Alun Francis is looking to unlock opportunities for all

Alun Francis sums up his view on social mobility in one simple sentence: “Everybody should have the opportunity to improve their
circumstances.”

He is on a mission to create that opportunity, both as principal of Blackpool and The Fylde College and in his role as a key government
advisor on social mobility.

In that national post he is determined to change attitudes around the issue, which he believes is too narrowly focused on getting people into “elite” universities and jobs.

And in his college leadership role he is helping drive forward plans for Blackpool’s ‘Multiversity’, a multi-million pound development looking to
transform the opportunities for people on the Fylde coast and help deliver a highly skilled workforce.

Alun, who arrived on the coast last summer, was brought up in another seaside town – Colwyn Bay in North Wales.

His childhood was challenging, though it is something he is reticent about.

He lived on one of the town’s more deprived estates and for a time he and his family were homeless, relying on other people to put them
up for a few weeks at a time.

Alun, 58, was one of three brothers and the only one to go to university.

One of his siblings went on to have a career in the NHS, sadly the other
became an alcoholic and died at the age of 41.

Not keen to go further into his early years, he says: “Some of my experience helps me, as everybody’s does.

"You shouldn’t be defined by your background, whether good or bad.

“You shouldn’t reduce people to their backgrounds, they make the best of their circumstances. We have a lot more to learn about how people achieve the things they do.”

He adds: “It is an advantage to know about poor communities and how people there think and what their aspirations are but you need to
be able to bring more than that.

“You have to be able to think what the successful areas look like, what do areas with a strong economy look like?”

Alun was appointed deputy chair of the Social Mobility Commission in 2021 and took over the main role – dubbed the ‘government’s social
mobility tsar’ by the tabloids – last year.

The commission is an independent advisory non-departmental body, sponsored by the Cabinet Office’s Equality Hub.

According to its website it seeks to “create a country where the circumstances of someone’s birth do not determine their outcomes in life.”

Its chair believes there needs to be a broadening in the thinking around the issue.

For him, social mobility should not just be about ladders up into the elite for a few.

“Social mobility in our country has been taken over by a view that it is about getting people into elite jobs and elite universities,” he explains.

“That is just one small part of the story.

“The notion is that if you get more people from disadvantaged backgrounds to make that great leap into a professional occupation that solves the problem.

"It doesn’t, it solves the problem of a small number of people.”

He adds: “Everybody should have the opportunity to improve their circumstances. For some people that is not going to mean a big upward leap from the bottom 20 per cent to the top 20 per cent. It might be something more modest but equally valuable. We shouldn’t be saying one thing is the most important.”

Alun says geography and the regional disparities that exist in the UK are also an issue, among many others.

The economy, productivity, all these kinds of questions, to reduce it to the idea of just getting more people into university seems extremely narrow. How do we improve the outcomes for as wide a range of
people as possible?”

He says that one way is through initiatives like the Multiversity, explaining: “It is a perfect example of what I think social mobility should focus on.”

The college’s planned new £65m state-of-the-art education campus in the town centre has been described as one of the best things to
happen to Blackpool for a generation.

Part of the £350m Talbot Gateway regeneration of the area around Blackpool North train station, the Multiversity will be built by Blackpool Council, then leased to the college.

It will enhance the college’s existing higher education provision which is directly linked to local employment needs.

Alun is excited by its potential to deliver transformational change.

He says: “In a modern economy we know the future wellbeing of the country and its communities depends on having high levels of skills.

“If we want to be competitive, we have to be able to help people develop their potential and have these skills the economy needs and that doesn’t mean a one-size fits all solution.”

The multiversity will offer a range of routes to high-skill levels in a lifelong learning environment.

Alun says: “Those multiple routes means that people will have the opportunity to get the skills they need. It is a flexible system which means they can dip in and out.

“It will have a hybrid role of a college and a university and bring ideas and innovation, supporting employers in different ways and giving people different access to skills.

“Historically this has been a proper technical college with great facilities working to the needs of employers.

"We have an opportunity to take that a step further.”

Alun’s career has been wide and varied. Prior to his previous role as principal of Oldham College he had worked in a range of public services,
local government, area-based regeneration, youth work and education, including primary, secondary and higher education.

His first role in Oldham was in charge of the borough’s secondary school
reorganisation programme, initiated after the riots in the town in 2001.

Part of that role was addressing the issue of schools that had become racially segregated.

He has also worked in some of the more deprived areas of Manchester and on the regeneration of the east of the city, which was the biggest project of its kind in the country at the time.

And he sees the Multiversity as an important regeneration programme.

“It is putting something amazing into a part of Blackpool that has been neglected and needs real investment.”

The common thread that runs through his career is an interest in how to address the problems of areas of economic decline and how to deliver better opportunities for people who live there.

Looking at his present role he says: “I’d probably not have moved to any other college or place in the country.

“Further Education colleges should be making a real contribution to their local economy.

"We have amazing facilities and a great relationship with employers but also a real opportunity to do something different."