Breaking the cycle of exploitation: Reflecting on Phase I of the Disrupting Exploitation Programme
September marked a moment for The Children’s Society’s Disrupting Exploitation Programme. As a programme, we’re transitioning from the first phase of delivery into the second. A moment to reflect, learn and share — and feel confident in the foundation we’ve laid for Phase II. This blog will take a look back at the key lessons of the programme with the aim of sharing these openly with those embarking on a similar journey.
From the very beginning we have worked — supported by our funder and strategic partner, the National Lottery Community Fund — to establish a programme that works with young people and their families, and on the systems around them. We deliver the programme focussed on a number of different systems that surround young people and their families. We call this a model of systemic intervention. We work in this way, because we’ve found, when we work across the different levels that more sustainable shifts and changes can be made to improve outcomes for exploited children. We can also impact on the lives of more young people than we will ever be able to see directly through our frontline practice.
Systemic model of intervention in Disrupting Exploitation
Relentless focus on Young People
At the heart of this complex system in which we operate (the world of exploitation, child protection, disruption, crime and vulnerabilities) are young people themselves, and a commitment to work towards our ultimate programme goal of a reduction in the risk and prevalence of child criminal exploitation and our organisational goal to overturn the decline of young people’s wellbeing by 2030.
The direct work we do with young people reflects the complexity of child exploitation, and the skills of the frontline practitioners who seek to disrupt it. And, we know we’ve made a difference.
Key statistics from Phase I of the Disrupting Exploitation Programme
We want to build on this foundation as we progress the programme.
Fostering a learning culture
Throughout the Disrupting Exploitation Programme we have documented our learning, shared our insights and been honest with ourselves and others where we’ve faced (and hopefully) overcome challenges. Below are blogs which show our learning journey:
· Nicola Webster, a Project Worker on Disrupting Exploitation in Greater Manchester blogged about how systems change, underpinned by Contextual Safeguarding, can reform local meeting structures to adopt a strengths-based approach to supporting young people https://medium.com/on-the-frontline-of-systems-change/in-real-life-disrupting-exploitation-through-systems-change-d6a08df70d48
· We’ve learnt a huge amount — and continue to do so — on measuring and showing the impact of systems change. In these two blogs Evaluation Manager Chloe Nelson and National Programme Manager Becky Fedia share their insight on this subject
· Adam Groves (Service Design Lead) — ably helped by a range of colleagues — shares in this blog our ethos behind the design of the Disrupting Exploitation Programme and how the programme has shaped organisational thinking on systems change
It’s now a good time to look back at the longer narrative of Phase I of the Disrupting Exploitation programme and in doing so capture and share the overarching lessons of the programme’s first phase. These lessons will be captured in greater depth in an upcoming publication from our Learning Partner for the programme, the Dartington Service Design Lab.
Here I draw out just one that on reflection I believe has had the most impact and which if I was to advise others embarking on a similar journey I would want to leave them with.
Prioritising systems change
In Year One of the programme we explored and developed our understanding of the ‘system’ that seeks to support and tackle child criminal exploitation in each of our operating areas — Greater Manchester, Birmingham and London. We ‘saw and sat in the system’, we listened to young people, analysed and reviewed data trends in our caseload, grappled with partners about system improvements and this led to a wide range of system interventions being undertaken mainly at a local level.
As we moved into Year Two we knew to make more impact we needed to prioritise. We drew together all our system interventions, took a step back and we looked at commonalities and issues that just kept coming up — regardless of where in the country we were working or the young person standing in front of us. This led to focusing on three key focus points or reachable moments within the system, and these remain our systems change priorities.
Systems change priorities for the Disrupting Exploitation Programme
We work on these systems change priorities using the systemic model of intervention, informed by a programmatic theory of change. As I reflect on this journey, I can see the impact Disrupting Exploitation has had organisationally and on the mobilisation and development of other national programmes. We know the necessity of this prioritisation journey and the importance of being disciplined and focused in our systems change work.
We have now established an infrastructure behind each systems change priority with a working group on each — convening colleagues internally and externally around these topics. We also have developed a ‘nested’ theory of change for our school exclusions priority to allow us to show specific and compelling impact in this part of the system as we move into Phase II delivery.
I should stress this is not an easy process — prioritising is hard. Do I think there are other systems that need reform to better safeguard children who are exploited? Yes. But, I have learnt that systems change requires partnerships, time, investment and intervention at multiple points in the system to effect change. This means we must prioritise. We have had to let go of things which don’t fall within scope of these priorities, we have questioned our assumptions on what is needed to affect change as we delved deeper into the problem and have challenged ourselves on what change we believe we should be able to see as a result of our concentrated work. We know we have more to learn here too.
‘Nested’ theory of change on school exclusions. In the Autumn specific theories of change will be developed for our other systems change priorities.
Looking forward
During the second phase of delivery we’ll be continuing to foster our learning culture, placing a higher emphasis on building partnerships to achieve change. We will continue to work to spread systems thinking in the complex sector of child protection and act as systems conveners, supporting others to think and work systemically. We will continue to deepen our understanding of measuring the impact of systems change. This will be with the support and challenge of our funder, The National Lottery Community Fund.
Personally, as I conclude my final week at The Children’s Society after eight years, I feel immensely proud of the organisation on its systems change journey and especially so of the wonderful colleagues and leaders (both past and present) on the Disrupting Exploitation Programme. I look forward to cheering on the programme as it moves into its second phase.
