Bringing together local people, services and organisations to work collectively requires a clear set of guiding values and design principles. 

Values

Our values define how we work – these are the core ideals which we share as a collective of individuals engaging together in this project.

 

    Inclusion

    Anyone who shares the partnership’s vision is welcomed and valued. We create the conditions in all our meetings for the six fundamentals of inclusion: everyone’s dignity is respected; everyone feels safe; everyone feels that their contributions are legitimate; everyone feels a sense of belonging; everyone trusts one another; and everyone feels free to be themselves and to express themselves. The partnership ensures that everyone who shares their vision can fully participate in the work, in the best role for them. The partnership provides each individual who has a role in the project with the right kind of support to enable their full participation.

    Shared Vulnerability

    The shared goals of the project can only be achieved if there is mutual commitment to be open and transparent about what is working well and what is working less well for babies, children and young people; about what we do and don’t know for sure; and about the assumptions and hypotheses we are working from. We will share the information and understanding we have honestly, cultivating a culture of collective learning. We willl be frank about failures, problems and dilemmas. 

    Commitment to local community

    Everyone involved in the project is fully committed to the local community, and to improving the lives of local babies, children and young people. Everyone is committed to achieving the best possible outcomes within the seven-year project, whilst acknowledging there will be many knotty challenges and obstacles along the way. The work is driven by a love for Feltham and its people. The partnership members are committed to considering and developing the role they play in the local system and in the cradle-to-career life-course of local young people.

    Equality

    The project will only succeed if a wide range of different people - from different backgrounds, with different roles in the community - are able to participate on an equal footing. This means that we need to be explicit and intentional about addressing any and all power imbalances, in a manner which allows genuine partnership to flourish. This also means that we will offer remuneration to those who will not be attending the meeting in the capacity of a paid role.

    Design Principles

    Our design principles define what we do – these are the principles to guide our way of working and the kinds of activity we will engage in.

    Collective & community-driven impact

     

    • We are working with the community, for the community. Young people, parents and members of the local community are involved in all aspects of collective learning & decision-making, with sufficient support to fully participate.
    • All discussion and action is focused on the tangible difference we can make to the lives of young people in the local community (not on improving organisations or institutions as an end in itself.)
    • The premise of this project is that we cannot address deep-rooted, complex problems as individual entities; we need to work in new ways as a collective body of people, organisations and services to learn together about the problems faced by babies, children and young people, and to act together to address them.
    • No-one currently has a full picture of all the organisations and services working with children and young people locally. We need to work together to establish that picture, in order to see how all these activities come together into a system that we could strengthen.

     

     

    Grounded in rich understanding of the local community

     

    • We will ensure that all our decisions are based on a rich understanding of what is going on for local children, young people and families.
    • We will do this through gathering and analysing up-to-date and rigorous quantitative and qualitative data, as well as gaining insights into the lived experience of local people.
    • We will use existing datasets and research, but may also commission more in-depth studies of particular issues or groups. Any research conducted by or for us will be rigorously ethical.
    • Through engaging with the evidence, we will develop our understanding of the proximal and the root causes of the issues we seek to address. We will support activities which are targeted at effective points of intervention. In some cases this may mean seeking to address structural root causes, if we think we can do so effectively. In other cases we may decide that the best we can do is address the consequences of the presenting issue.
    • We will scrutinise and challenge both our own assumptions and those of others in the partnership.

     

    Continuous collective learning & improvement

     

    • We will communicate with one another regularly and openly, establishing clear channels for doing so efficiently and in a way which best works for everyone involved.
    • We will continue to engage with the changing data and evidence on what is happening in the community, with a commitment to continuously develop our understanding of the problems we are seeking to address.
    • We will reflect honestly and openly on what is and isn’t working well – including the activities we decide to undertake or commission for this project.

     

    Developing our collective capacity to improve young people’s lives

     

    • We will nurture more effective and trusting relationships between those in the local system.
    • We will develop the capacity and confidence of community leaders, supporting them to maximise their influence on how things are done in the local area.
    • We will build the agency of local children, young people and families within the system, helping them to understand and to shape how local provision is designed and delivered.