Our Goal
We are calling on the UK government to ‘do your duty for equality’ and commit to working with people who have direct, lived experiences of socio-economic disadvantage, in policy and decision making.
By adopting a participatory approach and tapping into the rich experience and insights of everyday experiences, we can ensure that future policy makes a more effective contribution to reducing poverty and inequality.
‘Too often people are portrayed as numbers on paper, or as stats and percentages. It is very easy for policy makers to dismiss who they represent when they aren’t considered as individuals. Having someone describe their lived experience is not only brave but essential if we want positive and long-lasting change. They can show us our failings, our lack of compassion and humanity. If a policy affects someone why shouldn’t they have the right to be involved in its making?’
Sue, Dole Animators
Changes we are campaigning to see
1. The new Labour government needs to enact the socio-economic duty - as promised in its 2024 manifesto.
Section One of the Equality Act - the ‘socio-economic duty’ (SED) - is the legal requirement to consider socio-economic disadvantage in decision making. This is the foundational principle and safeguard required to reduce the inequalities experienced by those on lower incomes.
2. Co-designing guidance for how SED is implemented is crucial to ensure fairer outcomes for all
Simply passing the duty into law, will not in itself lead to better policy making and fairer outcomes. Guidance outlining how public bodies are required to meet their obligations under the SED is crucial to this.
To fulfil SED’s potential, we recommend:
The Government co-design this guidance with a cross-section of experts, combining learned and lived experience, to ensure SED is fit for purpose.
Undertake meaningful engagement with people who have lived experiences.
Ensure he guidance includes how to engage people with lived experiences in this process.
3. We need to see these changes integrated into our overall approach to policy making.
Our approach to policy making needs an overhaul. We need to embed lived experiences in the policy design process to ensure the expertise of those most affected by socio-economic issues is valued and involved in shaping a successful policy design process.
We don’t need to wait for SED. Decision makers can start embedding this as best practise now. We have identified three planned areas for review where policy-makers can bring lived experiences to the table right now. This would present an opportunity to inform the SDE guidance to ensure it is a success.
The planned review of Universal Credit
Planned reform of the Work Capability Assessment
Development of a new plan to support disabled people into work
What is the socio-economic duty (SED)
The Equality Act outlines a number of protected characteristics like gender and race that public bodies are required to consider when making strategic decisions and designing policy.
This change would make socio-economic disadvantage a protected characteristic in law.
In practise this means public bodies will be required by law to consider how they can reduce the inequalities experienced by those on lower incomes, resulting from socio-economic disadvantage.
Why is it important?
Ethically and morally, we have a duty to ensure better outcomes for those who suffer socio-economic disadvantage. Recent years have seen rapidly rising levels of inequality with millions of households experiencing poverty and – all too often – destitution.
However our current approach to policy making doesn’t legally recognise the need to protect groups from the potential socio-economic knock-on effects of policy changes.
Largely designed in a Westminster bubble, policy is failing a huge section of our society. We know this is due in part to outdated approaches to policy design. But there is an alternative.
‘There is a big assumption that because someone is in a position of power, is educated and has a degree that they are somehow an expert on life. This can be the case, but sadly, does not guarantee it. For example, the best people to know how a factory works are the people on the shop floor and not the managers. Lived experience is essential, they know what is wrong and what needs to [change]’
Mark, Thrive Teesside
Will you help us take action?
If you’re an activist, third sector organisation, politician, civil servant or decision maker - we need your support to put lived experience at the heart of Participatory Policy Making.