Spotlight On…Ruth Lupton
Professor of Education and Head of the Inclusive Growth Analysis Unit (IGAU), SEED
Please can you tell us a little about your role and what the most fulfilling aspect of it is?
For the past four years, I’ve been leading the Inclusive Growth Analysis Unit (IGAU). Inclusive growth is economic growth which brings benefits to a wider range of people, reducing inequalities and poverty. IGAU was set up by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the University to contribute to inclusive growth in Greater Manchester (GM) by researching problems and solutions and using the University’s independent position to get people together and promote enquiry and debate. What I’ve most enjoyed about the role is working with a whole range of policy-makers, practitioners, activists and thinkers across GM and doing applied research which is making a difference in real time. It has been fun and rewarding to work with IGAU’s committed young research team.
Earlier this week we held a Hallsworth Conference on Inclusive Growth where you launched a report bringing together the findings of the IGAU. Please can you share your thoughts on the progress on inclusive growth across GM, and how the report’s findings could impact on inclusive growth this area in the future?
Devolution of powers to GM and the election of a Mayor brings significant opportunities to join up economic and social policies in ways that could promote more inclusive growth. Since 2017 a lot of progress has been made, including a new spatial plan bringing more investment to ‘left-behind’ areas, an industrial strategy that emphasises the need to improve productivity, employment standards and pay in low paid sectors, and a good employment charter. Drawing on examples from other cities, our report suggests how these developments could be extended and embedded, with the Mayor and Combined Authority making inclusive growth the central theme of their next GM strategy, and establishing the investment funds, systems and infrastructure to bring about a long term transformation.
Which aspects of the work do you most want to see taken forward in the next year?
For me, a key ‘ask’ would be that GM starts to take a strategic overview of its education and training system, just as it has done with health and social care. Bus franchising is also something which could really make a difference to the landscape of opportunity in GM. These are things which we can help with in the University, bringing our knowledge and expertise to shaping and evaluating policy, so I hope the next year will bring even stronger research/policy partnerships in the city-region.
Who most inspires you and why?
Too many to name! I’m very readily inspired by effort and imagination. Graduation always has me in tears! My professional role models include my late father, Tom Lupton, a former director of the Manchester Business School, and the late Geoff Whitty, who directed the Institute of Education in London. They were both sociologists who combined academic rigour with a strong engagement with policy and practice.