The Reach Foundation’s

Cradle-to-Career Partnership

A national network of locally-rooted schools and trusts establishing effective place-based models of ‘cradle to career’ support in their own communities.

The need

While we know exactly what every child needs to thrive, we also know that we are not securing these conditions for every child in England right now.

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In England and Wales, half of all teenagers have witnessed or been victims of violence.

Youth Endowment Fund (2023)
UK teenagers have the highest perception of safety risks in the OECD.

PISA (2022)
The number of young people being referred for emergency mental health services has reached a record high. That’s five children every hour—a three-fold increase in four years.

NHS (2022) via Young Minds
When it comes to health and well-being, there’s a widening gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (2020)
Children from the poorest 20% of households are 4x more likely to develop a serious mental health problem by age 11.

Centre for Mental Health (2020)

The work

To change this—to secure a life of choice and opportunity for every child—we believe that great schools are necessary but not sufficient.

We believe that while schools and trusts have an integral role to play in securing lives of choice and opportunity for every child—they cannot do so in isolation.

Our national network of Cradle-to-Career Partners are working together to design, develop and deliver place-based models of ‘cradle to career’ support in their own communities.

Phase One | 6 months

Cradle-to-Career Leadership
Our Cradle-to-Career Partnership begins with a deep dive into Cradle-to-Career Leadership.
During this six-month programme (from September 2024 to February 2025), headteachers and trust leaders work through a guided process to consider their organisation’s potential as regenerative community institutions, develop visions for their own ‘cradle to career’ models, and establish a purpose-driven network of peers.

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Phase Two | 12 months

Cradle-to-Career Partnership
From June 2025, we will work with a select group of schools and trusts to bring their ‘cradle to career’ visions to fruition.
During Phase Two, our focus shifts towards building the organisational capacity and capability required to design, develop and deliver integrated pipelines of ‘cradle to career’ support—grounded in great schools.

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The results

Today, we are working with around 30 schools and trusts across the country—from Teeside in the North East to Newquay in the South West—and, although it is early days for many partners, new models and signs of deeper integration into communities are starting to emerge.

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Building community power

Over the last 18 months, school leaders at Holyrood Academy have brokered and firmly embedded new relationships between local community leaders in and around Chard.
After more than 40 people attended their inaugural ‘Community Leaders Breakfast’, the group are working to address the issues identified by their community listening campaign; developing corporate partnerships and securing funding to improve early years provision, address food poverty and improve transport links within Chard and the surrounding areas.
—Holyrood Academy, Chard
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Working in partnership

“Hearing anecdotes and case studies from the other Partners and The Reach Foundation team has been really helpful. Hearing what's gone well, what people have tried, what's happened so far. It gives you the confidence to try things and to say to parents and staff that you've heard of other successful schools trying similar things.”
—Ted Wragg Trust, Devon
Deepening collective understanding

Having conducted an extensive listening campaign to better understand the needs of their community, staff from The Ravensbourne School are exploring the feasibility of co-locating local services at their site and establishing a Community Action Partnership Panel to embed strong relational links, share key information and develop collective strategies to support families.
—Education for the 21st Century (E21C), South London
Revitalising civic spaces

Cornwall Education Learning Trust (CELT) has partnered with the Bodmin Town Team to increase the institutional capacity needed to revitalise Bodmin’s town centre.
Recognising the need for a unified approach, they are exploring the viability of establishing a Community Interest Company (CIC) to develop people and places simultaneously—repurposing vacant units in the town centre for educational and creative purposes.
—Cornwall Education Learning Trust, Cornwall
Creating greater coherence

“Rather than working as two separate schools on building really strong relationships with parents and carers across both, there’s a real opportunity to work together”
—Alderbrook School, Solihull
Working in partnership

“It’s reassuring to know that we're not on our own. Working across trusts, it's great to reach out to others and to support each other with similar strengths and weaknesses. There’s a sense that by working together, we can have a bigger impact. We now feel better able to try something new or different, as a group. It’s a new opportunity to be bold and brave”
—Futura Learning Partnership, Trust in Learning Academies & Venturers Trust, South Bristol
Developing greater clarity

“Being part of the C2C Partnership has made us realise how little codification there is across the organisation in terms of expectations around relationships with parents and carers”
—Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust, Devon
Working in partnership

On the outskirts of Bristol, King's Oak Academy has ambitions to be the school of choice—not convenieLearn morence—within its local community. Read about the work they’re doing to restructure the school to embed belonging, restore fractured school-community relationships and working in partnership with the local authority to secure improved provision for the whole community.
—King’s Oak Academy
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