Alun Francis has been named as interim chair of the Social Mobility Commission today.
He is stepping up from the role of deputy following the resignation of Katharine Birbalsingh as social mobility tsar.
The Cabinet Office said Mr Francis had assumed the position with immediate effect while a full-time replacement is found.
Ms Birbalsingh, the high-profile headteacher and founder of Michaela Community School in Wembley, was appointed as the chair of the commission in 2021.
In her resignation letter to women and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch this morning, Ms Birbalsingh said: “I come with too much baggage to be as effective as I would like to be as chair.
“I have become increasingly aware of how my notoriety puts the commission in jeopardy and I always end up approaching news interviews in a defensive way.
“I also very much worry that all of our excellent work will be ignored by some people who would genuinely benefit from listening to it,” she added.
“They have already told me this on Twitter. They say that if the commission work finds evidence to back what we do at Michaela, they will be very suspicious.”
Ms Birbalsingh also said that people on Twitter had “advised” her to outsource all of the commission’s work on schools.
“If the secretariat team does the analysis, then it is tainted because the team is tainted by me,” she said.
“My sense is that the commission will find that the things we do at Michaela make for good schools, but rather than think, ‘Well, of course, SMC evidence matches with what Michaela does because Michaela is a very successful school,’ people will imagine that something sinister is going on and that I am using the commission in order to prove a point with Michaela.”
Birbalsingh torn over social mobility role
She added: “People regularly say to me, ‘You can’t say that as chair.’ The role gags me and turns me into someone that I’m not, and when I weigh it all up, I’m doing the commission more harm than good.”
The commission published its State of the Nation report in June last year, including a new Social Mobility Index system, which purports to measure people’s “actual mobility” through life.
Ms Badenoch’s letter in response to Ms Birbalsingh’s announcement thanked the latter for her work overseeing the creation of the “rigorous and systematic” index and wished her the best for the future.
In a statement, Mr Francis, principal of Oldham College, said this morning he was “very pleased” to accept the role.
“The commission continues to go from strength to strength, and I look forward to working with the minister for women and equalities to continue to champion social mobility across Britain,” he said.
Ms Badenoch said: “I am delighted that Alun Francis has agreed to be the interim chair of the commission.
“During his time as deputy chair I have seen that Alun has all the necessary skills and experience to ensure accountability and strong leadership of the commission and will continue to champion and improve social mobility across the UK.
“I am very grateful to Katharine for her time as chair, and congratulate her on successfully giving the organisation a strong sense of direction and purpose. I know that Alun will continue to build upon her excellent work.”
