Workforce as Social Infrastructure
By Mei Lim
This article is part of series of guest posts written by colleagues across the children’s workforce to mark the launch of the Centre. This piece is written by Mei Lim, Executive Director at the Reach Foundation.
Our vision at the Reach Foundation is for every baby, child and young person to be able to enjoy a life of choice and opportunity. Whilst this vision originated from a school, Reach Academy Feltham, it intentionally challenges us to think beyond the boundaries of schools and the teaching workforce. By naming every baby, child and young person (BCYP), we are declaring our intent to work holistically with everyone who works with and has influence over BCYP's outcomes: the children's workforce.
When I think back over the past 7 years and the work we've been doing to try and achieve this vision, there are two particular examples that spring to mind, which I think demonstrate what is possible when we act collectively as a workforce, united in our shared accountability for BCYP outcomes in a place.
In January 2022, our team was contacted out of the blue by the Local Authority and informed that a large hotel in the centre of Feltham had been recommissioned to house refugee and asylum-seeker families. Pretty much overnight, they moved in the first 40 families and it wasn't long before the hotel had reached full capacity, housing 800 individuals. The Local Authority asked for help to manage a smooth integration and I think the reason they reached out to us was simple: i) we had a track record of working well with families, ii) we were place-based in our approach, working deeply in the west of the borough where Feltham is located and iii) we had strong cross-sector relationships that meant we were able to convene - quickly - local GPs, health visitors, charities, faith groups, Early Years settings, and schools.
Within a matter of weeks, we had coordinated the registration of families with GPs; supported the transition of all school-aged children into local schools; delivered weekly sessions at the hotel for parents with children under-5, and the distribution of free toys, books and essentials from the LA; brokered a catering contract to ensure the children were receiving healthy and appropriate meals; worked with other VCSE organisations to set up a clothes bank; and had arranged for a variety of sports providers to run physical activities for different age groups. One of my colleagues had established such strong relationships with all the local Early Years' providers, through the delivery of the EY Foundation Degree, that she was able to place all the children aged 2-5 in settings in the course of a few days - something the LA by their own admission would not have been able to do.
The second example was smaller in scale but no less impactful. At 11.45am on Tuesday 8th March 2022, I received an e-mail from the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) Supervisor in Hounslow with the subject 'Scoping a father's group'. FNP are an amazing part of the children's workforce, supporting young parents under the age of 21 from early pregnancy through the first 1001 days of their baby's life. They reached out to us and the Children's Centre Lead in the borough to ask if there was any possibility of running a Stay & Play group specifically for dads. By 3.52pm that same day, we had collectively agreed on a venue, time and date for a weekly session and the delivery team. As the FNP Supervisor said, "I love how we have just made this happen."
There is no doubt in my mind that in both cases, we were only able to respond as quickly and effectively as we did because of the relationships we had intentionally built across the wider children's workforce, over time. At Reach, we have never seen ourselves as 'just' a school or 'just' a charity. Instead, we have always tried to think about a child's experience growing up in a place from cradle to career, and tried to understand our role in this wider context; as depicted in Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, which we so often refer back to.
That said, in recounting these examples I am also struck by the fact that they show us being reactive rather than proactive. It is of course important that we could pivot and respond so quickly, and there have been many other occasions over the years when we've had to act in this way, most obviously during the pandemic and the cost of living crisis. And yes, because we had strong foundational relationships in place, we were able to convene other key stakeholders and bring them along with us. But I can't help thinking how much better it would have been if services and professionals across the community had already been deeply woven together, so that when we were tested we didn't have to scrabble, but instead could just gently flex our collective muscle - confident in our identity as the children's workforce, with shared accountability and differentiated responsibilities.
I think it is hugely exciting and hopeful that the Centre will help address this challenge by positioning itself upstream. By seeking to work with professionals at the earliest stage of their careers, it will help build a collective mindset and establish ways of working that become normalised and embedded throughout the system, deeper and quicker than any other attempts to intervene or course-correct later on. The Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods recently published a report entitled Social infrastructure and social capital - the active elements of community resilience, which resonated hugely with our experiences in Feltham. In bringing professionals to learn together through the flagship Foundation Degree, the Centre will be making a significant contribution towards building the social infrastructure and social capital required at a workforce level - a necessary first step in order to ensure every child can enjoy a life of choice and opportunity.
