At the recent CST conference, Leora made an important point that I imagine resonated with us all: while schools and trusts cannot – and should not – do everything, they are uniquely placed to understand the challenges young people face and to bring partners together to respond effectively.
Our recently published research - Three Thousand Voices: Growing up in South East London Research has provided us with insight that can guide this type of action, across our trust, our schools and the wider community.
This is the largest wellbeing survey we have ever carried out. gathering the perspectives of over 3,000 young people in our schools and college. While the findings themselves are important, the extra value lies in how these insights are now supporting us to make more informed decisions.
By providing a clear baseline of wellbeing, social connections and the pressures children face at different stages, this research is enabling us to identify where resources are most needed. We can better assess which interventions should be prioritised and how we can work effectively with our partners to meet those needs.
Having this local, detailed view is vital. National trends are helpful, but they cannot capture the subtle differences between communities or cohorts. Our research is helping us respond to these local nuances, ensuring that our programmes, particularly those being developed by our charitable foundation - and are targeted effectively.
Findings
Through this research, we were keen to identify challenges; but also wanted to develop a tool for longer term planning and partnership.
For example, the survey highlighted a noticeable dip in wellbeing during the transition from primary to secondary school, when the proportion of young people saying they have someone supportive to talk to drops by around 30%. Differences in wellbeing were also evident across groups, with looked-after children, LGBTQ+ young people and those with additional needs reporting lower levels of support, safety and belonging.
While 87% of learners said they live with people who make them feel loved, this figure fell to 54% among looked-after children and 55% among those who do not identify as male or female. Similarly, although 82% said their families have what they need to support them, this dropped significantly for those entitled to free school meals (66%) and LGBTQ+ learners (52%).
By understanding what children and young people actually experience, we can focus on interventions that have the greatest impact – whether, for example, that is mental health support, more opportunities for social connection or career mentoring.
This insight will support us to allocate resources more strategically, ensuring our decisions are evidence-led rather than reactive or assumption-driven.
Partnerships
The idea of a Partnership Dividend was also highlighted at the conference – a concept that really resonates with us. By working alongside partners who share our commitment to evidence-led improvement, we can create richer insights and more joined-up actions.
As trusts, we are uniquely positioned to convene others and coordinate responses with a range of organisations including local authorities, youth organisations, mental health providers and community groups. Our research provides a shared starting point for this collaboration – offering clear evidence of need, insight into where interventions are most urgent and a framework for collective action.
Together, we can strengthen the connection between policy and practice for those whose voices too often go unheard in policymaking. In doing so, we can ensure that our decisions are grounded not only in data, but in the lived experiences of the young people and families we serve.
Looking forward
This is where we want to focus our efforts moving forward. As I said at the Roundtable Discussion we held to launch the paper: “…policy change only matters if it improves lived experience. That must become our measure of success.”
We are committed to measuring ourselves against the voices of our learners – through a lived experience index or similar accountability tool – to make sure their experiences drive real change. We are keen to collaborate with others on this, extending an open invitation to trusts, schools, local authorities and all other interested charity/community partners to work with us.
In a sector where everyone is doing their best with limited resources, evidence-led approaches enable more informed, joined-up decisions – ultimately meaning better support for our children and young people, which is always our ultimate objective.
Three Thousand Voices is a starting point for shared learning, which we plan to repeat at different intervals over the coming years. For trusts considering similar work, we hope this research might offer a few reflections that prove useful.
Local, systematic research can provide a valuable snapshot of how schools and trusts are doing – celebrating what’s working well, while also identifying areas where additional support could make a difference.
Above all, it helps keep young people’s voices at the centre, ensuring that our collective priorities genuinely reflect their experiences and needs.
- Dr Sam Parrett CBE is CEO of Elevare Civic Education Group, which includes London South East Academies Trust
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