About us
Incubated in 2025 by The Reach Foundation, we are a new national initiative dedicated to building the workforce children deserve.
Our purpose
We’re on a mission to build the workforce that children deserve.
We want every child to be able to rely on coherent systems of care and support. Too often, children in England are let down by services that are well-intentioned but ultimately fragmented.
We think there is a huge opportunity to change that, moving from disconnected disciplines and services to an interconnected, interdisciplinary workforce that is more than the sum of its parts.
Over the next decade, our ambition is to play a connecting role in and between those different parts, and to create the mechanisms by which they can come together meaningfully.
That means creating:
1.
A stronger shared story: building the evidence, examples, and narratives to see the children’s workforce as one connected system.
2.
New professional pathways: developing pathways that help people progress and connect, building shared capability and coherence across the system.
3.
Cross-sector learning and innovation: bringing professionals together to test, learn and design new ways of working around children’s needs.
Our team
Ned Younger
Managing Director
Ned has built programmes and partnerships across social impact sectors in the UK and internationally over the last decade, and was previously Managing Director at Koreo. He is a trustee of the Virgin Money Foundation, and Founding Chair of Inside Track.
Beck Crowhurst
Director of Education
Beck is an education leader, and was part of the founding team at Reach Academy Feltham in 2012. As Co-Headteacher, she successfully guided the school to an Outstanding Ofsted rating in 2024 and achieved the school's strongest-ever GCSE attainment in 2025.
Helen Francis
Programme Lead
Helen is an early years specialist. She taught in London for seven years before joining the team at Reach. She was previously one of the tutors on our Early Years Foundation Degree, and now works across the programme.
Our trustees
Gianina Harvey-Brewin
Co-Chair
Gianina is a trustee of the Reach Foundation and co-chair of the Centre for the Children’s Workforce. She is Dean of Continuing Education at Roehampton University, and Executive Director of Roehampton Education Services Ltd.
Jon McGoh
Trustee
Jon is the Chair of the Reach Foundation and also a co-founder and trustee of Reach Schools. Outside of Reach, he founded and ran Reach Cambridge Ltd., an organisation that specialises in running residential study courses. Jon is also a Director of Reach Mercurial Pictures Ltd.
Dr Michael Englard
Co-Chair
Dr Michael Englard is a trustee of the Reach Foundation and co-chair of the Centre for the Children’s Workforce. He is the UK CEO of Skills Builder Partnership, and was previously Registrar and Board Member at the London Interdisciplinary School
Ann Mroz
Trustee
Ann was the editor of Tes, ran Tes Resources and served as editor of Times Higher Education. She currently sits on the advisory groups for organizations including the Sutton Trust and the Education Endowment Foundation.
Our story
The Centre for the Children’s Workforce has been incubated by The Reach Foundation, an education charity which brings a decade of experience in building the practices and partnerships that connect schools, families and services.
Our flagship Foundation Degree builds directly on Reach’s Early Years Foundation Degree with Kingston University. The programme was delivered between 2020 and 2024, demonstrating the demand for this kind of model and its potential impact.
We are governed by the Reach Foundation board of trustees, which has a dedicated sub-committee for the project.
Our values
Care
We care about our work, each other, and the people we work with.
Courage
We want to do big things together.
Curiosity
We are always learning.
Community
We believe lasting change starts in community.
Credibility
We hold ourselves to a high standard.
Latest news and thinking
Get involved
Find out more about studying or partnering with us.