The report says that with the right support network most schools have the potential to be the focus of a vital resource for children, families, and communities. It argues that schools are trusted anchor institutions accessed by most children and are often the first port of call when families need help. At the same time, schools have connections to organisations that can provide support.
The report shows how bringing schools together with services, the community, and other organisations (including voluntary groups, local service providers, local business, faith groups, and others) is already working in some parts of the country, but it is ad hoc and reliant on forward thinking multi-academy trusts, local authorities, or charities who already recognise the crucial role schools play in building strong communities.
The report makes a series of recommendations, including:
• Calling on the main political parties to commit to developing a national strategy in government that puts schools at the heart of connected and co-delivered services for children and families. Schools are well-situated physical locations and a consistent point of contact for children, and well-positioned to act as hubs where services, the community, and a range of organisations including charities, local organisations, and business can be brought together. There are already innovative approaches being adopted which show how “outside school-gate services” such as dental care, mental health services, and youth work can be brought inside educational settings.
• Ring-fencing funding for schools so they can access and provide the programmes, activities, and services that meet the needs of local children and families, such as breakfast clubs, before- and after-school provision and holiday clubs, in-school dedicated health and support teams, provision or signposting to other out-of-school youth, adult learning, and community provision.
• Encouraging holistic and collaborative working by co-producing connected services with children, young people, families, and the wider community. The report provides examples of school staff, parents, and children working with other providers such as charities, health services, businesses, and local authorities to produce positive change in their communities.
Teh report states there is growing evidence that services can work together, and deliver benefits from doing so, even when finances are stretched. New ways of linking services are emerging that are based on the understanding that children’s needs across different aspects of their lives and service domains are completely connected. It calls on Integrated Care Boards and Integrated Care Services to take this opportunity to develop imaginative collaborations between health and other services. Using data more effectively between agencies will also assist more timely inter-agency collaboration and better services.
The report highlights the Born in Bradford project which has showcased the potential of connecting data between different services to encourage an integrated approach to care. Similar approaches to linking data are being adopted by other projects across the North of England including in Leeds, Doncaster, Wakefield, and Liverpool.
It also provides examples where innovative, creative approaches to early intervention around schools are having tangible results:
• The West End Children’s Community (WECC) in the West of Newcastle is a place-based community initiative that has been developed by a partnership of local organisations, aimed at generational change in the face of persistent and rising poverty. The anchor institutions at the centre of this initiative are eight primary schools from the West End Schools Trust and Newcastle University. The WECC prioritises inclusion and empowerment of their community, knowing local people possess knowledge, strengths, and skills. The organisation works in partnership to provide responses to poverty from “cradle to career” for children, by bringing together sectors that may not usually collaborate, such as education, health services, the local authority, culture, and voluntary services. They provide networking opportunities, information sharing, and takes purposeful, evidence-based collaborative action to stimulate change. Key activities have included an annual STEM event for local primary school children, a family mental health program, planning of out-of-school activities and a pre-reading programme.
• Surrey Square Primary School, located in South London, has embarked on a mission to create a supportive environment that addresses the holistic needs of its students and their families, designing its curriculum and practices around the needs of the community, rather than an expectation that the community fits into its model. A core part of that work is the role of the “family and community coordinator”, who is employed by the school and is focused entirely on building relationships with parents and community members.
• In Bradford, the Education Alliance for Life Chances (EALC) was formed as a legacy recommendation from Bradford’s Opportunity Area to sustain progress on social mobility. Each Opportunity Area worked in partnership with local nurseries, schools, colleges, businesses, and charities to overcome the barriers that hold back some children. EALC is led by the leaders of multi-academy trusts, local authority, health trusts, policing, universities, and faith groups. In Bradford, EALC has partnered with the Centre for Applied Education Research (CAER) to bring research to schools and early years settings, effectively placing it as the district’s Research and Development department. This includes connecting children’s data and enabling information sharing to improve safeguarding and efficiencies, demonstrate trends and tackle poor school attendance, and identify children at an increased likelihood of autism.
• The report also highlights the work of Oasis schools, such as the Oasis Academy Hadley in Enfield, which has spent many years building relationships and trust with the local community, so that there is a close bond between the school, with its bustling reception area open to parents to come in and chat or ask for advice, and the wider local community. Hadley’s youth centre, with its after-school facilities including sport, music, and discussion groups, sits geographically and emotionally connected to the school. Across the road is the Oasis family/community support centre, which provides help and advice to local families, including food, help with paying bills, advice and support with services, and community activities from early years onwards. This joined up, integrated offer to children and local families is a model for others to follow.
