At LKMco, we believe society should ensure that all children and young people receive the support they need to make a fulfilling transition to adulthood. We work towards this by articulating our vision, inspiring people to pursue it and enabling people and organisations to achieve it.

As a social enterprise it is crucial that we ensure our work is having an impact. That’s why each year we produce social accounts as well as financial ones. This report shows how we have affected the people and organisations we have interacted with. It analyses how we are doing according to the 10 outcomes which we believewill move us towards achieving our vision..

Overview

This survey includes responses from people we have interacted with in a variety of ways- ranging from intensive mentoring programs to informal conversations on twitter.

• For each outcome we impacted on over three quarters of the people for whom the measure was relevant.

How well are we doing?

• We impacted ‘significantly’ or ‘transformatively’ on a quarter of people for whom a measure was relevant on each outcome. • Overall, we impacted on over 60% of people for each of our desired outcomes.

• Overall we had a “significant” or “transformative” impact on more than 20% of people in each area.

Articulating a vision

Our work is built around our vision of what society could and should be like for young people. There’s no way that vision will become a reality if we can’t articulate it. Our greatest success in this area has been in helping people to develop more informed and critical opinions about services for young people. This is a key part of securing the kind of attitudinal change that we think is so crucial.

• Over 85% of respondents said we had helped them develop more critical and informed opinions

The Year in Numbers:

1 … teacher achieved Advanced Skills

Teacher status as a result of LKMco’s

mentoring

10s …. of youth organisations

received pro-bono support in developing

projects for young people

100s … of people a week visited our

website

1,000s … of pupils were taught

by teachers who had received LKMco

mentoring and coaching

10s of thousands… of people

accessed teacher training resources by

LKMco

Some Impact Significant impact or transformed

Increased beliefin possibility of

Organisationdeveloped plans

Organisationbetter placed

0 20 40 60 80 100%

More confident of ability

Reflected onand honed ability

Changed goals

Acquired examples of

More critical anddeveloped opinions

Increased understanding ofwhat society needs to do

Increasedbelief in importance of

• We had a significant or transformative impact on 50% of people in this area

How have we done this?As one respondent told us, we provide

“a strong bridge between people working on the ground and current ideas in policy and research.”Overall, a quarter of respondents thought the information we shared on policy was ‘priceless’, another quarter said it was ‘very useful’ and more than three quarters of respondents found it ‘useful’

“The thought leadership element of LKMco’s work is really central to keeping active and busy practitioners involved and informed in developments in education policy and practise.”

LKMco’s 10 desired outcomesArticulating1. People increase their understanding of what society would need to do in order to help young people make a fulfilling transition to adulthood

2. People develop more informed and critical opinions about services for young people

3. People acquire examples of what high quality services for young people look/would look like

Inspiring4. People increase their belief in society‘s ability to help all young people make a fulfilling transition to adulthood

5. People increase their belief in the importance of society supporting young people’s transition to adulthood

6. People change their goals in working with or supporting young people/young people’s services

Enabling7. People reflect on their work, developskills and hone their ability to supportyoung people’s transition to adulthood

8. People feel more confident abouttheir ability to support young people

9.Organisations develop plans and waysof working which allow them to supportyoung people.

10. Organisations are in a stronger position to support young people’s transition to adulthood

Somewhat Significantly Transformed

Acquired examples of what high qualityservices for young people look/would

People develop more informed andcritical opinions about services for

People increase their understanding ofwhat society would need to do to help

0 20 40 60 80 100%

The LKMco Social Impact Report, 2010-11

One way we do this is through topical blogs. These bring together our experience and some of the best academic research out there. We try to provide a different angle by being critical but constructive. This seems to be appreciated with respondents noting our “evidence based opinions” and one saying:

“Laura’s blogs always, without fail, make me think. They never simply reflect back to me my own views. Always they provoke a close examination of my own practice and often a change of approach.”

Another important part of our online activity is our “insightful” tweeting.

• A third of people for whom tweeting was relevant found our tweets ‘priceless’, 88% found them useful.

LKMco’s writing isn’t only online. We have published a range of articles, research papers and a book.

• Over 90% of people for whom research and articles were relevant said these were useful.

That’s good news given that 2011-12 promises to be a big year on the publishing front. We’ve got major reports and peer reviewed articles lined up on school governance, perceptions of teaching unions, working class boys’ aspirations, new models of teacher training and health literacy.

Inspiring a desire to pursue

our vision

It’s not enough just to tell people what we think; impact requires a change in people’s beliefs and behaviours.

• 86% of respondents said that their belief in the importance of society supporting young people’s transition to adulthood had increased as a result of our work.

Perhaps unsurprisingly it was hardest to change peoples’ goals (and of course some people already shared our goals.)

• We had an impact in changing over half of people’s goals and transformed them for one respondent.

One of the reasons our work influences people is because of the way we work:

Respondents’ comments suggest we are living by our intentions. We have a document describing our ‘ways of working.’ It says that we will always work with clients in a “friendly and informal manner. Professionalism is not about pretension” it describes us as “cheeky, maverick and personable” and continues:

Somewhat Significantly Transformed

Increased belief in society’sability to help

Increased belief in importanceof society supporting

Changed goals

0 20 40 60 80 100%

Debating/ discussing youth & education issues

Useful Very Useful Priceless

Sharing information aboutdifferent organisations

Sharing information aboutgood practice

Sharing informationabout policy

0 20 40 60 80 100% (excludes N/A)

Tweeting

Blogging

Research & Articles

ability to support young people as a result of our support.

• 85% of clients who commissioned coaching, mentoring or training found it “very useful or priceless”.

“We steer clear of time consuming and gimmicky ways of doing things. There is almost always a simple way of doing things. Our job is to find it. We do not have a set catalogue of solutions. Different approaches and strategies are appropriate in different situations and settings. It is our job to have the emotional and intellectual competence to identify what will work where.”

Enabling people and

organisations to achieve

our vision

We were very good at getting people to reflect on their work. Given that becoming reflective is such an important part of becoming self-improving that’s great news.

• We had a significant or transformative impact in helping a third of people reflect on and hone their ability to support young people.

Our impact was greater where our support was more intense or formal.

• Looking specifically at paying clients, three quarters of them felt more confident of their

What are we like?

“Informal character, but clear, sound

thinking,”

“Informality and genuine desire to be

helpful,”

“Adaptability and can-do attitude”

“Readiness to share; enthusiasm for

learning and commitment to young

people and teachers.”

“Passion to transform education policy”

“Commitment to excellence”

“Practical, entrepreneurial, passionate”

Somewhat Significantly Transformed

Reflected on honed ability

More confident of ability

0 20 40 60 80 100%

Some impact Significant impact Transformed

Increasedbelief in ability of

Organisationdeveloped plans

Organisationin a better place

0 20 40 60 80 100

More confident of ability

Reflected onand honed ability

Changed goals

Acquired examples

More critical anddeveloped opinions

Increased understanding ofwhat society needs to do

Increasedbelief in importance

% paying clients (excludes N/A)

The LKMco Social Impact Report, 2010-11

Organisational Improvement

We do a lot of work supporting organisations who want to develop new projects for young people or who want to improve existing provision. The organisations we support range from start-up social enterprises to large third sector organisations and multinational corporates. We help them by combining our overarching knowledge of the sector, our “high level contacts” and our ability to think logically and strategically.

Since we don’t work with everyone on an organisational level it makes sense to exclude those who describe this as not applicable to them.

Improving teachers and schools

Mentoring and Coaching in London Secondary Schools

Mentoring helps teachers and leaders achieve specific goals. We build up friendly but

challenging relationships and work with teachers and leaders to achieve specific goals. We

identify areas for development, provide training and advice and then monitor progress.

We’re really proud that in a pair of federated schools, all the teachers we coached or mentored

and who completed our post-training survey said that their teaching/management had

improved as a result. All of them felt that pupil learning had improved.

Whilst one might expect some teachers to feel threatened or resistant to interventions, all

the teachers who responded to our coaching and mentoring survey said they enjoyed their

sessions and felt supported by them.

In one case we worked on a particularly intensive program over two months. We helped a

teacher deliver consistently outstanding lessons and to develop leadership and management

skills. Following this short, intensive program the teacher, Matthew Emmott achieved

Advance Skills Teacher status and was ready to take on a joint head of department role. As

he put it:

“Loic’s coaching through my AST

application was great in preparing

me for the big day, especially his

advice on my KS3 and 5 lessons

which led to my two outstanding

gradings at assessment and

my success in achieving AST

status”.

Somewhat Significantly Transformed

Organisation developed plans

Organisation in a better place

0 20 40 60 80 100% (excludes N/A)

• We had a significant or transformative impact on almost half of the organisations we interacted with (excluding N/A). For some organisations, our support was as simple as sharing information or discussing ideas over coffee. It’s therefore great to see that such light touch support can still have an impact.

By looking at our paying clients we can get an idea of how much impact we have when our involvement is more intensive.

• Where we were engaged to work on improvement and strategic planning 100% of organisations found our support useful

• Our support was ‘priceless’ for 25% of the organisations who engaged us for improvement or strategic planning.

We try to enable people and organisations to achieve our vision in a range of ways. Sometimes it’s through formal mentoring, sometimes by sharing resources on our website and sometimes more informally. Luckily all of our approaches seem to be worthwhile:

Organisational development:

Ofsted and Hear By Right preparation programs at City Gateway

City Gateway are an amazing organisation who provide youth work and practical training

to young people Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET). In 2010-11 they faced

their first Ofsted inspection. We helped them write their Self-Assessment Report and to

prepare for inspection. We analysed data, identified strengths and areas for improvement

and perhaps most importantly trained tutors to observe each other so that staff developed

their own capacity to improve teaching. We’re proud that 100% of staff considered the

training good or outstanding .

The result couldn’t have been more impressive. City Gateway achieved ‘Outstanding’ in

every category - a better outcome would literally have been impossible.

Of course, the credit goes to City Gateway’s fantastic staff but we’re really pleased that 92%

of staff who responded to our survey thought that our support was a significant factor in

achieving this judgement and that 92% became more confident about their own ability

to prepare the organisation for Ofsted. Another said that without us “there is no way I

personally would deliver the quality of teaching that I do, or that City Gateway could have

achieved our OUTSTANDING grade!”

We’re not here for Ofsted

though, we’re here for young

people so we’re really keen

that the process should be

worthwhile for them. This seems

to have happened. One staff

member said we had delivered

“measurable improvements

in teaching and learning.”

Another that our support

had “massively helped

improve the organisation and

structure of City Gateway.”

Meanwhile, 100% said that the

service City Gateway provides

has improved as a result of

the process.

The LKMco Social Impact Report, 2010-11

The Survey

We used email, twitter and a blog to contact people we had interacted with over the year. The survey was a “dipstick exercise” and 31 people responded with 26 completing the whole survey. They came from a range of backgrounds. The largest proportion worked in education.

The survey consisted of a 3 minute online questionnaire in three parts. The first asked how we had impacted on our 10 desired outcomes. We then asked for feedback on what was useful and for some open responses about our work.

Academic & Policy

Research:

‘The Six Predictable Failures of Free Schools…

and how to avoid them’

Free Schools were big news in 2010-11, so LKMco was keen to

provide a response.

Policy development partner Laura McInerney authored “The 6

Predictable Failures of Free Schools…and how to avoid them”.

It combines our practical experience with academic research

on charter schools in the US. It identifies the key challenges

likely to be faced by founders and proposes practical

solutions. Director, Loic Menzies wrote a foreword which lays

out LKMco’s “constructively critical” response to the policy.

The booklet certainly had an impact. It featured on the front page of the Times Educational

Supplement and in a Guardian Education leader column.

Respondents to our survey found the book very useful saying: “The Free Schools booklet

completely developed and shaped my thinking.” People seemed to like the practical and

timely nature of the book and requested more booklets like it. We’re keen to respond to

this request in 2011-12 and have got our eyes out for worthwhile topic. So let us know if you

have any ideas!

Number of respondents (NB some chose more than one category)

Working in a charity/social-enterprise

Working in theeducation sector

0 2 4 6 8 10

A teacher

A middle manager

12 14 16

Working in asecondary school

A senior leader

Working in theyouth sector

Other

An academic

Working in aprimary school

Working in FE

Working in HE

18

Support with marketing/PR/ tenders and bids

Useful Very Useful Priceless

Being a critical friend

Chatting over coffee

0 20 40 60 80 100

Introducing peopleto each other

Producing resources

Providing resources onthe LKMco website

% (excludes N/A)

The third section gathered information about respondents. They had interacted with us in a range of ways:

Lessons learned

As a new organisation this is a learning exercise for us. Whilst one respondent suggested we

“get elected and become Secretary of State for Education”we have also been able to learn some more manageable lessons from this report:

• We need to work on painting a clearer picture of what it would look like for society to provide young people with the support they need.

• We need to do more to increase people’s confidence in their ability to support young people. • We will carry on sharing information about policy because people clearly value this highly.

Producing resources, being a critical friend and providing mentoring and coaching are some of the most impactful ways of doing this so we will try to do more of that.

• We want to do more work targeting organisational impact because providing organisations with “priceless” support on improvement planning and strategy has the potential to impact on a huge number of young people.

Next year we aim to impact on at least 75% of the people we interact with on each of our 10 desired outcomes and to have a significant or transformative impact on at least 30% of people. Next year we will also ask for estimates of how many young people will be affected by the changes we achieve. Given the nature of the relationship between attitudinal change and social change this won’t give us an accurate total number but it will at least give us a minimum.

We’d like to finish by saying a huge thank you to everyone who took part in the survey and to extend our gratitude to the Teach First Social Entrepreneurs’ Network without whom LKMco wouldn’t be where it is now.

Contact

web: www.lkmco.org.uk tel: +44 7793 370459email: info@lkmco.orgtwitter: @LKMco

Number of respondents (NB some chose more than one category)

Pro-bono or informalsupport/ advice

Paying client

0 2 4 6 8 10

Read something wewrote/ tweeted etc

Informally/ socially

12 14 16

2010 - 2011 Clients

• The National Youth Agency

• City Gateway

• The Royal Society for Public Health

• St. George’s R.C School

• The Mighty Creatives (Museums Libraries and Archives Council)

• Teach First

• Teachers TV

• St Thomas More Catholic School

• The Three Faiths School

Thank You