focuses on developing essential management skills, industry-specific knowledge, and leadership capabilities.
If you think you would benefit from the programme please visit our website and hit the button on the top right. If you’re an employer with a need to develop your talent and would like to help keep our Community Interest Company sustainable at the same time, we’d love to hear from you, too. A place costs just £750.
In 2024, 43 students enrolled across three cohorts, with 40 completing the programme. To date, 129 professionals have graduated since Socially Mobile’s launch in 2022. The report shows that:
95% of graduates would recommend the course to a friend or colleague
Graduates rate the programme 8.5 out of 10 for its impact on their career
80% reported increased confidence to apply for more senior roles
85% of graduates were based outside London
The report's power lies in the graduate case studies. It includes four interviews with practitioners who completed the programme in 2024. These aren’t just stories about learning and development. They’re life-changing stories.
The social contract that enabled me to get ahead has been broken. Diversity and representation is getting worse, not better. The Trump administration in the US and right-wing politicians in Europe are fighting against policy interventions.
The political climate has made fundraising incredibly challenging for activist initiatives such as Socially Mobile. We need £750 per candidate to help change the face of our industry. To learn more about the programme and download the full 2025 Impact Report, visit: www.sociallymobile.org.uk.
We have a brochure for employers and one for sponsors that we’d be delighted to share. If you think you can help, please get in touch.
Monday’s edition of my newsletter was called out for not disclosing that Sarah Waddington CBE is my spouse, a director of Wadds Inc. and interim CEO at the PRCA. This was an honest oversight and not intended to deceive in any way. I’m pleased to set the record straight.