Radical Childcare Proposal

MISSION BIRMINGHAM A proposal to accelerate place based system change by Impact Hub Birmingham FEBRUARY 2016

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Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

3

STRATEGIC CONTEXT The Challenge of Massive Change Town Hall: A New Theory of Change Mission Birmingham

5 9 11

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL Systems Accelerator Key Challenges: The Childcare System in Birmingham Trends & Opportunities

12 15 19

#RADICALCHILDCARE INITIATIVE PROPOSAL Overview Stage One: Open Enquiry Suggested Deliverables

23 27 39

Stage Two: Growing the Movement Suggested Deliverables

40 41

Stage Three: Taking Action Suggested Deliverables Our Approach to Investment

42 46 47

Stage Four: Hosting #RadicalChildcare Suggested Deliverables

49 49

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Executive Summary This is a proposal for a two-year place based system change initiative to create systemic change in the way we imagine and deliver childcare. We propose a new methodology that brings together 10 years of practical experience in movement building around purpose-driven entrepreneurship, developing accelerator and social investment programmes, and systems thinking about city-regions.

The initiative is anchored in the dynamic community of Impact Hub Birmingham where over the last months, our team has already invested in building a community of childcare experts, parents, design thinkers and systems change practitioners. By unlocking the power of all of us, we can generate deep impact. Please join us on our journey.

How this got started

Birmingham is emblematic of the wicked societal challenges that cities face today - from structural inequality to the growing loneliness epidemic, from in-work poverty to family breakdown. It is is brimming with creative and committed people, yet so much potential is held back by ineffective silo working. To overcome this, we have become convinced that a different approach to city level change is required – one that unleashes what we call power of us. This requires an approach that looks beyond social start-ups and builds collaborative movements for change across citizens, policymakers, community organisations, corporates, entrepreneurs. Equally, we need to invest at the level of systems, not just start-ups. This is a big mission – #RadicalChildcare is a first step.

The proposal is deeply embedded in our research, development and practice across Impact Hub Birmingham, its Mission Birmingham programme and UK partners as well as the global Impact Hub network.

Childcare is a particularly relevant domain for systems change at a city level. It is increasingly clear that childcare across the UK is unaffordable to many, is insufficiently flexible to cater to increasingly diverse demand and fails to generate better outcomes for disadvantaged families. Government attempts to improve provision seems focused exclusively on pumping money in a broken system, whereas there is an appetite and sense of urgency amongst many parents, practitioners and experts for transformative change.

Our proposition

The #RadicalChildcare programme seeks to convene a city-regional movement for change in a complex system. It will build a shared understanding of what alternatives are possible, and ultimately support and invest in a diverse range of initiatives that will create fundamentally better outcomes in the childcare domain – creating options that are more affordable, healthy, engaging, flexible, equitable and thus generate better options for parents and children, and make a visible dent in the huge challenges that children and families face to thrive in the 21st Century.

Our proposal is informed by key trends in technology, the world of work, demographics and coproduction – and inspired by great civic ventures form all over the world. To enable us to galvanise the local potential, our experience suggests we have to: • Focus on ‘market-making’ and creating a conversation about childcare to engage and bring together a diverse learning community with a wide range of experts, practitioners, potential programme participants and other stakeholders • Inform this place-based change movement by collaborative system mapping, driving a shared understanding of the interdependencies between interventions and outcomes • Move from a competitive accelerator approach towards a collaborative programme for shared outcomes.

• Accelerate not just start-up businesses, but also invest in activism, policy change, corporate innovation and other areas uncovered through shared system mapping and collective learning.

• Allow for a longer period of acceleration time than tech-based accelerator programmes • Develop a diverse investment approach and term sheets for blending seed grants, soft loans, revenue participation and outcomes-based commissioning |3

Executive Summary Programme design

We are proposing a 2-year Birmingham-wide programme. Delivery will be in 4 phases, anchored in Impact Hub Birmingham as Lab, test-bed and collaborative community. Our team consists of Impact Hub Birmingham leaders and a range of locally based creative practitioners, design thinkers, start-up experts, complemented by a wide range of expertise in the domain of childcare and venture acceleration.

OPEN INQUIRY The 6-month Open Inquiry period is a unique combination of collaborative research, storytelling, system mapping and collective sensemaking that activates the full range of relevant actors around shared challenges. A wide range of events, think pieces, social media coverage and an open source that toolkit will enable wide engagement.

GROWING THE MOVEMENT To grow our reach, we will build a fellowship of ten highly engaged participants with real desire and commitment to host conversations and potential initiatives across the city-region. They are the movement builders, storytellers, conveners, ideas agents and ultimately as our pioneers of the possible.

SYSTEMS ACCELERATOR/CURRICULUM The accelerator stage will select 10-15 early-stage ideas and accelerate their potential to have real impact for good. Our 9-month programme will enable an accelerator cohort of start-ups, corporate innovation projects, policy change campaigns, data initiatives and other ventures to develop, test and iterate their ideas in the real world and become ready for investment. Our proposed investment approach will work across a diversity of legal forms and business models and uses a tried and tested peer investment method.

HOSTING #RADICALCHILDCARE Post-programme, we will focus on open evaluation, sharing lessons and ideas, and continuing to host a self-sustaining learning and action community as part of our Mission Birmingham activities.

Expected impact

We will measure our impact both in the number of people and organisations engaged, number of initiatives supported towards investment-readiness, and beneficial impacts for children and families they create. We will work together with our partners and across the Open Enquiry stage to hone in on the detailed deliverables and relevant metrics across the childcare system.

Budget

We are proposing our two-year programme will require ÂŁ315,000 in programme funding and ÂŁ250,000 in investment capital

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STRATEGIC CONTEXT

The Challenge of Massive Change CHANGE AT A CITY LEVEL

Our cities, neighbourhoods and towns face a new class of wicked societal challenges. From structural inequality to the growing loneliness epidemic; in-work poverty to family breakdown, Birmingham is an archetype of the future that the UK is facing. The city’s levels of economic disadvantage, material deprivation and health inequality are compelling examples of a wider challenge nationally.

Simultaneously, Birmingham is brimming with creative and committed people, yet so much of that potential is held back by ineffective silo working, dividing the purpose, energy and resources of different actors and communities rather than multiplying them.

Whilst new investment has transformed many aspects of the physical environment across the midlands region, repeated rounds of public sector cuts are biting hard and we have not yet seen a solution to attaining the fairer and more prosperous society so many want and need. To overcome these issues, we believe a different approach to city level change is required – one that unleashes a new power of ‘us’; all of us. This will need to be a revolution that reimagines how we achieve transformational change, and redefines who the ‘us’ is by dissolving the public, civic and private sector divides. This will enable new forms of multi-actor change and, in turn, has the power to generate greater shared wealth, resilience and a fairer city for all.

FROM SILOS TO SYSTEMS

Progressing meaningfully on the intractable and wicked social issues in the 21st century requires us to approach change and innovation as system challenges instead of focusing on silos. Whilst many innovators are building powerful global platforms, products and services for social change and ethical consumption, the crisis emerging in our local neighbourhoods remains largely unattested and unabated. Two decades of powerful social ventures have been unable to resolve the structural issues that cause child poverty, homelessness and wealth differentials to grow.

For the first time in history, children in the UK may not be able to look forward to a life that is more prosperous than previous generations. The state, nor the market, nor the third sector alone seems to be able to solve this. Targeted policy levers, singularly-focused social start-ups or oneoff campaigns cannot address the systemic nature of the issue. Real progress requires us to move beyond the silos of the Enlightenment, where we were encouraged to isolate social, economic and environmental factors that are in fact interdependent. After all, gang violence, social capital, informal governance, local prosperity and the state of fish stocks are interrelated - as one systemic causal loop diagram convincingly shows us.1 It is clear that if we are to bring about meaningful change we will need to accelerate and invest in ecosystems. We will need to incubate and invest in building ecologies of open innovation and intervention. In many cases, this is best done by focusing on localities. Our challenge is not only to reinvent the social tech platforms, markets and policies of the macro economy, but also to fundamentally tackle the last mile through our local economy, by using the social capital of local places and the creativity, imagination, passion and drive which we find there. By levering 21st century social tools, technologies, policies, movements, processes and behaviours, locally-driven change can become open, social and radically democratic, connecting to other innovations on a national or global scale.­­­­ Recognising this has big impact for established players whether state or non-state, start-ups or investors. Crucially, it means that the emerging world of impact investment must move beyond the ‘silver bullet’ approach that often, whether deliberately or not, characterises individual missiondriven start-ups or charities whose theory of change is bound by their limited capacity to deliver.

Instead, we must learn to invest in systems change.

1

Fishery Causal Loop Diagram. Joe Hsueh,2011

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STRATEGIC CONTEXT

THE CHALLENGE OF MASSIVE CHANGE BUILDING MOVEMENTS OF CHANGE

The age of the state, the hero and individual leader have led to a convenient set of aspirations about change, investment, accountability and governance. However, meaningful change can no longer be designed on the traditional ‘survey – plan – execute – evaluate’ model, nor can it be conceived as mere incrementalism through context-free project carousels or lean social start-ups. If we accept change can no longer be the responsibility of a single actor, organisation, institution or domain, an effective change theory inherently turns to the energy of ‘the crowd’, whether this be defined as citizens, entrepreneurs, corporates or coalitions of NGOs. This is not merely about crowdfunding; it is about change movements that unlock knowledge, energy, innovation capacity, resources and capability to act across all parties, whether established institutions or grass roots movements; micro or massive.

COALITIONS OF INTEROPERABLE ACTORS

Multi-actor change is complex. We increasingly understand that the future will require us to unlock the interoperability of coalitions of actors. Instead of competing for scarce resources, such coalitions will work towards shared system outcomes that build on each organisation’s particular strengths and specialist knowledge. Collective Impact Coalitions have been pioneered by a range of US organisations to tackle issues beyond the control of any single actor. They focus heavily on coordinating relatively well-organised existing actors, and their success is showing some of the practical implications for interoperability beyond aspirational notions of collaboration. Such coalition building takes time, trust, deep understanding of place and context, genuine effort and the building of a backbone organisation to coordinate actions, outcome metrics and investment.

Collective Impact Coalitions are just one approach of many, and we believe that, rather than coordinating existing actors, one crucial challenge is to mobilise communities and innovative, entrepreneurial actors at the edge of our current systems. That’s why movements are as important as coalitions, and why shared open missions are needed alongside finely tuned interoperable arrangements.

ACCELERATING SYSTEM CHANGE

Accelerating system change needs to focus on building shared language, shared ways of seeing, shared metrics, shared comprehension and shared balance sheets. This will nurture the system’s intelligence, empathy and actionability. Unlike a static exercise of simply mapping a system, it is about a dynamic approach that can unlock shared capacity to understand, act and invest in the system to produce shared outcomes.

EMPOWERING THE SYSTEM LEADERSHIP

Accelerating system change is not about procuring god-like consultancy which can map the whole system and divine the magic bullets of change, nor is it about the provision of business support, mentors, service design skills or other such capability to system leaders. Of course those support services have their needs, but accelerating system change is not about growing the individual capabilities, but rather growing systems capabilities and building the institutional proficiencies to continuously expand these capabilities.

Open and Invitational

Given there can be no god-like vision for a system, a system’s capacity for innovation emerges upon the openness to invite, engage and collaborate for shared outcomes. We need to engage the whole movement of stakeholders, from those directly affecting the outcomes to those indirectly and in many ways unconsciously driving outcomes, and all of us affected by the outcomes. This is the new politics of change.

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STRATEGIC CONTEXT

THE CHALLENGE OF MASSIVE CHANGE System Financing

We know that the emerging impact investment and social start-up finance markets have largely been modelled on tech-based accelerators and Venture Capital Funding models. These were built to thrive in very thick markets of high growth, highly scalable technology ventures and platforms, meaning they rely on a very small number of start-up investments to produce the majority of returns required to service resource-intensive accelerator programmes and the cost of investment. It is increasingly evident that this model only works for a narrow spectrum of social ventures. As we have seen, it is no longer sufficient to imagine change will be delivered solely through the acceleration of new start-up products and services. We need to recast the fundamental architecture and medium of change.

Collaborative Effort

If the emerging future for social investment is one that recognises innovation and entrepreneurialism are to be viewed through a system change lens, this means we have to design a new range of investment instruments. Financing systems for change means being able to finance a collaborative effort across multiple public, private, civic and independent organisations, with a combination of seed grant, debt, revenue participation, equity, and unlocking the crowd. No single organisation or financing tool can drive social change alone.

This is also a change model that requires us to re-account individual balance sheets and impact, moving towards system-level balance sheets and the multiple impacts on them. As social ills cannot be faced one at a time, in isolation or by adopting single points of intervention, we need the development of a 3rd Generation Impact Investments model that builds upon outcome-led finance ideas such as those explored by Social Impact Bonds. We need to bridge ‘buyers’ and innovators of social and environmental outcomes using collective impact strategies, steering collective investments for social change towards joined up efforts led by outcome-driven strategies. Social Derivatives will create the financial instruments to power systems change.

BEYOND PROJECTS OR PROGRAMMES - WE NEED 21ST CENTURY INSTITUTIONS

The past few decades have seen institutional actors in global development focusing heavily on fixing market failures or dealing with the social and environmental externalities of unfettered – or at least, imperfectly regulated – markets. We regulate at the level of systems, spend at the level of needs, and investment happens at the level of projects, if at all. Rather than putting sticking plasters on problems, what is our capacity for aiming at the stars?

What role can future polycentric institutions play? What potential can we create by recognising the systemic as an intentional level of intervention? Rather than fixing market failures, how might 21st century polycentric innovation shape our reality?

Re-imagining change fit for our century requires us to research, develop and retool the mechanisms of change. From these foundations, a series of practical challenges arise. Building a polycentric, systemic and preventative investment-driven agency model requires us to address these practical issues – the ‘dark matter’ of 21st century systems change – in a highly deliberate manner.

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Impact Hub Birmingham is well placed to act as the curator and broker of a programme that tackles this challenge head on.

Together with our partners we are developing #RadicalChildcare as a systems change experiment that builds on 10 years of practice, responding to the emerging need to seed a new institutional economy of change.

Childcare is a broken system with many actors, being impacted on and impacting a wide range of interrelated factors.

This is not just a new programme; we are using the domain of childcare to prototype a fresh approach to change.

Ultimately, we believe that this approach can create a new type of 21st Century civic institution to catalyse large-scale change at a city level - a new type of Town Hall for a participatory democracy.

As a first step, the system accelerator and #RadicalChildcare proposal that follows is deeply embedded in our research, development and practice across Impact Hub Birmingham, its Birmingham and UK partners, and the global Impact Hub network.

Join us.

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Town Hall - A New Theory of Change TOWARDS PLACE BASED SYSTEM INVESTMENT APPROACHES

Our theory of change is based on moving away from product-based innovations to save the world, and towards system-based approaches for better cities. We are building a model for a new typology of civic institution for place-based change, which seeks to drive systems innovation through new models of system financing and new types of legitimacy.

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THE CHALLENGE OF MASSIVE CHANGE

Moving from...

To...

Better World

>

Better City

Market Fixing

>

Changing the System

Term Sheets

>

Smart Contracting

Start-up Funding

>

System Funding

Business Plan

>

Business Engine

Product Innovation

>

System Innovation

Founder

>

Collaborative Founders

10 | MISSION BIRMINGHAM #RADICALCHILDCARE

Mission Birmingham We believe that transformational change can only happen if we create a long-term platform for a connected community with shared goals. As a collective of partners, place-based institutions, and engaged community members we have already begun to cultivate this. Shared values, ethos and space have brought together a critical mass of people, and we are ready to start exploring how we can leverage this collective energy. Through all of our work we are supporting this diverse community of amazing citizens, makers, doers, entrepreneurs, activists and dreamers who are committed to building a better Birmingham. We call this shared ambition Mission Birmingham.

At Impact Hub Birmingham we are working to create a more equal and just Birmingham. Fostering a community of talent, practice and action around Mission Birmingham allows us to harness the power of social innovation and systems thinking, creating transformational change across Birmingham.

Inspired and supported by the pioneering global network of Impact Hubs spanning 80 countries, Impact Hub Birmingham builds on 10 years of work practice across the network. Our Mission Roadmap outlines our strategic focus on building movements of change, research, and practice across urban innovation, social justice, systems change and institutional innovation.

Impact Hub Birmingham is part of a family of ventures, projects and people called Project 00. Zero zero is a collaborative studio of architects, programmers, social scientists, economists, strategic and urban designers. What connects these individuals is a shared practice of pushing design beyond its traditional borders. From innovative physical and social architecture and large-scale regeneration planning, to pioneering ventures such as Impact Hub Westminster, Islington, Brixton, OpenDesk and WikiHouse, we have worked across many funders, governments, investors and global thoughts. This has seen the power of social innovation for societal change harnassed at a range of scales; from international institutions and pioneering publications to grassroots change led by communities.

Our collective work in Birmingham spans more than 10 years in the arts, cultural, public sector, entrepreneurship and social innovation space. We have a strong track record in our core mission to create a vibrant, ambitious and innovative movement of transformative change in the city. We have been at the heart of convening 1000s of people through TEDxBrum, crowdfunding and building Impact Hub Birmingham and a wide range of work outlined further in the team biographies on page 54. Impact Hub Birmingham is prototyping the 21st Century Town Hall, a new generation of outcomes-focused institution that is driving for a better Birmingham.

MISSION BIRMINGHAM ROADMAP

IMPACT HUB BIRMINGHAM

PROJECT 00

IMPACT HUB ISLINGTON

WIKIHOUSE & OPENDESK

IMPACT HUB BRIXTON

FAMALAM

IMPACT HUB WESTMINSTER

BYNG

SPAGHETTI | 11

INITIATIVE= PROPOSAL

Systems Accelerator CONTEXT & OUR JOURNEY

The proposal for the #RadicalChildcare system accelerator programme builds on 10 years of societal innovation practice and development globally, along with 5 years of place-based pilots in Birmingham. The following describes some of the main insights over this period that provide the strategic, institutional and place-based context to this initiative. Our aim is that #RadicalChildcare will form part of a system change accelerator programme in Birmingham in the next 3 - 5 years.

This will serve to prototype and develop the deep methodology for the future of transformative placebased system change.

IMPACT HUB ISLINGTON In 2005 the launch of Impact Hub Islington began, based on the power of shared purpose and belonging.

This set the physical and cultural conditions for cross collaboration, making it a unique ecosystem of resources, inspiration and collaborations.

COMPENDIUM FOR THE CIVIC ECONOMY The publishing of the compendium in 2010 highlighted trends we identified around global civic entrepreneurship and placebased contextual innovation.

The founder protagonists and their networks looked at business ideas with multiple value and outcomes.

IMPACT HUB WESTMINSTER

IMPACT HUB BIRMINGHAM

HUB LAUNCHPAD

TEDx BRUM

In 2010 we saw the emergence of a global network from which communities surrounding the Impact Hub model began to evolve. This brought with it social accelerator programmes, scaling and the first generation of impact and outcomes financing.

In our successful 2012-2013 bid for the Social Incubator Fund, we recognised the importance of supporting people, not just their projects; the need to move out of a London context and of plugging a gap in early stage thematic investment.

PUBLIC SERVICE LAUNCHPAD

With the 2013-2014 pilot of Public Service Launchpad we saw the potential and also discovered the limitations of theme-based accelerators. We developed structured cohort learning, deeply rooted in peer-topeer learning and investment principles, and this exposed very clearly the need to go beyond single product and service interventions.

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A new era of institution where communities form a key part of talent infrastructure, working together on real world placebased solutions to tackle wicked challenges.

From 2012 onwards, platforms like TEDx were convening ideas and committed change agents in their thousands, united by a shared passion for place. A new era for social innovation and place-based transformation was to be realised in cities like Birmingham, archetypal of the future of many cities.

THE CIVIC FOUNDRY

Our first pilot in Birmingham in 2014, allowed us to bring together collaborative cohorts, understand context, limits and opportunities of such work outside of London, and placed a deep focus on rapid real world prototyping.

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL

SYSTEMS ACCELERATOR

TOWN HALLS FOR SYSTEM CHANGE: A NEW ERA Systems Acceleration Building on the strategic context and Town Hall strategy featured earlier in the proposal, we have experimented with, invested in, designed and begun to convene what we believe will be a new era.

As we transition from product and service acceleration towards a systems and place-based approach to change, underlying investment will be required to underpin it.

Key features of this include: • Moving away from competitive programmes and towards a collaborative programme for shared outcomes.

• No longer accelerating start-up businesses alone, but instead a blend of start-ups, policy, activism, research and other areas uncovered through shared system mapping and collective learning.

• Investment term sheets, grants and social investment for collaborative outcomes across a series of initiatives.

• A new politics of change that spans across corporates and citizens.

• Recognise, seed and grow a place-based movement of change.

This will use collaborative mapping of a system at core of initiative to drive a deep consciousness of interdependence over a long period of time.

• Galvanising a learning community that is action orientated, therein expanding the collective system intelligence and actionability that can grow out of it.

• Longer period of acceleration time.

We believe this is the next stage of learning needed to move us far beyond the first generation of social accelerators.

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#RadicalChildcare is an initiative to explore, imagine and invest in bold new possibilities for the future of childcare.

KEY CHALLENGES

The Childcare System in Birmingham Childcare is a particularly relevant domain for systems change at a city level. In our early research and movement building, it is increasingly clear that childcare across the UK has become unaffordable to many, that it is insufficiently flexible to cater to increasingly diverse demand and that it fails to generate better outcomes for children in disadvantaged situations. Market providers are frequently under pressure and government attempts to improve provision seems focused exclusively on increasing the provision and funding for a failing model.

The government’s plan to offer 30 free hours of childcare to 3 & 4 yr olds has been heavily criticised

by Pre-school Learning Alliance, who say the policy could create a £350 million funding gap because the hours paid for by the government are currently under-funded.

In Birmingham, radical change is particularly crucial given that a third of children are living in poverty, with some parts of the city home to over 46% of children in poor households1 As Europe’s youngest city, it is important we consider how we might make Birmingham the best city for young people to flourish in a time of rapid change, using childcare to unleash and uplift both children and parents.

The time is ripe for change. Over half (54%) of non-working mothers in England agreed that they would prefer to go out to work if they could arrange good quality childcare which was convenient, reliable and affordable.2 In their Mothers of Innovation report, Nesta describe the potential of this mother-led workforce as “a force for innovation around the world”. NEF also identify that parent co-ops can enable families to play a much more active role in the bringing up of their children, and cost up to 50% less to run than standard nurseries, engaging parents alongside professionals in the delivery of childcare.3 The failings in the current model have many causes - from the technicalities of regulation and employers’ policies to cultural norms and expectations. Conversely, tackling this complex issue through innovative approaches could have multiple impacts not just on children and young people but also on the wider economy.

Around

3 in 5

pre-school children (aged 0-4) received childcare for economic reasons (for instance, to enable parents to work, look for work, or study).

1 2 3

The UK Governmet spends

£5billion per year on Childcare

£6k

The average yearly cost of a part-time nursery place for a 2 year old

Child poverty map of UK, End Child Poverty (October 2014) Towards a one nation economy, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (August 2015) Co-produced childcare: An alternative route to affordable, high quality provision in the UK?, NEF

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL | 15

KEY CHALLENGES

THE CHILDCARE SYSTEM IN BIRMINGHAM

27%

of a family’s income goes on childcare.

Only

3%

of the workforce in Childcare are men.

12 of the 20

neighbourhoods which have declined most dramatically in the whole of England over the past 10 years are in Birmingham

Birmingham has a high proportion of children with special educational needs and disabilities (birmingham.gov)

Our current system of providing care for our children rests on undervalued, low-paid work by a primarily female workforce; it reinforces inequalities in gender and income;

35%

of children in Birmingham are classed as living in poverty - Fair Brum

The East Midlands and the West Midlands jointly had the lowest proportion of childminders judged good or outstanding for overall effectiveness (81%).

- gov 2015

54%

of non-working mothers in England agreed that they would prefer to go out to work if they could arrange good quality childcare which was convenient, reliable and affordable. (gov.uk)

An HMRC investigation in 2006 found that a third of nurseries were paying some of their staff below the minimum wage.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, Ofsted chief inspector 2013: :: Infant mortality rates almost twice the national average and “worse than in Cuba and on a par with Latvia and Chile”.

Bimingham has The highest levels of homelessness in the country and double the national unemployment rate.

Childcare costs in the UK are the highest in the EU and families pay on average 27% of their income on childcare fees, compared to an OECD average of 11.8%. (ukfeminista)

Britain’s most expensive nursery in the country is based in the West Midlands and charges parents more than the top elite public school Eton. it can cost parents almost 30,000 pounds per year…. The high costs in nurseries are rising more rapidly in the West Midlands than in any other part of Britain and are particularly significant given the number of people not receiving cost of living pay increases this year.(birminghammail) 16 |

A Pioneering City It isn’t just the stark challenges that makes Birmingham a great test bed for such work, it has an innovative and pioneering history of social transformation, a story we wish to tell and inspire.

In 1904 Julia Lloyd (of the Lloyd banking family) opened (and managed) the Free Peoples’ Kindergarten at the Friend’s Institute at 251 Warwick Road, Greet, funded by the Cadbury family and influenced

by Pestalozzi, Froebel and later Montessori. It was set up “to bring to the smaller children of the poorer people the same advantages as we desire and arrange for our own”

October 1939 Edith Cadbury (voluntary) Nursery School opened in Weoley Castle.

It was gifted by George Cadbury in memory of his wife Edith who had supported nursery education in Birmingham and was run by Bournville Trustees.

1947 Natalie Blackie was appointed as Birmingham’s first Nursery Adviser. She served for 25 years and was later awarded the OBE for her services to nursery education.

Easter 1979 As part of the ‘International Year of the Child’, a Nursery School room was set up in Rackhams store for 8 days, in order to bring about a focus on young children and their education and to publicise the ‘Rights of the Child’.

Nursery toys and activity sessions were run by teachers and nursery nurses, and parents were able to see and discuss the benefits of nursery education.

Prior to 1906 Education (Provision of Meals) Act, a charitable association called Birmingham School Dinner Society had for 23 years provided meals for the poorest children in school and for 7 years provided free breakfasts.

December 1941 The Education Committee and the Public Health Committee set to work to implement government policy and to establish war-time nurseries in Birmingham. This enabled women to work in the munitions factories. The Public Health Committee established the day nurseries throughout the city and the Education Committee arranged for recruitment and training of staff.

1966 4 new Nursery Classes were opened in Birmingham Primary Schools mainly to accept children of teachers, thus enabling them

The Walker Family ‘... the Walker family continued in their tradition of public service, establishing a Midlands Institute of Industrial Affairs as well as donating both time and money to the likes of Birmingham University and Birmingham Children’s Hospital ...’

April and May 1945 An impressive exhibition of nursery work was displayed at Lewis’s Ltd in order to inform public opinion. Areas of the city were canvassed and public meetings held to promote the value of nursery education.

The Cadbury Family ‘George Cadbury believed human beings should be treated equally, he was driven by a passion for social reform and wanted to provide good quality low cost homes for his workers in a healthy environment - giving an alternative to grimy city life. So he set about building a village where his workers could live.

George said of his plans: “If each man could have his own house, a large garden to cultivate and healthy surroundings - then, I thought, there will be for them a better opportunity of a happy family life.”

His aim was that one-tenth of the Bournville estate should be “laid out and used as parks, recreation grounds and open space.”

The brothers set new standards for working and living conditions in Victorian Britain and the Cadbury plant in Bournville became known as “the factory in a garden”.

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL | 17

Daniella & Akin

“I’ve achieved a lot in my professional life, whereas family life is a new challenge for me.”

Ben

“I’d like to have more time with my son when he is full of energy, rather than when he’s winding down in the evenings and at weekends.”

Tim

“Before I had kids I was told, ‘your life won’t change much, but your wife’s life will’, and that actually kind of rings true.”

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Laura

“Childcare feels reflective of a wider societal idea that everyone should be in 9-5 jobs, so you give your child to someone else 9-5.”

Josh

“People are driven to want something more; they move on to other areas, better houses, meaning life-long community relationships are no longer being built. Finding the time to develop trust is difficult.”

Amy Martin’s Childcare Utopia.

It’s May 2022 and this is my typical week.

My daughter Minnie is 9 months, she has 2 big brothers Buddy who’s 4 and Theo who is 7.

I’m a freelance creative producer and collaborate with a bunch of different organisations to develop my projects. Today Minnie is with her nan for 2 hours in the morning as I have a workshop and then I get an email from an investor asking for a meeting, so I check the cokid* app to see if there’s space for Minnie for 2 hours.

Co-kid is housed in an old biscuit factory in Digbeth with a converted roof garden. It follows the Reggio Emilia approach, an education philosophy that is child centred based on the principles of respect, responsibility, and community, through exploration and discovery in a supportive and enriching environment. It is based on the interests of the children through a self-guided curriculum. It offers flexible pay-as-go childcare, full time nursery places, summer schools, and has an open access ‘hack-schooling’ programme to support kids to learn through discovery and play. When a kid turns up to co-kid they are immediately entered into digital register, which has functions that are much like a project management application such as basecamp or Trello, mixed with Whatsapp or Snapchat. Updates can be sent to parents and grandparents throughout the day, which can include video/photos to see how a kid is getting on. It’s also a scheduling app so you can see if there’s space within 30 mins of needing it and book your kid in on the go. There is a minimum slot of 1 hour and longer slots of up to 6 hours.

In a typical week I use co-kid 3/4 times a week, I also use grandparents, others moms from the network, play schemes, nursery, baby art classes - as the old adage says - it takes a village.

Artist mothers from NotNow Collective

“For me Radical Childcare means creative and safe space for both me and my kids. With this unique formulae I become more productive, focused and my work, therefore, better. And my kids learn what it means to be a happy worker. I think it is an invaluable investment into our present and our future.”

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Trends & Opportunities As with all transformational projects we must understand how the world is developing in order to unearth the very best and most radical interventions. Here, we identified some trend-led factors that we think represent opportunities for disruptive innovation in childcare.

TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES

In their 2016 report, the World Economic Forum state that we are at the beginning of a Fourth Industrial Revolution. Developments in previously disjointed fields such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, robotics, nanotechnology, 3D printing, genetics and biotechnology are all building upon and amplifying one another. Smart systems - homes, factories, farms, grids or entire cities will help tackle problems; from supply chain management to climate change.

Technology will continue to have a ubiquitous impact across all sectors, continually growing in influence. Until now the childcare sector has remained largely untapped. Until now technology has been employed has largely as a supplementary tool, but working with professionals and care providers to develop a new range of integrated solutions could not only support delivery, but help parents feel more connected and increase the learning potential of children.

Futurist Christopher Barnatt says that the next evolution of the digital age “involves the mass atomization of digital content, in addition to mass digitization. What this means is that whereas a decade ago the drive was to push things and people into the computer realm of cyberspace, today far more effort is being directed into pulling digital content back into reality. Or in other words, no longer is the intent to build new worlds within computers, but rather to build new computing and communications devices into the real world.”1 For professionals, automation of administrative duties around management, staffing, finance and operations could significantly cut costs, and relieve staff to spend more time with the children in their care. At the same time, however, this will have massive consequences in many sectors, leading to huge changes in the way we work.

FUTURE OF WORK

Freelancing and independent working are becoming more common in the UK. Every set of annual labour market statistics since 2000 has highlighted growth in self-employment. Currently around one in seven people in employment are self-employed as their main job.2 Current trends could also lead to a net employment impact of more than 5.1 million jobs lost to disruptive labour market changes over the period 2015–2020, with a total loss of 7.1 million jobs - two thirds of which are concentrated in routine white collar office functions, such as Office and Administrative roles.3 The freedom, flexibility and earning potential that come with being your own boss are proving attractive to many, including parents who want to create a career that fits into family life.

The changing structure of the UK’s labour market and the implications of less predictable income and weaker job security does not currently match with formal childcare, where hours are still based on industrial 9-5 workers. Families are often financially penalized for using part-time provision, meaning possible areas of development could explore pay-as-you-go childcare models or offers that include co-working.

1 2 3

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The Second Digital Revolution, Explaining The Future (2001) The self-employment boom, key issues for the 2015 Parliament, www.parliament.uk The Future of Jobs, World Economic Forum (2016)

CHILDCARE SYSTEM IN BIRMINGHAM

TRENDS & OPPORTUNTIES

AGEING POPULATION

Around the world, human beings are, on average, living longer. As a result we are witness to population ageing, where older age groups make up a bigger and bigger proportion of the population.

An aging population will present a growing challenge to both public and private healthcare and welfare provision. Over the coming decades, retirement ages will almost certainly have to rise if welfare systems are not to collapse, or if the majority of the old want to enjoy a reasonable fraction of the quality of life potentially available to them. Employers now also need to start becoming far more alert to the benefits of employing older people. This represents a fantastic opportunity for the childcare sector to engage a workforce with lived experience of caring for children as volunteer playworkers or part time staff.

Feedback from a mother choosing one particular childcare setting in Birmingham “I chose this setting because the staff are older and they have experience of raising their own children…”

CO-PRODUCTION

“Co-production means delivering public services in an equal and reciprocal relationship between professionals, people using services, their families and their neighbours.”

New Economics Foundation This emerging economic trend could represent a valid alternative to formal childcare, one that is co-produced by parents and professionals. Childcare cooperatives take shape on a spectrum from casual babysitting exchanges all the way to highly-organised preschools with hundreds of participating families. This kind of peer-to-peer childcare initiative currently makes up nearly 10% of the childcare provision in Canada and New Zealand.4

THE SHARING ECONOMY

Sharing economy refers to peer-to-peer-based sharing of access to goods and services coordinated through community and often facilitated online. This is another area for research and development.

For example, how might communities lend, borrow or hire baby equipment amongst each other, or facilitate childcare through time banking?

4

Co-produced childcare: An alternative route to affordable, high quality provision in the UK?, NEF

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL | 21

Projects We Love

HACKERMOMS

RISKY PLAY

“Think of us as a mom rescue for lost creative lives and selves put on hold.” - HackerMoms

“Committing to support child-directed play means relinquishing control and managing your own feelings of discomfort. At its core this is an act of deep respect for the child and their experience.” - Erin Davis, Filmmaker of ‘The Land’ documentary

The HackerMoms of Berkley, California are an awesome community of makers, doers & learners. Founded in April 2012, Mothership HackerMoms is the first-ever women’s hackerspace in the world. They offer onsite childcare through their Hacker Sprouts Kids Education program, and believe that fulfilled women who are learning and using their talents are good for the family, the community and the world.

The Land is an adventure playground in Plas Madoch, Wales that fosters “risky play”, where children over 5 can make, break & build their own play space. A radical departure from safetyconscious childproofed spaces, here children can assess risks themselves by climbing a tree, sawing a slab of wood or building fires under guidance from professional playworkers.

PLAYBOX

Playbox is a 20ft shipping container, transformed into a mini venue filled with tools for imagination and play. It allows creative play for all ages to take place in an area of Leeds where there used to be very little.

“Playbox has transformed Charlie Cake Park from a dog exercise park into somewhere that local kids now feel is their space to play. They’ve brought people together and inspired them to use this space again” - Parent

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Our focus is firmly placed on unlocking the potential for transformative change that we know exists across the region. Bringing actors together around shared values, purpose and possibility will enable bold new solutions and interventions.

Our work over the last 5 years in Birmingham has seen this incredible appetite for change. We have also collected evidence that deeply recognises that places can only be renewed and transformed by the citizens and communities that make them.

Our Aims and Objectives:

1. Establish a movement of actors around a societal challenge in Birmingham, working together to advance social innovation and transform the outcomes for children in Birmingham, with a particular focus on childcare.

2. Create a city-wide narrative of transformation to inspire many actors, making people feel motivated and able to take action for a better Birmingham.

3. Empower citizens to understand the childcare system, its challenges, assets and shared values across the city.

4. Accelerate new ideas from start-ups, policy, research, campaigns by citizens, organisations and stakeholders.

5. Be open and iterative to investigating the most impactful metrics that can be shifted within the system as we build movement.

Our methodology is designed to enable some of the fundamental building blocks of change. In doing so we establish new types of relationships across citizens, local government, political leadership, corporate, third sector and more. With ongoing open storytelling, learning and movement building at every stage, we establish a strong coordinated movement with a shared purpose to create change across the city. Our methodology grows collective sense, intelligence and understanding of the challenges / opportunities within the city, ergo enabling collective actions. It moves from surfacing conversation and collective learning to identifying ideas, investing in those ideas and turning possibility of change into reality, together.

The initiative is designed to work with, complement and support existing activity across Birmingham, the sector and Impact Hub Birmingham. We don’t wish to own the space, instead we want to accelerate the ideas, possibility and talent of Birmingham to create transformative change. We aim to act as a platform where many actors can come together, gain new insights, share tools and bring innovations to life, creating change more effectively.

This works as part of an open, public mission for better outcomes in the city.

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL | 23

OVERVIEW

THE P R OPO S A L OVERVIEW

We are proposing a 2 year Birmingham-wide programme focused on system acceleration and the future of childcare. This will provide a pilot for 2 further programmes designed to deliver sustained social transformation of large-scale systemic and societal challenges for Birmingham. Delivery will be in 4 phases over a 2 year period, with each phase building on the last to reinforce movement, actionability, potential for transformation and prototyping methods. All phases combine research and action in place, whilst developing narrative both locally and nationally.

METHODOLOGY

Stage One: OPEN INQUIRY Discovering possibility, uncovering challenge and building a movement of actors.

Stage 1

OPEN INQUIRY 6 Months

Stage 2

RESEARCH

Stage 3

TAKING ACTION +INVESTING IN SYSTEMS CHANGE 12 Months

Stage 4

HOSTING #RADICALCHILDCARE

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OPEN STORYTELLING

GROWING THE MOVEMENT 6 Months

Stage Two: GROWING THE MOVEMENT Identifying system leaders and formulating fellowships. (3 month overlap with Open Inquiry)

Stage Three: SYSTEMS ACCELERATOR/CURRICULUM Taking action and investing in system change using blended system finance.

Stage Four: HOSTING #RADICALCHILDCARE

Open evaluation and hosting self-sustaining community of shared outcomes.

Our Shared Values OPEN RESEARCH

Research is a key principle of our methodology in order to better understand the multidimensionality of the system in which we are operating.

The research methodology is not only about gaining insights, testing, assessing and analysing, but is also essential to movement building. Research is essential to seed a learning community and lies at the core of building collective intelligence across the system. All strands of research will be interwoven, each part playing a role in generating momentum and growing the movement.

OPEN STORYTELLING

Storytelling allows us to reframe, challenge and change narratives to create new possibilities of transformation. It can mobilise, amplify and support people to participate in the changes they want to see, joining various processes of cocreation and the wider movement.

Our approach to narrative building invites many people to be part of the process; welcomed into an open mission to explore, think, challenge, imagine and create. Shared sensemaking and shared language is encouraged to bring the understanding of challenges to the surface and create an appetite for change, as well as expanding the collective intelligence of many actors, identifying levers of change and ultimately bringing possibility to the surface. Storytelling is a human process, enabling us to amplify and build traction around the activity. This will create the foundations for shared actionability.

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL | 25

Our Shared Values The #RadicalChildcare initiative will be underpinned by a series of shared values. These will be developed and adapted with the cohort and partners, but the following are essential in underpinning how we organise, design and run this initial phase in particular.

Community

We’ll gain social validation and legitimacy through building a diverse community engaged in different ways in #radicalchildcare and energised through an open and transparent process.

Enterprise

Positive outcomes depend on actionorientated behaviour. We will always explore ideas and propositions with an enterprising and positive mindset, seeking to prototype and test propositions to create change in the real world.

Evidence

We believe the world is full of assumptions, and know that true insight is derived from testing them against reality.

Ethnography, storytelling, start-up prototyping, failure-reporting and data-science are all about creating sound underpinning for what comes next, enriching the toolbox for real impact.

Openness

Empathy

We know that true comprehension depends on understanding the lived experience of many citizens from across the city. We will seek to engage with people on their terms to enable them to contribute what they can and benefit from our work.

Generosity

We will always have the generosity to listen, reflect together, and share the things we learn and create through universal accessibility and open-source innovation. Likewise we know that our purpose will be better strengthened by the input from many others, and will put credit where credit’s due

Collaboration

Change depends on working with the many not the few. We invite people to be part of our purpose and reach out to be part of theirs. We will pool our resources and champion the differences amongst us whilst sharing a collective goal for collaborative positive change.

We believe in the possibility to grow, achieve and improve consistently together. We will focus on what could be and support others both to dream and try to make it real. Trying, moving on and learning from failure is part of being bold, critical yet forward thinking.

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Stage One: Open Inquiry The Open Inquiry period is a unique combination of active participation, movement building, research and collective sensemaking that activates many actors around system challenges. The following methodology is an overview pilot to catalyse a community of action around the childcare system in Birmingham, making up the first stage of a five stage process outlined in this proposal.

Stage 1

OPEN INQUIRY 6 Months

OPEN INQUIRY AIMS:

The primary aim is to seed an action-orientated community rooted in continual learning. They will host a city-wide open movement around the shared #RadicalChildcare mission.

Key elements to achieve this include:

Further aims: Seeding the conditions for system level innovation, building a new politics of change and generating momentum for actionability prior to prototyping a systems level accelerator.

Movement and collective learning community around systems challenges. In our first programme it will be prototyped around the childcare system, with a place-based focus on Birmingham.

Build a platform for collective intelligence and an actionability capacity for actors and changemakers in the system.

RESEARCH

•

Open Dialogue & Open Storytelling Shared Sensemaking Shared Language Shared System Mapping Shared Comprehension of Leverage Points Discover Possibility / Challenges and Examples of Disruptive Change Grow a Public Conversation

Stage 3

TAKING ACTION +INVESTING IN SYSTEMS CHANGE 12 Months

OPEN STORYTELLING

• • • • • •

Stage 2

GROWING THE MOVEMENT 6 Months

Stage 4

HOSTING #RADICALCHILDCARE

Building the learning base and politics of massive collaborative change, spanning citizens, corporations and civic institutions.

Continual iterative focus on collective intelligence of many actors and the system, not a consultative approach to change focused on running a programme.

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL | 27

Open Inquiry: 6 Months OPEN INQUIRY PROCESS

“Inquiry learning is compatible with the constructivist approach, which emphasises the idea that knowledge is not transmitted directly from teacher to the student, but is actively developed by the student.” - National Research Council, 2000.

From our early system change work around convening a large group on open and shared missions, we are learning that you can’t consult our large-scale system from an external view, or merely use top down or bottom up approaches alone. It’s not a polarised point that is citizen driven vs. corporate driven, but instead using mission-driven movements that bring together citizens, corporate and civic organisations around a shared mission.

The open inquiry based method allows actors to bring challenges and good practice to the surface, building consciousness around interdependencies in the system. The primary focus is to build momentum, seeding the initial architecture for collective system intelligence. This is not merely to build a programme, but instead to build a city wide capacity.”

OPEN STORYTELLING OPEN QUESTIONS | CITIZEN JOURNALISM

START WITH WHY

COFFEE CONVERSATIONS + IDEATION

THINK PIECES & EVENTS

SEEDING THE MOVEMENT

RESEARCH Participatory Research, Desk-Based Research, Ethnography, Systems Mapping, 1-to-1 interviews, Peer/Group Interviews, Data Science

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INITIATIVE PROPOSAL

OPEN INQUIRY PROCESS

POWERED BY OPEN STORYTELLING We will grow an open platform for storytelling and sharing. From our previous movement work we know creating open # type media means that many people can contribute to the story and there is no single institutional ownership of the issues and ideas that emerge from such work. Instead, it is collectively owned and grown. We will use citizen journalism and high quality curated storytelling to build transformational narratives of change that connect shared identity, experiences, values, actionability and visions of the future. This grows momentum for change and allows many actors to collectively imagine a shared path and understanding of systemic problems. (Further detail on Page 31)

RESEARCH Throughout the open inquiry period there will be an ongoing research process conducted by a dynamic team. Each of the 6 key areas have a range of outcomes that will build a body of research, data and collective intelligence to help inform the accelerator phase.

Participatory Research, Desk-Based Research, Ethnography, Systems Mapping, 1-to-1 interviews, Peer / Group Interviews, Data Science (Further detail on page 32)

COFFEE CONVERSATIONS + IDEATION As with all of the large scale participatory processes and projects we have stewarded, the process is one of deep listening and open dialogues with a range of citizens, partners and stakeholders.

This phase, whilst termed “coffee conversations�, can take a range of forms, from one-to-one conversations to informal coffee sessions with multiple parties, dinners and much more.

Our methodology for this phase is fairly straightforward. All members of the project can meet people and have an open dialogue, but we know from our long experience in this space that these conversations form a crucial step that can often be overlooked or rushed. Transformational work that moves many people to act requires deep understanding, uncovering passions, insights, relationships, history and new ideas. It embodies a deep respect to those who have often dedicated their lives to such work.

Throughout our 10 year history internationally (00) and 5 years in Birmingham (TEDxBrum / IHB / Famalam / Spaghetti) we hold strong networks across a range of individuals, organisations and changemakers from which to build upon. We will continue this phase throughout the entire period, but it will also form part of our ongoing commitment to host the Mission Birmingham community of talented transformational change makers; those passionate about a better Birmingham, at the centre of the Impact Hub Birmingham mission.

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL | 29

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL

OPEN INQUIRY PROCESS

START WITH WHY WORKSHOPS A crucial phase that will take place between open dialogue and co-creating solutions is a more focused convening of actors from across the system to begin to ask why? Why is this important, is it important? It is imperative not to merely focus on start up innovation culture, but instead convene people from across multiple points of the system. At this stage we would bring together people from activism, campaigning, policy, local government, tech, social innovation, sector-specific actors, citizens, funders and more. Here we would map the system together, seeding shared learning, understanding and language. This will enable us to ask the right questions together, scope, prioritise in order to uncover possibility together before more focused activity takes place.

THINK PIECES & EVENT SERIES Running alongside the open storytelling - featuring curated content, citizen journalism and open public conversations as multimedia documents - will be a series of thought and practice leaders that we will bring together over a 6 month period. They will write, talk, share and host workshops that will make some of the most innovative and thought-provoking leadership accessible, with the aim to support learning, practice and to inspire. A key part of this activity will be hosting thought leadership from across many parts of the system - from policy innovation, local gov, startup etc - to seed a system-wide mindset about how intervention points need to go beyond start-up enterprise.

The first two stages of our methodology will have a large public event to disseminate, connect and launch / recruit for the system accelerator.

SEEDING AN ACTION ORIENTATED LEARNING COMMUNITY THAT CAN HOST AN OPEN CITY WIDE MISSION AND MOVEMENT Learning Circles Co - Creation Workshops, Jams Prototypes: eg. Co - Creche, Play Group Soup Trade School Town Hall Meetings (Further detail on page 33-34)

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OPEN INQUIRY ‘ZOOMING IN’

Open Storytelling Stories are fundamental to how we all understand the world and our place in it.

The stories that exist in each community are embedded with power - the power to explain and justify the status quo, as well as the power to make change imaginable and urgent.

Storytelling is of particular importance in contexts where there are many, often divided, opinions.

Storytelling is also of critical importance where challenges are complex, part of a big often entrenched system that people feel cannot change. In the case of large system challenges such as childcare, where the solutions are unknown and the process to get there is unknown, it is important to start from somewhere and learn, grow, build and gain momentum together.

Our collective institutional history has many successful examples of this open making process, of which storytelling is one crucial part. These include the #EpicBrum campaign, Open Desk and more.

Examples of mini curated campaigns include Open Questions, Humans of Radical Childcare and Projects We Love (working titles) to highlight products that can sit within a wider open mission.

Our methodology will allow us to reframe, challenge and change narratives to create new possibilities. It can mobilise, amplify and support people to participate in the changes they want to see, joining various processes of co-creation and the wider movement. Storytelling will include the commissioning and curating of many thought pieces from a range of citizens, system actors, experts and thought leaders to make stories and emerging innovative practice easily accessible.

Here’s how we will capture and present stories in the Open Enquiry phase:

Documentation

The accelerator cohort will be required to document their reflections via online media; photos, written narrative, podcast, video etc. This aims to further embed their learning through reflective practice and to disseminate their journey to a wider audience.

Film & Video

We will produce short videos introducing key learnings from our research and sharing outcomes from the prototyping phase.

Thought Pieces & Curated Content

By curating talks and presentations from industry experts and thought leaders we will share cutting edge ideas from innovative spaces around the world to a broad audience, making them accessible to many. We will place targeted thought pieces in industry publications to support the storytelling campaign.

Hashtag Campaign

This is a highly iterative and dynamic process led by design, communication and storytelling experts highly embedded in the community, as opposed to agency-based experts. This is crucial to developing a broad movement that many can relate to and join. Using open platforms, and creating # as opposed to closed project brandings, we grow outwards and an open narrative emerges, as opposed to a fixed narrative that we simply disseminate.

Propositions & Open Calls

Participatory campaigns via social media will pose questions to the public and gather responses, publishing them via the hashtag campaign.

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL | 31

OPEN INQUIRY ‘ZOOMING IN’

Research

The #RadicalChildcare open inquiry will be underpinned by complementary strands of research that will inform the later stages of the process. Many aspects of the research will continue throughout stages 2 and 3, with each phase building on the last with increasing participation. The research phase is not only about building insights, but essential to movement building,. The core aim is to build collective intelligence across the system, not simply a programme delivery team. All strands of the research will be interwoven with the open communications of the initiative, each part reinforcing shared values and building momentum.

Participatory Research

The participatory research method aims to enable citizens to establish a deeper understanding of local context using their own personal experience of the childcare system. Through this process they gain the understanding of a shared purpose, discovering their own assets as well as taking inspiration. The participatory research will be co-designed with many people in order to find new ways to engage and enable widespread participation to create an inclusive process. We will empower a team of citizen researchers to work and report findings at the #RadicalChildcare Town Hall meetings. This will craft collective intelligence and build capacity across the movement.

Desk Based Research

A member of the research team will continue a process of desk-based research, uncovering and interrogating the large amount of material already in the field. This will be added to the library of resources available to the team and participants, interrogating them together in small learning circle processes and also shared at #RadicalChildcare Town Hall meetings.

Ethnography

This is a crucial part of the open inquiry process and the ongoing learning for participants as part of the accelerator. It enables people to understand the layers and texture of their lives, their world views, what agency they feel they have, their aspirations, the community in which they live and much more. This is crucial to such a complex, contextual and personal experience as the care of our children. Value will be found in surfacing the cultural values, underlying beliefs, narratives and relationships that contribute to childcare actions and attitudes. The Open Inquiry phase will feature a highly dynamic and iterative process of 1-to-1, peer and group interviews.

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Systems Mapping

Collaborative systems mapping is a key component of the entire 2 year proposal. In collaboration with Ecosystems Lab (Steve Waddell) we will pilot a city-wide, system mapping process that looks at how we collaboratively map, build understanding and recognise intervention points in large societal change systems. We aim to pilot the tools, methods and resources to inform the next 5 years of work.

Knowledge and practice surrounding the field of large systems change is still at a relatively early stage of development. This is reflected in the fragmentation tools and methods to support it amongst pioneer innovators and the fields: FSG has collaborative impact; David Cooperrider is associated with appreciative inquiry, Peter Senge with system dynamics (mapping), Otto Scharmer with Theory U, Dave Snowden with SenseMaker, Juanita Brown with World Café, Steve Borgatti and others with Social Network Analysis, Reos Partners with Change Labs, and Verna Allee with Value Network Analysis. We will work closely with experts such as Steve Waddell to prototype the right suite of tools to enable many participants to understand change systems and their dynamics.

Data Science

In the early 20th century, department store magnate John Wanamaker said, “I know that half of my advertising doesn’t work. The problem is that I don’t know which half.” The statement remained basically true until Google transformed advertising with AdSense based on new uses of data and analysis.

The same might be said about childcare. It is poised to go through a similar transformation as new tools, techniques, and data sources come into the fore.

Soon, we’ll make policy, interventions and resource decisions based on a much better understanding of what leads to the best outcomes. We’ll be able to make decisions based on a citizen’s specific biological, neurological and sociological needs. Bringing Big Data analytics to the childcare movement is needed if we are to transition from counting to preventing - from reacting to historic events to dynamically targeting desired outcomes.

OPEN INQUIRY ‘ZOOMING IN’

Building a Learning Community Examples of Proposed Activity for Building an Action-Orientated Learning Community

Drawing on our experience in building action-orientated communities and collective intelligence we will host a range of activity during the open inquiry period. This will allow many actors to engage in a way that suits them, introducing ideas of change and sparking energy. We believe that communities that include many actors from across society can come together to build shared comprehension around challenges. Together they can shape ideas and partake in the action required.

Acting as hosts of these environments, we believe a range of activity is crucial in maintaining momentum and to attract and activate the city at a wide range of intervention points. All of the activity is focused on creating replicable models that inspire participants to recreate and build wider movement around what they feel passionate about, seeding the agile, iterative, inspired movement of actors that will feed into the following parts of our methodology.

The open inquiry is also a cyclical movement as more actors are compelled to participate. We talk widely about moving away from a single bullet rhetoric, and by seeding a wide range of activity that is complementary with research, storytelling and which activates a range of sectors within the system, we believe this will create a fertile environment for a diverse critical mass of system interventions and ideas. This will be supported by the appropriate accelerator and blended investment options as described in later sections of the proposal.

LEARNING CIRCLES

The Open Inquiry phase will launch #RadicalChildcare learning communities, a form of 21st century multimedia book club.

This will create a space where interested and engaged people can come together to digest and interrogate current thinking, academic research, TED talks and podcasts in an informal community of learners, experts and the curious. The learning circles will expand across the city and grow into an ongoing community of practice that partners with local institutions. They will continue to blossom as an active critical learning environment for many actors. We believe at this stage growing collective system intelligence is crucial, as opposed to exalting individual hero leaders.

#RADICALCHILDCARE TRADE SCHOOL

Trade School is a self-organised global network of peer-to-peer learning environments, creating spaces for people who value hands-on knowledge, mutual respect, peer learning and the social nature of exchange. Using this model we are able to curate many sessions on new themes and innovative ideas, as well as encouraging the emergent community to share their skills. Platforms such as Trade School encourage creative confidence, selforganisation, and the idea of everyone as an expert, as well as building a community through hands-on action.

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL | 33

OPEN INQUIRY ‘ZOOMING IN’

BUILDING A LEARNING COMMUNITY

#RADICALCHILDCARE SOUP

Birmingham SOUP is a micro granting initiative based on Detroit SOUP. It is an example of community organised platforms that invest in ideas to benefit the city. It can be used to prototype early ideas, build entrepreneurial confidence and grow a lively community of all ages. The platform also allows the engagement of children from the start and introduces ideas of democracy, equality and community. Platforms like SOUP allow us to uncover possibility together, bringing large communities into a shared space to encourage idea sharing and collective action around a cause.

LIVE PROTOTYPES

In order to ensure this phase of the movement is powered by thought, people and action we will utilise our current innovative networks and continually have live prototypes running to test our hypotheses. As we grow momentum this will also inspire a culture of complementary thinking, learning, creating and doing. We have already started investing in this process at Impact Hub Birmingham. We realise that many families are choosing flexible working patterns, freelance and self-employment for a variety of reasons. In 2015 / 2016 we have been exploring how to better host parents and children in the work environment through 3 early pilots: COCRECHE, PLAY GROUP and IMPACT HUB PARENT MEMBERSHIPS. These will be the foundation of a variety of pilots that we will grow and build across the city throughout the Open Inquiry and beyond.

They will also provide the resources to make #RadicalChildcare more inclusive and accessible to a range of parents and families across the city. With many people being part of this process we can build trust, learning and community around how we solve challenges that affect so many of us, together.

CO - CREATION WORKSHOPS

At the centre of the open inquiry is an open, regular, easy-to-access range of co-creation workshops across the city that use open questions and the ‘start with why’ philosophy, allowing many people to continue to join the work. As we move through the entire process, more participants, citizens and actors within the system will gain the resources, skills and tools that arise in order to host their own workshops. We will continue to learn, iterate and build movement across the city through this evolving process. Examples of open inquiry questions for use in this process can be found on page 37.

#RADICALCHILDCARE JAMS

Intense hack-style ideation and prototype jam events have been widely used globally to generate new ideas, galvanise action, inspire possibility and build prototypes. In collaboration with Spaghetti Labs we have extensively piloted jams events spanning a range of foci, including sustainability, service design, government and the justice system.

We aim to create a culture of experimentation and prototyping from the very start of the process, enabling many to collectively understand and see what is possible. This process will be repeated in many locations enabling us to surface potential ideas from across the city, allowing many people to feed into ideas and creating a much broader demographic for the accelerator programme. This will widen scope beyond the traditional enterprise, entrepreneurial and social innovation sector that are largely the main participants for many social change accelerator programmes that we have previously seen.

#RADICALCHILDCARE TOWN HALL MEETINGS

The activity outlined is formed through a range of teams hosting numerous growing communities that will be spreading out across the city. It is crucial to the process to hold regular Town Hall meetings at key bases in the city, including Impact Hub Birmingham. This enables us to synthesise the process and bring people together for progress updates. This will pool collective knowledge and inspire actors by highlighting that they are part of a growing movement, along with learning what specific details are crucial for the following stages. These will be co-curated and hosted by a blend of citizens and team members.

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OPEN INQUIRY

Co-Creche

“The idea was simple – get some professional childminders in a room, with some resources, toys, musical instruments, play kitchens, teepees and streamers and offer to look after people’s children whilst they worked downstairs.

It was offered on a pay what you could afford basis and it worked.”

- Amy

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL | 35

OPEN INQUIRY

Learning Community

The #RadicalChildcare Learning Community is a 21st Century multimedia book club.

It’s a place where we digest and interrogate current thinking, academic research, TED talks and podcasts in a supportive informal community of learners, experts and the curious.

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OPEN INQUIRY

Open Questions

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL | 37

OPEN INQUIRY

Open Source #RadicalChildcare Toolkit In much of the work that has led to this proposal, we have prototyped open source digital and printed toolkits that enable narratives to be authored by a range of people. We’ve learnt that toolkits can enable more inclusive participation and support the movement to transcend geographical and other boundaries. These resources grant us the capacity to gather support, intelligence and action internationally for the benefit of the locality. Creating a wide range of open source toolkits will be an underlying principle throughout the programme, enabling fellows and accelerator participants to publish their ideas and findings, giving #RadicalChildcare an ever-evolving voice.

RESEARCH TOOLKIT

An inclusive participatory research process will enable peer interviews, discussion groups, ethnography and a range of creative facilitation processes led by our talented and experienced team.

The start of the Open Inquiry will see the team working with a range of citizens to co-design the research toolkit, whilst building on learning from previous examples we have created. This will be widely used to make the research phase of #RadicalChildcare accessible to citizens across the city.

LEARNING COMMUNITY TOOLKIT

As outlined in the Seeding a Learning Community section on page 30, we will host, co-create and enable a wide range of settings to galvanise the movement and open inquiry phase. Many of these activities have simple core principles that can be codified into a toolkit for use in a range of communities across the city and across multiple engaged actors. The initial toolkit will include open source ‘how to’ guides for jam events, SOUPs, learning circles, Trade School and established prototypes that are being tested, made available in digital and print mediums. The in-house design and facilitation team are dynamic and agile, and can work with the growing movement to ensure the toolkits are regularly updated as more ideas and prototypes are developed that can be shared.

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STAGE ONE: OPEN INQUIRY

Suggested Deliverables

Stage 1

OPEN INQUIRY 6 Months

STAGE ONE DELIVERABLES • • • •

Stage 2

RESEARCH

Stage 3

TAKING ACTION +INVESTING IN SYSTEMS CHANGE 12 Months

Stage 4

HOSTING #RADICALCHILDCARE

OPEN STORYTELLING

GROWING THE MOVEMENT 6 Months

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

3 x Living Wage Interns Appointed 1 x Evaluation Partner Secured 150 x Coffee Conversations 10 x ‘Start with Why’ Workshops across Birmingham Wards 12 x Curated Learning Circles 6 x Learning Circles Seeded across Birmingham 1 x Learning Circle Toolkit Chapter 10 x Co - Creation Workshops 10 x #RadicalChildcare Fellows Appointed 5 x Fellowship Training Session 3 x #RadicalChildcare Ideation Jams 6 x #RadicalChildcare SOUPs 1 x #RadicalChildcare SOUP Toolkit Chapter 6 x #RadicalChildcare Trade School 1 x #RadicalChildcare Trade School Toolkit Chapter 6 x #RadicalChildcare Town Hall Meetings 1 x #RadicalChildcare Town Hall Toolkit Chapter 10 x Co - Creche Sessions 1 x #RadicalChildcare Co - Creche Toolkit Chapter 20 x Stay and Play Sessions 1 x Stay and Play Toolkit Chapter 5 x Accelerator Information Workshops 5 x Short Open Storytelling Films 10 x Commissioned Thought Pieces Ist Ethnographic Report Published Publication of Open Source #RadicalChildcare toolkit V1 1 x Online Mission Campaign 1 x #RadicalChildcare Mission Update Infographic

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL | 39

Stage Two: Growing the Movement The fellowship component of the #RadicalChildcare initiative is not standalone; it will blend across the Open Inquiry stage and recruitment of the accelerator participants. However, it has specific outcomes to the success of the work and therefore is being defined here as a specific component.

From a wide range of our previous work, we know that often during movement building a number of hyper-engaged participants emerge with real desire and commitment. We want to harness their passion, motivation, energy and ambition to be part of the #RadicalChildcare transformation. During the #RadicalChildcare initiative we wish to actively grow, enable and empower such people to support citizens and organisations in participating and discovering possibility.

Stage 1

OPEN INQUIRY 6 Months

Stage 2

The fellows will be supported by toolkits and the team in order to host and accelerate the movement in their own geographical and practice-based communities. We aim to recruit from a range of practices and walks of life, examples including: policy, human resources, parents, grandparents, early years professionals, creative education, arts, design, activism and any intersections of these spaces.

We hope this initial fellowship will help to catalyse support for a long term annual fellowship programme that will continue after the initial 2 year work is complete, igniting foremost innovators, practitioners and system leaders.

Aims •

• •

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Identify system leaders to co-create the #RadicalChildcare movement building, citizen activation, ideation and storytelling alongside the core team.

Fellows will draw from their own passion, practice and expertise to create a system-wide movement approach to the programme.

The fellowship will seed the design and methodology for a longer annual fellowship to build on the #RadicalChildcare initiative across Birmingham and ultimately the UK.

RESEARCH

GROWING THE MOVEMENT 6 Months

Stage 3

TAKING ACTION +INVESTING IN SYSTEMS CHANGE 12 Months

Stage 4

HOSTING #RADICALCHILDCARE

OPEN STORYTELLING

We propose a 10 person fellowship to support the team as movement builders, storytellers, conveners, ideas agents and ultimately as our pioneers of the possible. These fellows will be recruited during the first 3 months of the Open Inquiry period and will support the second half of the Open Inquiry as well as hosting a further three months, when the team move into the period of accelerator applications.

GROWING THE MOVEMENT

6 Months Fellowship EXAMPLES OF FELLOWS ACTIVITY Fellows will: • Exhibit, talk, write, share and host events that establish deeper context and inspire.

• Support research design and idea development across the open inquiry, co-creation processes and application phase to support citizens to see possibility and establish feasibility of ideas.

• Act as pioneering ambassadors to #RadicalChildcare that are passionate about building a better Birmingham, putting children at the heart.

• Contribute to the planning and co-design of the methodology for a future annual fellowship programme to unite innovators working in this space.

Stage 1

OPEN INQUIRY 6 Months

STAGE TWO: SUGGESTED DELIVERABLES Stage 2

RESEARCH

Stage 3

TAKING ACTION +INVESTING IN SYSTEMS CHANGE 12 Months

OPEN STORYTELLING

GROWING THE MOVEMENT 6 Months

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

50 x Fellowship Coffee Conversations 5 x Fellow Town hall Events 1 x #RadicalChildcare City Camp Event (2 days) 3 x Learning Workshops for Fellows 5 x #RadicalChildcare Recruitment Dinners 5 x #RadicalChildcare Journeys 1 x #RadicalChildcare Recruitment Retreat 15 Teams / ~ 35 Participants Recruited for Accelerator Programme 1 x Annual Fellowship Design Ideation Jam 1 x Recruitment Campaign 1 x Mission Campaign 1 x Fellowship Film 60 x Articles Written by Fellows 2nd Ethnographic Research Report Published 1 x #RadicalChildcare Mission Update Infographic

Stage 4

HOSTING #RADICALCHILDCARE

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL | 41

#RADICALCHILDCARE SYSTEM ACCELERATOR

Stage Three: Taking Action The systems change accelerator builds on the first two stages of the #RadicalChildcare initiative, which will have engaged a broad range of innovators, change-makers, experts and other stakeholders to work alongside citizens to inspire, identify, scope priorities and support their potential ideas and innovations.

The accelerator stage will select 10-15 of these early-stage ideas and accelerate their potential to have real impact for good. Our 9-month programme will enable an accelerator cohort of startups, policy change campaigns, data initiatives and other ventures to rapidly develop, test and iterate their ideas and become ready for investment. Our investment approach will work across a diversity of legal forms and business models to invest in change at a systemic level.

Stage 1

OPEN INQUIRY 6 Months

Stage 2

• •

• • • •

9 month systems change accelerator programme A programme with a shared open mission and focus on shared action, shared outcomes, a collaborative system change approach and shared metrics, whilst also focusing on the specific support that particular ideas, teams and individuals need to build robust innovative projects and ventures 35 participants in 10-15 teams, forming a collaborative cohort £250,000 invested across 10-15 start-ups, policy changes, corporate social innovations, citizen campaigns data initiatives, etc.

A peer-to-peer led investment committee An investment approach emphasising unsecured loans, revenue participation and collaborative outcomes commissioning

RESEARCH

AIMS & DELIVERABLES:

Stage 3

TAKING ACTION + INVESTING IN SYSTEMS CHANGE 12 Months

Stage 4

HOSTING #RADICALCHILDCARE

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OPEN STORYTELLING

GROWING THE MOVEMENT 6 Months

TAKING ACTION

Our Approach to Social Venture Accelerators Based on our experience with developing, delivering, hosting and supporting a range of accelerator programmes, we believe that accelerators for systemic social change need to be redesigned.

Social investors and funders have frequently told us that they wish to support teams and ideas that they feel will build great organisations. They refer to supporting those with a clear mission and entrepreneurial approach through a range of investment approaches including grant, loan, revenue share, equity and commissioning. Accelerators that focus on narrow definitions of enterprise founders and proscribe a single type of approach to business models or a single investment model unnecessarily limit this potential. Hence, we will focus on an accelerator environment that will attract a wide range of participants beyond those already self-identifying as entrepreneurs.

We believe our approach can generate a range of structured, high impact and financially robust, interventions which work across a system and place #RadicalChildcare as a movement of change.

This will include a range of grant and social investors, as well as commissions with an entrepreneurial and sustainable foundation, to grow a movement around outcomes for parents and children in Birmingham.

A summary of lessons learnt:

• Given the dearth of investable social ventures beyond London, growing the social investment market means focusing on enabling early stage and pre-start ventures. Our significant investment in the Open Enquiry and fellowship represents necessary market-making activity for creating a viable cohort.

• We are recognising that many social mission start-ups need to operate and infect change at a system level instead of depending on individual siloed business models for products or services.

We are increasingly seeing the need for social ventures to coordinate commissioners, social goods buyers or liability holders.

• Whilst the demand of social start-up pre-accelerator support remains high, it looks increasingly challenging to fund them sustainably long term. We need different, flexible and combined investment models.

• We are increasingly seeing the emergence of alternative models including impact investing into systems for outcomes (ie. education outcomes in an area), investing in outcomes in a virtuous portfolio using a hybrid of grand, social seed, social venture fund and commercial capital.

Programme Design At the heart of the accelerator will be a structured learning programme that engages the cohorts capacity to learn and co-build a movement of change. We have ample experience from our previous work building robust and diverse venture development journeys we will refine that to create a programme that is inspirational, diverse, accessible, ambitious and robust. Throughout stage 1 and 2 of the programme we will get to a more precise understanding of the needs of our first accelerator cohort. At that point we will bring together a range of thought leaders, innovative practitioners, coaches, mentors and insights from across 00 ventures and Impact Hub Birmingham to build on our insights in accelerators so far. They will complete the bespoke programme we have designed to enable participants to grow their business, venture, idea, or unique intervention. This stage will be overseen by Immy Kaur, Indy Johar and Joost Beunderman.

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL | 43

TAKING ACTION: SYSTEM ACCELERATOR

PROGRAMME DESIGN

We believe the programme design will have a range of key characteristics to suit the needs of a variety of interventions, whilst accelerating ventures, projects and ultimately an open movement.

1. The accelerator is delivered through a nine month programme. Our approach recognises that accelerating diverse ventures for social impact isn’t the same as tech acceleration – ‘hardware’ development, movement building and real-world feedback loops take more time.

2. Across a city-region and nine months, the key challenges are to maintain momentum, intensive learning and feedback loops, as well as to enable the cohort to come together as a collaborative learning community with peer-to-peer support. Rather than a weekly programme cycle, the programme will develop a programme based on monthly intensive multi-day collaborative workshops that bring together the cohort whilst enabling the teams to develop their ventures in the interim through real-world interaction. The programme will kick off with a week-long intensive session to set the tone, build trust and enable the teams to hit the ground running. The collective learning of the group, the wider system and many actors will be equally as valued and seeded as the individual and team experience.

3. Our approach to venture development combines the best of ‘lean start-up’ approaches (rapid learning loops, validated learning through prototypes) but with a focus on co-production with many stakeholders. This emphasises both the importance of a theory of change for the wider system shared across teams and the importance for each venture to create multiple value on a team-specific theory of change.

4. Our approach recognises that a collaborative cohort working on various aspects of a joint childcare theory of change will lead to a cohort of diverse ventures and initiatives, such as parent coops, campaigns, tech solutions, new trust mechanisms, new learning approaches, workplace childcare, regulation change, metrics insights. All of these areas will have different development needs and founder characteristics. Our approach clearly has no single presumed business or revenue model and will try to suit different life circumstances; in-work or on benefits, serial entrepreneur, policy-focused etc.

5. Our approach recognises that a diverse cohort needs diverse support: mission/movement building support (systems thinking, leadership styles and social media); specialist domain support (childcare, social tech and data science expertise); ‘business’ support (technical startup support, legal, financial and team development expertise); and a peer-to-peer support culture. We will convene a group of experts to achieve all such input needs, as well as support the individuals within the teams.

6. Our approach focuses on supported learning rather than teaching. The application of new concepts is crucial. We will develop an online progress tracking system to assess team progress on multiple metrics, including social process metrics (community building).

7. Our approach recognises that collaborative change requires a focus on open source sharable IP & interoperability and growth & impact scaling strategies that are as much about movement building and proliferation of ideas as about growing ventures.

8. Our approach recognises that to thrive, teams need to focus their effort, not just on convincing investors or commissioners, but equally regulators and the crowd.

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TAKING ACTION: SYSTEM ACCELERATOR

Recruiting a Systems Change Cohort Each cohort will support approximately 35 people (mostly in teams) to develop their ideas, build the capacity of the team and refine their vision. This will accelerate their development as part of a collaborative cohort, working together on an open mission for better outcomes in Birmingham through innovative systemic approaches.

Throughout the stages 1 and 2, our range of ideation jams and other events across the city will enable ideas and potential projects to surface from across a range of demographics, and we will use these events to gather applications to the programme. Our previous experience within recruitment processes has suggested that at this stage we need to look for those who genuinely want to learn and develop (rather than those who rigidly stick to their original idea no matter what) and those who want to collaborate within and across the team. Hence our recruitment process will create conditions for applicants to collaborate through socially engaged challenges and shared experience.

The process would enable us to connect with applicants who have already created a sense of momentum behind their idea. They will normally have come through the open inquiry process, but the entire process will remain open throughout to anyone who has an idea or shared vision. We propose a three-tiered process:

DINNERS

A range of dinners with potential participants to connect over food, share ideas, map our experiences together, seeding the learning environment and culture that we aim to galvanise throughout the programme.

JOURNEY

We will use a range of ‘journeys’ to kick-start the learning from the application process. We will ask participants to host learning circles around site visits and share what they have learnt as a part of the process of selecting potential candidates.

SLEEP OVER

We will create a short, intensive retreat to ideate, connect, create and understand the motivations and characteristics of potential participants, both as individuals and teams; both as venture founders and learners. We will use this process to remove the ‘us and them’ between participants and the core team.

This active recruitment process will not only select participants suitable for the accelerator but also help us to continue to make and maintain real connections to specifically suit the programme at this stage.

PARTICIPANTS

Applicants to the programme will need to demonstrate they meet the following criteria.

1. Networked teams with local networks as well as specialist ideas 2. Diversity of team backgrounds & ideas 3. Understanding of systems focus and collaborative theory of change 4. Willingness / ability to be entrepreneurial with ideas rather than being focussed on a single solution 5. Willingness to work with open source attitude

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL | 45

TAKING ACTION: SYSTEM ACCELERATOR

Deliverables METHODS

Workshops, Talks, Retreats, Shared Journeys, Peer to peer Learning Circles, Physical & Digital Documentation / Storytelling, Mentoring, Coaching, Visits, Play, Writing, Pitching, Action research, Challenges, Prototyping, Reflection, Show and Tell, Demonstration, Discussion, Walks, Sharing Food, Watching, Listening, Outdoor Learning, Doing, Fireside Chats, Town Hall Meetings

THEMES

Storytelling, Communication, Adversity, Consequence, Planning, Trust, Media Skills, Change Making, Systems Mapping, Outdoor Learning, Civic Infrastructure, Finance & Accountability, Collaboration, Resilience, Team Building, Creative Technology, Collaborative Consumption, Sharing Economy, Economics, Empathy, Debate, Pitching, Arts & Creativity, WellBeing, Futurism, Social Innovation, CRM, Accountability, Business Structures, Governance, Business Planning, System Leadership, Historical Contexts, Critical Thinking, Investment, Building Networks, Open Source Movements, #PowerofUs, Participation, Lived Experience.

Stage 1

OPEN INQUIRY 6 Months

STAGE THREE: SUGGESTED DELIVERABLES Stage 2

RESEARCH

Stage 3

TAKING ACTION + INVESTING IN SYSTEMS CHANGE 12 Months

Stage 4

HOSTING #RADICALCHILDCARE

OPEN STORYTELLING

GROWING THE MOVEMENT 6 Months

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

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150 x Cohort Reflective Articles 3 x Accelerator Residential Weekends 12 x Learning Circles 12 x Journeys 8 x Town Hall Events 1 x Open Prototype Showcase Hosted by Cohort 1 x Prototyping Jam 12 x Specialist Domain Support Curriculum Sessions 12 x Specialist Business Support Curriculum Sessions 10 x Mentor Sessions 15 x Trade Schools 3 x #RadicalChildcare SOUPs Hosted by Cohort 5 x Cohort Hosted Open Project Nights for Birmingham 10 x Cohort Suppers 3rd Ethnographic Research Report 3 x Peer-to-Peer Pitching and Investment Days 1 x Meet the Funders Workshop 1 x Radical Childcare Open showcase 15 x Cohort Toolkit Chapters 1 x Online Mission Campaign Publication of Open Source #RadicalChildcare Toolkit v2.

1 x Commisioned Documentary Film 1 x #RadicalChildcare Mission Update Infographic Final Evaluation Report

Our Approach to Investment A crucial element of the programme is financial investment into the system at a series of interdependent leverage points – the points where the accelerator cohort will be active. Throughout and particularly at the end of the programme, each team will go into a peer investment process as well as gaining access to a blend of investment - spanning grant, seed social finance, social venture investment, commissioning support and commercial investment.

System change investment is a domain of increasing interest as many impact investors, philanthropists and foundations are beginning to acknowledge that financing transformative change requires us to go beyond simple venture doctrine driven by single outcomes, products or services.

The investment model we will prototype and test is a model of financing that recognises the impact of collaborative investment - investing in a coherent group of actions and activities which together, directly and indirectly, drive a multiplier effect with virtuous outcomes. This is a model of financing which requires us to re-imagine our tools, term sheets and models of investment during the accelerator. We have consequently borrowed from the best - be it peer-to-peer investment committees of ‘Village Capital’ or the hybrid investment models of the ‘Portuguese Social Investment Fund’, which we have researched and discussed in detail prior to designed the investment stage. #RadicalChildcare will be the first pilot following 3 - 5 years of practice-based research into how you design and deliver collaborative investment for city outcomes.

INVESTMENT COMMITTEE FOR COLLABORATIVE IMPACT

Following the successful global ‘Village Capital’ approach, in our model the investment committee for the primary system change investment pot will be the cohort itself. Each team will pitch for support, funding and social investment in two stages via a peer-selected investment model which changes the power dynamic between entrepreneurs and investors, so that the next-generation innovators have primary agency over which innovations have the opportunity to grow together and how. Pragmatically, the peer-selected investment structure makes seed-stage impact investing more cost-effective.

The peer-driven investment approach will be complemented by other social investment channels, support for crowd-based finance-raising, and commissioner introductions where relevant.

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL | 47

INVESTING IN SYSTEM CHANGE

3 months #RadicalChildcare Investment TERMS OF INVESTMENT

The investments themselves will take the form of a hybrid of investments mechanisms and term sheets highlighted below, with the particular aim to drive systems innovation, recognising that combining different types of investment need to work together to finance change. Some of our criteria of investment will be finalised with funders / investors who join the coalition of funders as well as in a participatory process with the cohort and key stakeholders, but we propose to focus mainly on the following three elements

1. UNSECURED DEBT

Unsecured debt is a form of lending in which the lender agrees to repay the initial investment plus a return. The lender does not take security over an organisation’s assets, nor do they require a guarantee. Unsecured debt offers several advantages: For social organisations: (1) access to debt financing without needing to have substantial assets, (2) no dilution of ownership, (3) relatively simple loan agreements, and (4) patient capital (e.g. if the repayment timeline is longer than conventional repayment terms) For investors: (1) access to a new client base, (2) simple form of investing into a social organisation, and (3) can have rights attached to the debt that help focus the organisation on addressing a particular social issue/outcome or target a specific group of people.

2, REVENUE PARTICIPATION AGREEMENTS

An RPA is a quasi-equity instrument. It is a legal arrangement through which investors acquire revenue participation rights that entitle them to a share of the social sector organisation’s gross annual revenues or revenues arising from a particular contract or activity.

RPAs offer several advantages: For social organisations: (1) better aligns the cost of capital with business performance, (2) and opportunity to access risk-based capital even where legal form does not permit equity finance, and (3) there is no dilution of ownership and control.

For investors: (1) overcomes the barrier that equity investment may not be permitted due to legal form, (2) offers an opportunity for risk-based (equity equivalent) investment in suitable projects, and (3) is a flexible method of investing directly into growing trading activities.

3. COLLABORATIVE OUTCOMES COMMISSIONING

Collaborative Outcome Commissioning Facility is designed to pay for the attributable results achieved through social innovations projects. The purpose of this commissioning facility is to safely and incrementally grow commissioners’ skills and confidence and grow the demand for system innovation, along with developing the skill of social innovators in developing programmes with attributable outcomes.

For commissioners this (1) shifts the risk away from commissioners budgets, (2) assures money is only spent on successful interventions, implying better value for money, (3) informs policy by promoting evidence-based projects, and (4) in some cases, generates net cost savings Where required this could be complemented with seed grant as early stage finance to unlock later investments and, where relevant equity.

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Stage Four: Hosting #RadicalChildcare Systems change is a long-term process, however the logic of traditional accelerators involves a rapidly decreasing programme involvement after investments are made.

We observe that programmes with the resources to keep maintaining an alumni network are more effective and better perceived by their participants. Our proposal recognises the need to go one step further. We recognise that system change cannot be delivered in one burst of intervention alone, but requires us to continue to host the learning community of system change makers as an ongoing community of shared outcomes. This community already exists as Mission Birmingham, and #RadicalChildcare will continue to thrive off and feed into it.

Stage 1

OPEN INQUIRY 6 Months

Because it is not primarily a social investment player but rather a locally-rooted community of change-makers, Impact Hub Birmingham together with its partners is well placed to host the mission of #RadicalChildcare in the long term as an integrated part of its wider self-sustaining Mission Birmingham commitment.

Stage 2

RESEARCH

AIMS: •

• •

•

•

• • •

Continue to host the movement both online and offline through an ongoing commitment to working with the fellows and alumni. This will include making small budgets available to retained and new fellows, in addition to offering the Impact Hub space to convene events Maintaining an open space in Impact Hub Birmingham to physically prototype and test-trade different #RadicalChildcare ideas Open evaluation and data sharing about the achievements on the key #RadicalChildcare theory of change metrics in order to inform innovation in wider systems change and social investment Open Sourcing #RadicalChildcare ideas for adoption and adaptation elsewhere in the UK and beyond, promoting scaling through open source proliferation rather than ‘scaling up’ Collating and sharing programme design lessons, and working with funding partners to identify next opportunities; whether in childcare or in other systems change programmes Convening a post-accelerator City Camp focused on sharing the outcomes and lessons with a national or international community of research and practice Hosting a self sustaining membership-based community of shared outcomes Throughout this process, building capacity beyond the core team so that the momentum and lessons learnt can be taken forward by others without requiring Impact Hub to galvanise all aspects.

Stage 3

TAKING ACTION +INVESTING IN SYSTEMS CHANGE 12 Months

OPEN STORYTELLING

GROWING THE MOVEMENT 6 Months

Stage 4

HOSTING #RADICALCHILDCARE

STAGE FIVE SUGGESTED DELIVERABLES • •

5 x Fundraising and Resourcing #RadicalChildcare Fellowship Programmes Years 1,2,3,4,5 Ongoing Online Mission Campaign ...

INITIATIVE PROPOSAL | 49