Imagining the future of systems change at The Children’s Society
I’m entering my final weeks working as Design Lead at The Children’s Society. Much of my time here — especially in the early days — was spent working with talented colleagues to highlight, grow and embed approaches to ‘systems change’ in the organisation. As I near my leaving date, I’ve been wondering what the future might hold for this work…
The journey so far…
The Children’s Society has a rich history of public campaigning and policy work, and also of supporting individual young people through 1–2–1 and small group interventions. Over the past five years, the organisation has launched a number of ‘systems change’ programmes, which aimed to operate in the ‘space’ between policy and practice.
Award winning programmes such as ‘Disrupting Exploitation’, ‘Prevention’ and ‘Tackling Child Exploitation’ have focused on improving and changing systems where the ‘rubber hits the road’ — that is where culture and policy are translated by institutions (such as charities, schools, the police and local authorities) into repeated everyday interactions with young people. By changing what happens by default in these moments, the programmes aim to change the course of thousands of young people’s lives for the better.
Real world examples of The Children’s Society’s systems change work include our #LookCloser collaboration with the police and Home Office, which helps the people most likely to encounter children who are being exploited (for example staff at transport hubs, bank branches and fast food outlets) to spot signs that something is wrong. Our work at the ‘point of arrest’ aims to ensure these children are supported rather than criminalised.
These programmes were initiated under The Children’s Society’s 2017–21 strategy, which called on the organisation to use systems-informed practice, co-design and experimentation to ‘break the cycles of disadvantage’ perpetuating challenges faced by young people. It was an effort to direct The Children’s Society’s (relatively) modest resources at those points in the system where we could bring about disproportionate and sustainable change.
Whilst we’re still very much on the journey towards systems-informed ways of working, the language and practice of systems change is increasingly embedded within The Children’s Society. Moreover there’s significant and ongoing effort to refine and improve our understanding of, and approach to, systems change — including through evaluations, learning programmes and collaborations.
So what might the future hold for The Children’s Society’s systems change work?
Earlier this year The Children’s Society announced its new 10 year goal that “by 2030 we will have overturned the damaging decline in children’s well-being, setting a path for long lasting growth”.
Both the ten year time horizon and the focus on young people’s wellbeing point the organisation towards bolder systemic ways of working. As Nick Stanhope observed, The Children’s Society’s new goal inherently demands a systemic approach:
“The Children’s Society is embarking on ambitions that are, by design, far greater than their own capacity and capabilities. This requires, also by design, that they actively connect and strengthen the networks, fields and ecosystems in which they operate in order to achieve these goals.”
By their nature, systemic challenges are not effectively addressed at the point where they appear visible. This truth was powerfully illustrated in a recent report into Covid death rates in Manchester, which have been 25% higher than the rest of England. Rather than recommending greater investment in health care, the report identified that health inequalities were “a result of longstanding economic and social inequities” and called for resources to be directed at education, employment and housing.
Just as addressing health inequalities in Manchester will require coordinating across an array of institutions that stretch far beyond the ‘health sector’, overturning the decline in young people’s wellbeing will require The Children’s Society to work with partners and communities well outside our traditional comfort zone. These collaborations across traditional boundaries are the ‘face’ of systems change.
Thankfully The Children’s Society recently reaffirmed its values of ‘bravery’ and ‘ambition’, and can call on a radical heritage of systems change — resting on the bold work of our founder over 140 years ago. It is fair to expect us to rise to the challenge.
With this in mind I’ve been wondering, in ten years time when I visit the equivalent of this blog, what might be the exemplars of successful systems change that helped overturn the decline in children’s wellbeing?
- Perhaps I’ll read about our partnership with local communities and house builders, aimed at reshaping the built environment where young people’s lives unfold. Just Published: “How we redesigned the ‘school gate’ to strengthen community relationships and grow young people’s resilience”.
- Maybe I’ll even read about a more radical cross-sector campaign to change the land system, which underpins so many of the structural weaknesses charities work to resolve. Just published: “Why The Children’s Society is joining calls for a new land contract”.
- Maybe I’ll be reading a review of how the education sector was transformed by the pandemic (just like the world of work was transformed), detailing how The Children’s Society’s Good Childhood research was used to put young people’s wellbeing at the heart of a new paradigm. Just Published: “How reimagining school transformed children’s wellbeing”.
- Or maybe I’ll be learning from an evaluation into our work alongside environmental charities, taking aim at the single issue that will have the greatest effect on the wellbeing of children born today: climate change. Just Published: “How our 10 year campaign to end advertising to under 5s reshaped how young people think about consumption, improved their wellbeing, and built support for climate action”.
I don’t know where The Children’s Society’s systems change work will end up (…perhaps — indeed I hope — my imaginings above are far too limited). But it’s clear that realising the organisation’s bold 2030 Goal will demand equally bold and imaginative approaches to changing the systemic status quo. If you would like to help shape the next stage of The Children’s Society’s systems change journey, why not join the team?
