Thrive at Five

Director of Learning and Impact Appointment Brief November 2021

Appointment Brief • November 2021 1

CONTENTS

2 Thrive Thriveat atFive Five

Introduction

3

Who We Are

4

Three-Stage Implementation Process

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Measuring Success

8

Long-Term Sustainability

9

Finances

10

Leadership and Governance

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Role Description

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Person Specification

13

How to Apply

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INTRODUCTION

I am delighted that you are thinking about joining the Thrive at Five journey.

In the years leading up to me taking on the role as Thrive at Five’s CEO I was responsible for the Duchess of Cambridge’s early years portfolio at The Royal Foundation. I was inspired by what I learned.

Through that work, and as a Trustee of Family Action, it was clear just how much we can improve children’s futures by giving them the best start in life. The science tells us just how crucial the early years are for later outcomes, yet so many children and their parents do not get the right support.

When we fail to get it right in the early years it is not through a failure on the part of those who devote their lives to providing support at this time in children’s lives. Across the private, voluntary and private sectors there are passionate and highly motivated professionals and practitioners. Their expertise spans the fields of health, social care and education.

It is the complexity of this system around parents and children that hinders progress. Too often the problem is that efforts are not joined up, and children, parents and their communities are left at the periphery with their voices seldom heard. Parents and children should be at the heart of our efforts and they are central to the vision and mission of Thrive at Five.

We want to provide the capacity and expertise to enable collective action. The ambition of Thrive at Five is to change the way we all work together, in local areas and nationally, all to improve outcomes in the early years for the long-term.

We are at an exciting moment in our evolution as an organisation as we gear up nationally and in our first pathfinder site, in Stoke. We have enthusiastic, informed and unswerving support from our cofounders (Grant Gordon and Larissa Joy), Trustees and backers. Now we need a brilliant team to make our ambition a reality and I hope you will come on the journey with us.

Aida Cable Chief Executive Thrive at Five

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WHO WE ARE

Our Vision Thrive at Five is conceived around a vision of a society that cherishes children’s development in the early years, where every child can thrive and achieve their full potential.

Our Mission Our mission is to support children from disadvantaged backgrounds, to achieve a good level of development at five.

The Problem The deepening tragedy of child poverty in Britain has been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving the most vulnerable children and their families facing ever more hardship. The need is most pressing for young children from disadvantaged backgrounds, who do worse on many important measures than their better-off peers and this gap is highly evident by the age of five. A YouGov poll published in November 2020 found that 46% of four to five-year-olds were not school ready.

Children with low levels of development, on starting school, are often unable to catch up, and this can have lifelong consequences. In too many cases a poor start to life leads to a child entering the care system, being excluded from school, youth offending or unable to access education, employment, or training.

It is also widely acknowledged that the early years sector is exceedingly fragmented. Responsibility for children’s development in the critical years, from conception to five, is spread across 5 different Government agencies and 12 different Ministers and numerous local agencies. This is before taking voluntary and community services into account.

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There is a pressing need for strategic collaboration between all the services concerned with the early years to provide effective, preventative support from pregnancy through to school. Yet, the system rarely works in this way. As the Government’s recent early years review reported:

“The Start for Life Offer is patchy, is not joined up, and is not easily accessible for parents, making it almost impossible for them to navigate the system”1.

This frequently makes it difficult for families and children in the early years to get the effective help they need when they need it, and parents describe a system where they are ‘done to’ rather than supported. This problem has been long acknowledged but acting to address the problem is challenging.

1

M Government: The Early Years Healthy Development Review Report (2021) H The Best Start for Life – A Vision for the 1,001 Critical Days

All these stakeholders will collaborate in co-developing, driving and funding the early years initiative at every stage advancing the capacity of disadvantaged children to be school ready at five.

The Solution A Collective Impact and evidence-informed Initiative: The Thrive at Five place-based collective impact initiative brings together a diverse group of stakeholders from the public, voluntary and private sector.

Thrive at Five is the backbone organisation that will enable and harness collaboration between local authorities and their constituent statutory partners, health, education, social services, charities, community and voluntary organisations.

Critical to success of the model are local parents whose needs and voice will guide the work.

Thrive at Five will build on learnings from other initiatives, both nationally and internationally, that harness collaboration and collective impact to drive positive, social change. We build on learning from the Collective Impact Forum (US) and the Tamarack Institute (Canada), and are inspired by work in the UK including A Better Start, Early Learning Communities, Right To Succeed, the Reach Hub, The West London Zone, Growing Minds and many others. Our work will be evidence-led. It will draw on research and evaluations of services and interventions.

At the heart of the Thrive at Five model is our Parent Champion network, which will be co-developed in Stoke with pro bono support from the UK innovation foundation, Nesta. This initiative will embed the voices and lived experience of children and families into this new, integrated model for achieving improvements in school readiness, so that Thrive at Five can ensure it is continually responding to the community’s needs.

Our conditions of collective success

We will be guided by the following five conditions of collective success:

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e will work based on a common agenda, with a shared vision placing the child and the W lived experience of families at the heart of the initiative.

will develop shared measurement systems, embedding a test, learn and refine 2 We approach, evaluating what works and does not work within our target communities. will support mutually reinforcing activities that fit into local systems with 3 We identification of those that can be scaled and/or transferred to other communities. will maintain continuous communications to build trust among key stakeholders 4 We parents, families, schools, charities, health and parenting services and local government. at Five will be the dedicated backbone support organisation that will have the 5 Thrive capacity and skills to steward relationships and initiatives across the whole Thrive at Five cycle.

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THREE-STAGE IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS

The development and implementation of our first pathfinder areas will be structured as a three-stage process, in which parents, practitioners, local authorities, organisations and funders will participate in co-developing the initiative: Phase 1. Discovery mapping early years in the community: together with the Stoke Local Authority, health authority, community groups and local families, we are jointly undertaking a mapping exercise to understand the early years services that exist, who provides them, how they are used and what they cost. We are working with local agencies to gather data about babies, infants and their families so we have base line measurements for monitoring and evaluation.

Using relevant data, we will spotlight local outcomes, compare them to national statistics and evaluate the effectiveness of existing services, highlighting the gaps in services, and inadequate existing outcomes, to inform Phase 2.

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Phase 2. Design - local strategy development: in partnership with local organisations, we will work with parents, practitioners, and professionals to develop a shared understanding of the gaps in support and provision that need to be filled, the factors which will undermine progress towards our shared outcomes and the ways in which these could be remedied. From this will emerge funding priorities, the Thrive at Five community strategy and a roadmap for the initiative.

Phase 3. Delivery implementation plan: costed, detailed plans that can meet the strategy’s priorities will be prepared.

Some of this work will be delivered by local agencies and organisations and, working with local parents and professionals, we are keen to engage with leading innovators in early years and organisations not currently working in the area that can bring in tailor-made expertise and skills.

Thrive at Five will not deliver the local strategy itself but it will work with partners to ensure the effective implementation of the strategy. It will also play a critical role in establishing and embedding a Parents Champions Network. It will provide funding for this network and provide grants for evidence-based programmes to be delivered (primarily by voluntary organisations) as part of the local strategy.

Dartington Service Design Labs (Strategy design partner) is working with Thrive at Five to deliver the discovery and design stages in the Stoke pathfinder. This process will enable an articulation of Thrive at Five’s place/role in the system, key assets, and gaps in provision to build upon. Working collaboratively, we expect to support improvements across the three early years pillars: 1.

System: supporting development of a shared, joined-up, strategy across early years agencies and its operationalisation, including new data collection and monitoring to assess progress and to drive decision-making.

2.

Services: improve existing services rather than developing new ones (except where clear gaps are identified); development of digital services to complement face-to-face working; improvement strategies to support outcomes, based on understanding of needs, and evidencebased practice.

3.

Parents: advised by Nesta, the development of a Parent Champion model and network to embed the voices of families at system and service-level providing support to parents directly.

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MEASURING SUCCESS

Success for Thrive at Five will be measured by assessing the progress of children towards expected levels of development at five and the improvement in the number of children achieving or exceeding a Good Level of Development (GLD) at the end of reception year.

Thrive at Five will focus its work on five intermediate outcomes with a causal, evidence-based link to the ultimate outcome of fostering school readiness:

1. More responsive parenting.

2. Improved home learning environment.

3. Improved maternal mental health.

4. Increased enrolment in high-quality, early years education.

5. Improved health and physical development.

Thrive at Five will work directly with the key stakeholders who influence the lives of children in the early years and can support them with the knowledge, skills, and resources to maximize improvements in school readiness.

A Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) framework will be developed and assessed independently by an external partner. The issues that we are trying to address are long standing and complex and we will need to identify the right methods to track the change that Thrive at Five makes for parents and children, as well as evaluating how our work contributes to systemic change. We want to evaluate how changes in ways of working and changes in behaviour contribute to better outcomes. Building knowledge over time about our impact across the intermediate and ultimate outcomes is vital to informing the development of the Thrive at Five model and to measure its long-term impact.

The Director of Learning and Impact will work proactively with all stakeholders to frame the priority learning objectives once the initiative is active. The Director of Learning and Impact will also support the implementation of a test, learn, and refine process to inform decisions about resource allocation, based on what works.

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LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY

Thrive at Five will develop its model to ensure it is proven to be effective, affordable and can be replicated and adapted in different community contexts.

We intend to roll out the Thrive at Five model in 4 to 5 pathfinder areas. Each place-based programme will enable us to empirically test the Thrive at Five theory of change gathering a large amount of data, knowledge, and practical experience around driving improvement in school readiness.

We believe that building strength in communities is the best way to achieve long-term sustainability. Work will also be required to understand how, using an outcome-based model, it would be possible to attract long-term funding to achieve long-term systemic improvements in early childhood development.

The data and knowledge acquired in the pathfinder communities will help us to build the wider framework for Thrive at Five to promote adoption of the tools and approach nationally.

In the long run, we want to support as many communities, children, and families as possible who actively share our vision and we are delighted that The Department for Education is supporting The Early Intervention Foundation to review how Thrive at Five can inform national policy and practice.

We will develop a framework and playbook which will provide local communities with practices and tools to work together, that are easy to navigate, cost effective and supported by local authorities, health authorities and the wider early years system.

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FINANCES

Thrive at Five is fortunate to have secured major gifts as well as donations from foundations that ensure we have a strong pipeline of funding in the first three years.

During 2021 Thrive at Five was spun-off from the Childhood Trust into an independent registered charity.

LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE

The national board of the new collective impact charity is cochaired by Thrive at Five cofounders, Grant Gordon OBE (Chair, Childhood Trust) and Larissa Joy OBE (Chair Foundling Museum and Social Business Trust). Independent trustees representing a range of relevant skills and with diverse backgrounds support the Co-Chairs to ensure good governance and oversight of the new collective impact initiative.

Thrive at Five are also establishing an Advisory Council bringing together a diverse range of experts who we can call upon to help with specific areas e.g. maternal mental health, learning development, collaborative impact, and international experience.

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ROLE DESCRIPTION

Job title: Director of Learning and Impact Location: Flexible, with ability to attend meetings in London and travel UK wide Reports to: Chief Executive Office of Thrive at Five Responsible for: Learning and Impact team Term: Full time role for 3-year term (with potential to extend by additional 2 years) Salary: Up to £70,000, dependent on experience Annual leave: 25 days, excluding bank holidays

JOB PURPOSE This is an exciting opportunity for an impact focussed leader, with passion for social change focussing on early childhood to create systemic change. The right individual will be a self-starter who is excited by a new venture and a team player who drives collaboration.

The Director of Learning and Impact will select and work with an external evaluation provider(s) to identify appropriate methods for measuring progress against outcomes and Thrive at Five’s contribution to systems change.

The Director of Learning and Impact will embed Thrive at Five’s learning capture process, identifying and working with a Learning Partner as required.

The Director of Learning and Impact will support the evolution of Thrive at Five’s theory of change, as we test and refine our pathfinder programmes.

The purpose of our pathfinder programmes, led by the Partnership and Programme Lead, is to manage our backbone organisation locally. They will foster, build and maintain relationships with all who have an interest locally in the early years, facilitating collaboration between all the key stakeholders in the delivery of a common strategy for the early years.

The Director of Learning and Impact will use the resulting evidence to build a framework and “playbook” for national roll out of Thrive at Five, and they will work alongside the Early Intervention Foundation to identify how Thrive at Five can inform national policy and practice.

They will help develop the strategy for long-term sustainability, looking at ways to integrate the Thrive at Five model into local systems.

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ROLE DESCRIPTION

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES Strategy Development and Systemic Change Working closely with the CEO: • Collaborate with Dartington Service Design Lab and Nesta on the evolution of a theory of change and the scaleable application of the Thrive at Five model of collective impact and parent engagement • Develop local strategies in new pathfinder areas (through discovery and co-production phases) • Develop the strategy for area selection • Develop a robust approach to replicability and adaptability Impact and Learning Lead the work to: • Identify a monitoring and evaluation framework and methodologies that will (i) support a flexible “test and learn” approach, enabling the initiative to adapt to learning (ii) allow measurement of systems change, alongside quantitative and qualitative assessment of intermediate and long-term outcomes (iii) include consideration of attitudes and behaviours as possible levers of change • Identify and oversee a tender process for evaluators • Manage relationships with evaluators • Establish a robust system for capturing learning including, as appropriate, Identifying, contracting and managing the relationship with learning partner(s), as appropriate

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• Work with communications staff to develop and operationalise a communications strategy for sharing learning and impact with funders, partners, the sector, local and national Government and the wider public • I dentify how the Thrive at Five model can influence national policy and practice, working with the Early Intervention Foundation, and systemise (and possibly manualise) the model for potential roll out Team Leadership •E stablish, recruit, lead, and manage the Learning and Impact team •P rovide strong leadership and inspire and support the team to meet targets and to understand how their contribution is vital to achieving wider strategic aims •E nsure there are clear lines of accountability and responsibility across the team, which foster and maintain effective working relationships for the organisation • L ead by example in terms of work ethic, commitment to the delivery of results and to demonstrating the values of the organisation

PERSON SPECIFICATION

EXPERIENCE (ESSENTIAL) • Overseeing impact measurement • Working with senior colleagues to influence, shape and design strategy • Using evaluation data to test, review, learn and develop programme or service models • Working with and managing evaluation providers • Managing and developing a team • Project management, including financial management and budget development • Representing and acting as a trusted senior spokesperson for an organisation

KNOWLEDGE (ESSENTIAL) • Knowledge of how to measure systems change • Understanding of public and voluntary sector services and the systems that support pregnant mothers and families with children under five, and of the preschool education system • Knowledge of early years development and the evidence base for programmes/ interventions to support healthy development and good outcomes

SKILLS • Strategic thinker, able to consider opportunities to make system change • Driven, flexible and adaptable, being able to work well in a start-up environment, taking initiative and making quick clear decisions • Proven leadership skills and leads, motivates, and empowers others whilst taking responsibility for actions, projects, and people • Proven management skills, providing staff with development opportunities and coaching • Energy, resilience and credibility, providing others with a clear direction

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HOW TO APPLY

Please forward a CV together with a supporting statement (maximum two pages of A4). Please ensure that you have included mobile, work and home telephone numbers, as well as any dates when you will not be available or might have difficulty with the recruitment timetable.

At Prospectus we believe passionately that a truly inclusive workplace leads to increased social impact. We are committed to supporting our clients build more inclusive teams.

To understand how we are performing, we ask that you kindly complete the brief equal opportunities questionnaire when you submit your application via our website.

Please be assured that your responses are kept confidential, separate from your candidate record, are not part of any application you make, and that the consultants never see individual responses to the questionnaire.

Applications should be made via the Prospectus website at: https://jobs.prospect-us.co.uk/jobs/details/HQ00179733

RECRUITMENT TIMETABLE Deadline for applications: Wednesday 5th January 2021 Interviews with Prospectus: 12th to 21st January 2021 Interviews with Thrive at Five: From 27th January to 1st February 2021

QUERIES If you wish to have an informal discussion about the opportunity, please contact our retained advisors Anna Gardet or Shatakshi Srivastava by email at Anna.Gardet@prospect-us.co.uk or Shatakshi.Srivastava@prospect-us.co.uk with a copy of your CV. If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact Nana Adjeiwah at Nana.Adjeiwah@prospect-us.co.uk or call 0207 691 1920.

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