Maria has played the key leadership role in driving forward the Home Office agenda on Social Mobility inclusion since 2018. She leads a small core team comprising staff from Home Office and the D&I team who are jointly responsible for driving forward action with business areas from the Home Office Social Mobility Strategy, which she guided to publication in 2019 and which focuses on three pillars of priorities:

•Outreach – Working with local community groups, schools, colleges and universities, across the UK, particularly working in social mobility cold spots.

•Recruitment – Removing barriers in our recruitment process and ensuring roles are accessible to people from working-class backgrounds.

•Retention and Progression – Ensuring that once a person is employed in the Home Office, they do not face barriers due to being from a working-class background.

Maria leads our engagement in the Cross Government Group on Social Mobility, sharing best practice and lessons from practical experience and her work leading the LSE Hub has provided an ongoing opportunity for colleagues to come together at a regional level to achieve the same outcomes.