There has been a wide acceptance in recent years of the importance of equality. Legislation in the UK and many other places make discrimination on grounds of race, gender identify, sexual orientation and disability illegal. The Government Equalities Office, established in 2007, has responsibility for achieving equality, and advises the rest of government on this – particularly regarding gender equality.

Tackling inequality is, to a certain extent, baked into the What Works Network. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), for example, is explicitly focused on reducing the attainment gap in education between rich and poor (as defined by eligibility for free school meals). The Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education centre indicates from its name a desire to broaden both attendance and attainment in higher education. Given that there are substantial attendance gaps across racial, disability and poverty lines, there is an explicit focus on inequality. For other centres, the focus on inequality is more tacit, but is clearly a part of their missions. What Works for Children's Social Care, for example, aims to improve health, education and criminal justice outcomes for young people with a social worker. Although this group is not one of those identified by many interested in inequality, it contains many who are. Because every child with a disability is classed as a ‘child in need’; because of the correlation between poverty and being in foster or residential care; because of the correlation between race and state involvement in family life – each of these makes it more likely that young people with a social worker are members of other groups on which equality campaigns focus. The same can be said of centres focused on local economic growth, reducing youth violence and increasing employment.

Despite this implicit and explicit focus across the network, there has been relatively less work that focuses particularly on equality in and of itself. In most research projects, the outcome of interest is usually some absolute measure of performance – number of students passing their GCSEs, progressing to university or avoiding a particular illness.