How we developed a place-based approach to community work

Many of the major challenges communities face today are widespread, but that doesn’t mean generic solutions are the answer.

When a national agency or a faceless name in Whitehall tries to fix it, the one-size-fits-all approach leaves communities feeling done to, rather than worked with. The community doesn’t engage; the plan falls flat; we try again.

This is where models like AllChild’s come in. We run place-based initiatives that support communities to provide children and young people with the social, emotional and academic opportunities they deserve to flourish.

We started in West London, led by a group of local people, and were originally called West London Zone. We created our approach by listening to and working with families, schools, councils and community organisations and by bringing together different funding, with schools paying only a proportion of the cost.

From West London to Wigan

Now, eight years later, we’ve just launched in the Leigh, Atherton and Tyldesley communities of Wigan.

West London and Wigan are not obviously peas in a pod. Wigan is much less densely populated than West London (8 people per acre versus 50). Its population is older (median age of 42 versus 34), and less diverse (95 per cent who identify as white, versus 63 per cent).

Yet there are many similarities: the devastating impact of Covid-19; the existence of poverty; the shock of rocketing bills; the school attendance crisis.

These core conditions set the broader context for our work. But it’s what is going on at an individual child, family, school and community level in each place that needs deep consideration.

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Through listening workshops, young people in Wigan told us what life is really like for them.

London has grinding poverty in some areas, but it also has some of the best public transport in the country and a thriving economy.

Meanwhile, in Wigan, young people told us they find it challenging to get to extracurricular activities because everything is far away and the bus feels unsafe and unreliable. They told us they wanted more cinemas, parks and libraries in their local area.

So, how do you approach working in different areas?

1. Get the most out of what exists already

Wigan has fantastic voluntary and community service provision, and social care, education and health services are well joined up through ongoing efforts being driven by Wigan Council.

So we have integrated our work in Wigan with the local Early Help offer and NHS mental health services. We’re also focusing on improving parental engagement with schools and services, with AllChild link workers working with parents to access support for their families’ needs and, crucially, access to the local authority’s Early Help system.

For example, by conducting assessments with families, we can refer them more quickly to statutory services and voluntary organisations. This takes the pressure off schools and means more families receive support without needing to meet high referral thresholds.

2. Listen to what local people say they need

In London, our programme enables positive social, emotional and academic outcomes concurrently. In Wigan, schools and young people felt improving school attendance, behaviour, exclusions and mental health had to come first. So that’s what we did.

The first year of our programme focuses on improving young people’s wellbeing, engagement with and behaviour at school to improve attendance, with academic support brought in during the second year.

Our link workers develop personalised programmes of support with each child. These are delivered through a combination of in-school activities led by the link worker and by local voluntary organisations that range from rugby and creative arts to counselling and speech and language therapy.

3. Keep what’s working

The core of our delivery programme - AllChild link workers based in schools every day, building and facilitating trusted relationships with children, families and schools - is the same no matter where we go.

We now have a brilliant team of link workers in schools. Some 250 children and their families across seven schools are participating in AllChild programmes in Wigan, and we are still learning every day. Much of that learning is translated back to our work in West London.

Public services that work

People care deeply about the places they live in. There are willing supporters and funders everywhere you look, but they need to be brought together. That takes time, resources and a willingness to listen - something our systems and services lack today.

But with so many of our public services in crisis, we need to do more with what we have. We need to give people public services that work, and a belief that these services are responsive to them for us to build trust.

There’s so much work to be done and while the challenges are widespread, the solutions must be developed locally.

Louisa Mitchell is CEO of AllChild

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