** Poverty2Solutions Roundtable events **
The Socio-Economic Duty
An introduction and a brief history
Schools
Hospitals
The Socio-Economic Duty
What does it actually mean?
Basically it’s a law that when any public sector organisations plan or make changes to their service(s) they have a legal “duty” have to make sure they consider whether it will make life better or worse for people who are struggling financially.
Organisations like Job Centre Plus
Justice system
Councils
UK Government
A couple of examples of what the Socio-Economic Duty might look like in action
We just call it “The Duty” by the way
Bus Service 🚌
A local council is planning bus timetable changes.
Instead of cutting early morning routes (which low-income workers rely on to get to jobs), they keep them running after considering the impact on people who can’t afford cars or taxis.
This helps ensure those in low-paid shift work aren’t disadvantaged.
School Uniform Costs 👕
A school wants to introduce a new branded PE kit.
They apply the socio-economic duty by choosing affordable, supermarket-available options rather than expensive branded gear.
This prevents pupils from low-income families from feeling excluded or facing financial pressure.
A brief history of the Socio-Economic Duty
2009
Labour government propose placing a legal duty on all public sector institutions to reduce inequality between socio-economic groups.
“…public bodies will be in breach of their duty if they ignore evidence of socio-economic disadvantage or do not consider the issue in planning resources.”
Harriet Harman,
the Labour deputy leader,
2009
Theresa May becomes Home Secretary and the duty idea is scrapped
“[the duty is] ridiculous ... They thought they could make people's lives better by simply passing a law saying that they should be made better...That is why I am announcing today that we are scrapping Harman's law for good.”
Theresa May, the Home secretary at the time
2016
Poverty2Solutions formed
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2018
We developed our policy ask of a Socio-Economic Duty
We decided to focus on promoting the voice of lived experience as a way of bringing forward positive change for people living in poverty - starting with the Socio-Economic Duty.
2019
We launched the
“Do your duty for equality” campaign
We held a number of influencing meetings with key opposition MP’s including Hariet Harman’ MP, Dawn Butler, MP, shadow Women and Equalities Minister, Margaret Greenwood, MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Lyn Brown, MP, Shadow Minister for Treasury.
Labour Party conference 2019
We held a high-profile, professional and well-branded fringe event featured a panel of high-profile speakers at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton.
‘Taking our project to the LPC was great, I really liked it. I had never been to such an event, meeting MPs and public figures was something special, I felt some of the people really listened to us. We really need to keep meeting people and getting the message out there.”
Angela, ATD Fourth World
Our campaign went well…
“We will put class at the heart of Britain’s equality agenda and create a new ground for discrimination on the basis of socio-economic disadvantage.”
Labour 2019 Manifesto
In the media
The Big Issue makes us one of their top 100 Changemakers
2019
The new government has no intention to enact the duty so we concentrate on other things
2024
The momentum is back again!
New Labour Government is going to enact the duty!
“Labour will enact the socio-economic duty in the Equality Act: Under section 1, public bodies are required to adopt transparent and effective measures to address the inequalities that result from differences in socio-economic status.”
This is a good thing!!!!
✅ The Duty is happening! But it needs to be done right to make a difference
🏋️ Now the real work starts!
🗣️ Community voices need to be heard
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Poverty2Solutions are working (as part of a group of organisations called 1forEquality) with something called The Equality Framework Team (the part of government responsible) to create some guidance on how the Duty will be used or implemented.
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People like Councils, NHS are bing asked about it but communities need to be asked too. That’s why we have invited you to one of our…