EDITOR'S CHRISTMAS LETTER

By Simon Schofield

We can’t sugar coat it. It’s been another tough year riding out this pandemic together. Life has not yet returned to normal as hoped. The trials and tribulations of this unique moment in history are well-documented. Our great problem-solving skills are why we are among the most resilient creatures on the planet, thriving in Arctic tundras, arid deserts, and tropical rainforests. However, when you wield the hammer of problem-solving, every issue looks like a problematic nail. We are primed not to notice as much when things are going well than when they are deteriorating and require attention.

However, if you cease looking for problems to solve for a moment, you will notice people going out of their way to solve problems for others. Since the dawn of the pandemic, I have come to know my neighbours better. Whilst we would exchange awkward pleasantries before lockdown, now we take the time to ask each other how we are doing and do small things to make life easier – getting a spare key cut for the communal door, helping take shopping to an ill relative, or just stopping to chat and offer some support. I have noticed this online, where Facebook groups and Twitter feeds have sprung up for local people to ask for and offer help to one another.

The Covid outbreak has foisted a multitude of inconveniences on us all and exposed some of the less flattering facets of human nature. However, it has also unleashed a spirit of generosity that had hitherto been dormant. This is the essence of what David Cameron called ‘the Big Society’. It may have been communicated somewhat ambiguously, and the cynics poured a surprising degree of scorn on the policy, but it is something many of us do instinctively. The Government has spent unprecedented amounts of taxpayers’ money on the Covid response, providing vaccines, grants, and emergency supplies. However, in the spirit of the Big Society, we haven’t all just sat back and let the Government do all the work. What we can do for ourselves and each other, we have.

The pay-off for doing this is that we build something that a bureaucratic government struggles to create: community. A hackneyed buzzword it may be, and many find it increasingly boring. It’s treated like free marshmallows – nice to have and cheap to give away, but lacking substance, and easily forgotten. However, the meaning of community is deeper than platitudes, it is human connection, the stuff that truly makes life feel meaningful. It’s the difference between a supermarket where every customer is treated like just another person looking to scan their items, touch their card and leave before they’re forced to make eye contact with a stranger, and a place where John from round the corner comes to buy sweets to reward his son for achieving an award in class, or where Jane from down the road comes to buy a newspaper to read to her ailing mother. That difference is everything, and it’s something we can all decide to build for ourselves and each other every day.

At Centric, our mission is to give a voice and a platform to people and perspectives that often go unheard. We believe not only in diversity of people, but diversity of ideas. It is only in a free market of ideas that we can sort what works to open doors of opportunity for everyone, and what is old hat that needs to be consigned to the wastebin.

Christmas, whether you celebrate or not, offers a chance to reflect on the year, reconnect with those we love, and recharge our batteries. However, there are people out there for whom it is an incredibly hard time, who often go unnoticed by those around them. Some people will be forced to isolate this Christmas, away from their friends and family, having tested positive for Covid-19. In the spirit of both our mission and the Big Society, please keep an eye out for opportunities to serve your community. Ask your neighbour how they are coping, even if you don’t normally talk to them. Ring that friend who hasn’t been doing so well lately. Join your local community page and see if there is anything you have, but don’t need or use, that might make life easier for someone else. It’s not an original idea, but it’s needed now more than ever as we amble into the third year of the pandemic, blinking into the light (which might be the end of a tunnel, or a harbinger of hardship), and anticipating what ups and downs 2022 will bring. To all our readers, thank you for your support in 2021. We hope you have a restful and enjoyable Christmas, a very Happy New Year, and a bright and prosperous 2022.      

FROM SURVIVING TO THRIVING: SOCIAL-MOBILITY MODELS IN UK’S BAME COMMUNITIES

By Davida Ademuyiwa

The Covid pandemic has played a big role in exposing British social-economic inequalities. Black and ethnic minority communities were the worst affected, which clearly tells us that more needs to be done to address this problem.

According to Deloitte: “The UK has one of the poorest rates of social mobility in the developed world. This means that people born into low-income families, regardless of their talent, or their hard work, do not have the same access to opportunities as those born into more privileged circumstances.”

Awareness that the problem exists is a starting point. Education on how the inequity can be addressed would help orientate those impacted towards adopting the right mindset and choices that can help improve their life chances, moving them towards upward social mobility rather that experiencing downward mobility.

At the same time, government policy can remove obstacles preventing these people from accessing and engaging in the education system, becoming gainfully employed, starting and growing their own businesses, and getting on the housing ladder.

The Two-Pronged Effect of Emigration

Contrary to popular belief, not every immigrant to the UK comes for an economically better life.  In many cases they can end up being worse off.  Emigration can have a two-way effect on social mobility. In some cases, it means downward mobility for people well placed in their home society but had to leave due to conflict or other socio-political situations. Coming to the UK is known to be a leveller. Thus, you will find many black and ethnic minority (BAME) people of different socioeconomic statuses having to start at the lowest rungs of the social ladder.

Before anybody can go from striving to thriving economically, they would need a shift in their thinking. The same mindset that helps a community in survival mode is not the same one that would help them go to the next level and ascend the economic ladder.  However, for various reasons many get stuck. Then again, wealth in BAME communities is not an individual achievement, it is often a family matter. Family members are known to have made great sacrifices to the individual’s achievement, therefore as they go up the socioeconomic ladder, they constantly have to reach back to help family members who are still steeped in the poor conditions they left behind, thus making the climb slower and more onerous.

The Education Social Mobility Model

Many see education as the key to becoming socially mobile.  In the ‘60s we saw illiterate but industrious parents educating their children in order to help them climb the ladder.  The UK saw an influx of BAME people from countries that had colonial ties with Britain, coming into the UK to be professionally educated and trained to become nurses, doctors, engineers, pharmacists, lecturers, architects etc. Many returned to their native countries after their education to join the emerging affluent class.

Following that model of social mobility worked for them, and so numerous immigrant parents place high value on education to ensure that their children achieve academically in pursuit of intergenerational social mobility. 

One factor not often highlighted is the limited types of intelligences recognised and rewarded by the education and employment systems. The intelligence recognised by the education system often dictates how well a child can achieve. Traditional education and employment systems are geared towards measuring and rewarding only certain types of intelligences such as logical mathematical intelligence and scientific intelligence, to the detriment of others. However, life often rewards other forms of intelligence. Actors and actresses; musicians; entertainers and athletes; writers; TV broadcasters, and other talented people do well in life, becoming highly socially mobile in their lifetime.

The Business Social Mobility Model

Accessing to education does not necessarily mean success for some who are unable to complete their schooling. Many drop out and find themselves at the bottom rung of the ladder. Some find themselves hustling and living hand-to-mouth throughout their lives. Conversely, others develop entrepreneurial skills, finding opportunity, social networks, and funding that enables them to pull themselves out of a downward social mobility spiral.  However, the majority are left to flounder. Thus, there is a need for an alternative system to help these people move beyond survival to thriving, that rewards those with talents outside the narrow scope of the education system.

Whilst there are pockets of more privileged BAME children and young people who do well in the educational system, more help is needed for those who do not so that they can build well-developed entrepreneurial acumen to build a business that will positively support and contribute to the British economy.

The Government occasionally implements schemes that provide this alternative, however, this alternative provision is often poorly planned, supported, and funded. These programs are often short-term with sporadic funding. The government needs to pay more attention to this, as a great number of people from BAME communities have used these schemes, for instance in the corner shop or kebab van economy, to access and achieve social mobility.

The sad thing for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds is that most of them do develop entrepreneurial skills, but for some it is on the wrong side of the law. For many of these young people, having their own disposable income is important due to poverty at home, so they become easy targets for criminal gangs and are easily drawn into crime, perpetuating the trend of downward social-mobility.

The Investment Social Mobility Model

Homeownership has always been an important marker for upward social mobility. It is seen as one of the quickest ways to build wealth.

The most socially upwardly mobile from BAME communities are those who have pursued investing in their own homes and have speedily gone on to grow their own property portfolios.  Unfortunately, the drive to get on the social housing waiting list is a big deception that becomes an obstacle which prevents many BAME people from becoming socially mobile.

Margaret Thatcher's Right to Buy policies in the ‘80s enabled many in social housing to buy their own home, helping many who would not have otherwise been able to get on the housing ladder become upwardly mobile. According to The Guardian, “Home ownership grew from 55% of the population in 1980 to 64% in 1987. By the time Margaret Thatcher left office in 1990 it was 67%. 1.5 million council houses were sold by 1990, by 1995 it was 2.1 million.”  Boris Johnson also has plans to help thousands of young people onto the property ladder and has vowed to pave the way for renters to become homeowners.

Whilst social housing has a place in sheltering the vulnerable, preventing homelessness, and helping people start out, homeownership is the key that often helps them gain social mobility traction.

In Conclusion

According to the Resolution Foundation, wealth gaps between different ethnic groups in Britain are large and likely to persist: “People of Black African ethnicity typically hold the lowest wealth (a median figure of £24,000 family wealth per adult), a total which amounts to less than one eighth of the typical wealth held by a person of White British ethnicity (£197,000 family wealth per adult). Those of Bangladeshi ethnicity typically hold just £31,000 family wealth per adult (median figure), while those with Mixed White and Black Caribbean ethnicity typically hold £41,800.”

These statistics look bleak.

Although many BAME people already employ the three social mobility models mentioned above, we need to see more from these communities adopting them if we want to see a cessation of intergenerational disadvantage.

We must educate the community to be intentional about becoming upwardly mobile. BAME people need shift how they think about economic issues that feed into the choices they make and inevitably help to perpetuate the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage rather than advantage.

With many BAME people living at the lowest rungs of the UK's socioeconomic ladder, intergenerational downward mobility is certainly not an option that the UK can entertain, as it comes with other vices that suck individuals, families, communities, and the nation into a further downward spiral; it perpetuates crime, such as the drug, gang, and the gun and knife culture which all have their own repercussions.

Some people in these communities are proactively taking responsibility for their own upward progress and continue to pull themselves up by the bootstraps as they climb the socioeconomic ladder. For the rest, early interventions, such as investment in the provision of financial and entrepreneurial education and efforts to assist and encourage the upward social mobility of this subsection of UK’s society is a must.

Davida Ademuyiwa

THE UNTOLD SIDE EFFECTS OF COVID ON WOMEN

By Dr Sandesh Gulhane

We all know the devastation COVID has directly had on our health, from killing us to leaving us debilitated though long COVID, but for most people it is the indirect consequences that have caused the greatest suffering. Lockdown, social distancing, and the fear of COVID has deteriorated our mental health, stretched our finances to breaking point and turned 2020 in the year we all want to forget. But this impact has not been felt equally by all.  

It has been well documented that women earn less than their male counterparts across all sectors, but women also tend to hold less secure jobs, be much more likely to have work in the informal sector and also form the vast majority of single parent families. This is why women have a greater struggle against economic shocks than men. In the UK, mothers are 1.5 times more likely to have lost their job or quit than fathers during lockdown. Some of this has been caused by women home schooling their children. UCL found that women spent twice as long teaching their children whilst also bearing the brunt of childcare. This has led to women feeling their wellbeing was suffering with over 50% admitting they were struggling. This disparity was made abundantly evident through a Kings College London study that revealed men were more likely to be bored during lockdown whilst women feeling exhaustion. Of those women who continued to work throughout lockdown, many seemed to have very stressful jobs, with women making up 77% of healthcare workers, 83% social care, 92% childcare and 58% retail staff.   

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Women are also suffering from an exponential rise in domestic abuse globally. In the UK alone, 47 women are suspected to have been murdered during the first lockdown because of domestic abuse in figures released by the charity Counting Dead Women. The National Domestic Abuse Helpline saw a massive increase in calls it received during both lockdowns. The struggle for women is that they are trapped with their abuser and cannot reach out for help. The trend has been for technology to be used to control and intimidate, with the use of webcams, smart locks, and social media. 

A study in the Lancet found that women and those living with young children had the greatest risk of increased mental distress, whilst a government report showed women suffering worse anxiety and depression. This is borne out by what I am seeing in my surgery with increasing numbers of women presenting themselves to me in distress. This ranges from patients showing mild symptoms to actively suicidal thoughts, and as lockdown has progressed the numbers have been increasing. I am also concerned about the number of women who are feeling low and struggling but not coming forward and asking for help. The cardinal signs I want women to look for are: having a low mood more often than not over 2 weeks, a change in sleeping patterns, loss of energy or concentration, becoming easily irritable with others, an increased and consistent heartrate, and repeated anxiety. If you have any of these signs then please contact your GP and we can begin the process to help you. Educational institutions like Universities offer incredible support and employers can help by ensuring that they have educational programmes about mental health, target gender inequality across their company, give staff access to helplines and support at an early stage.  

The recent tragic case of Sarah Everard has triggered a much needed debate on women’s safety and how vulnerable they can be but we need to ensure that domestic issues that often go unseen are also discussed. More must be done to narrow and eliminate the gender disparity in our society as that is the only way we can ever hope to be a fair civilization.

Dr Sandesh Gulhane

Dr Sandesh Gulhane