Civic Leadership Codified Approach

Claire Gething, Director of Communications

“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of identity.”

Dr Martin Luther King

Introduction

As a multi-academy trust - and a publicallyfunded education charity - we have a legal and moral purpose to advance education for the greater public good. In the Confederation of School Trust’s (CST) paper, Community Anchoring: School Trusts as Anchor Institutions, it asserts that school trusts are a new form of civic structure and there is an opportunity - or indeed, an obligation - for trusts to go beyond their roles as educators, to become anchor institutions in the communities they serve.

In the Department for Education’s (DfE) 2023 guidance paper, Commissioning High Performing Trusts, the role school trusts play in delivering civic purpose is also recognised, albeit not as a pillar of trust quality in its own right. However, the CST’s response - ‘Building Strong Trusts: Assurance Framework’ - builds on this work, and includes ‘public benefit and civic duty’ as one its seven domains indicating trust strength within the framework.

Image: Confederation of School Trusts Seven Domains of Trust Strength (2023)

When it comes to taking a purposeful and strategic approach to civic leadership, Windsor Academy Trust (WAT) is ahead of the curve. In our 2022-25 strategy document, Powering into the Second Decade, ‘Civic Leadership’ was identified as one of five big moves that would help us achieve our moral purpose of unlocking the academic and personal potential of young people. Within this, we state that “our aim is that all children thrive, not just those in the WAT family” and recognise that “schools and students thrive best when communities do.” Indeed, when we evaluate ourselves against the CST Trust Assurance Framework1, it is clear that we are not only meeting but in many areas exceeding expectations in delivering our civic duty, with a culture of civic leadership is embedded within the culture of our schools.

However, there is still more to be done to ensure the good work we’re doing is clearly codified, embedded and consistently delivered across our family of schools and that there exists a universal understanding of what it means to be a civic leader within our organisation.

Therefore, in this paper, we will consider exactly what it means to be an anchor institution and what it looks like to operate as a truly civic trust. We’ll also look at how we, as a family of schools, can better understand and embed ourselves in our local communities to make a meaningful and measurable impact. Finally, we’ll review our strategic approach to civic leadership and how this can be codified to provide a clear framework to help our trust to fulfil its role as a civic anchor in the communities we serve.

Current Context

The Reach Foundation, which pursues systemic change through a community-based cradle-tocareer model, states that in order for children to thrive, they need to feel “safe and well supported, be healthy, achieve well academically and build strong and trusting relationships”2. However, we know that not every child experiences this. According to the CST, the ‘disadvantage gap’ between children experiencing disadvantage and their wealthier peers is the largest it has been in a decade at both KS2 and KS43

1 Confederation of School Trusts: Building Strong Trusts: Assurance Framework’ (2023)

2 The Reach Foundation Cradle to Career Partnership: Great Schools are Necessary but not Sufficient for all Children to Enjoy Lives of Choice and Opportunity

3 Confederation of School Trusts: Community Anchoring: School Trusts as Anchor Institutions (2023)

These underserved children typically start school nearly five months behind their peers, are four times more likely to develop mental health problems by the time they are 11 years old, are more likely to be physically unwell, and finish school two years behind their peers4. This is further compounded by global economic uncertainty, a cost of living crisis that has seen a rise in absolute child poverty, the continuing impacts of Covid-19 and a climate emergency.

These are challenges which we cannot address on our own. The Reach Foundation, through its Cradle to Career Partnership recognises that “great schools are necessary but not sufficient if we are to enable all children to enjoy lives of choice and opportunity”. It argues that for thriving to occur, we need schools that:

• Are visible institutions, rooted in their communities

• Are well-funded with facilities to support their communities

• Maintain long-lasting relationships with families

Provide trusted, universal services

• Identify children’s needs for early intervention

With this in mind, the need for civic leadership has never been greater. The Reach Partnership sums up the opportunity succinctly and says that “through investing in relationships with parents, the community and other local services, and embracing our role as civic institutions; we can further strengthen local communities and transform children’s lives”.

What does it mean to be an anchor

institution?

The term ‘anchor institution’ was first coined in the United States in the 1960s. Anchor institutions are normally non-profit, public sector organisations whose long-term sustainability is tied to the wellbeing of the populations they serve. Anchors get their name because they are unlikely to relocate, given their connection to the local population, and have a significant influence on the health and wellbeing of communities5

4 Confederation of School Trusts: Community Anchoring: School Trusts as Anchor Institutions (2023)

5 The Health Foundation: The NHS as an Anchor Institution

According to the CST, anchor institutions, alongside their main purpose, play a significant role in the locality by making a strategic contribution to the greater social good and prioritise support for those experiencing disadvantage6. The CST says that typically anchor institutions have the following attributes:

• Strong ties to the geographic area in which they are based;

• They are larger employers with significant purchasing power;

• Usually public sector, not-for-profit or as in the

case of school trusts, charitable organisations;

• Receive (or are significant stewards of) public resources.

The concept is not new and something universities and the NHS have recognised for many years, creating partnerships with other local and civic organisations to address complex social and economic challenges faced by local communities.

The CST summarises the leadership of trusts as ‘anchor institutions’ as follows7:

Anchor trusts do this … … Not this

Build and nurture strategic partnerships with other schools and other sectors supporting children and families locally

Use their position as trusted, visible institutions to improve local systems and increase their impact

Run great schools and advocate for (local and national) policy change when needed to achieve long-term goals

Deliberately empower others (including people outside the Trust) to lead and take action to support children and families

Invest in developing their workforce (especially locally) and contributing to strong communities

Focus on impact and measure progress against broad outcomes for all children in communities in which Trust works

Focus exclusively on their own organisation

Use only organisational growth to scale their impact

Focus only on their own schools

Maintain a command and control hierarchy

Neglect building the workforce required for a long-term strengthening of community

Focus only on a narrow set of outcomes defined externally

6 Confederation of School Trusts: Community Anchoring: School Trusts as Anchor Institutions (2023)

7 Confederation of School Trusts: Community Anchoring: School Trusts as Anchor Institutions (2023)

Civic engagement or civic anchor?

In the UPP Foundation Civic University Commission’s paper Truly Civic: Strengthening the Connection between Universities and their Places, the importance of understanding the difference between being civically engaged and being a civic anchor is clearly defined.

The report argues that should school trusts want to define themselves as civic anchors, it is important that their civic mission is aligned to a clear strategy for how they will deliver their responsibilities. It also gives examples where universities have fallen short when it comes to delivering civic activity, describing some efforts as “superficial and complacent”.

This includes insufficient engagement with the public and their views and needs to inform activity, playing a ‘passive’ rather than proactive anchor role and a reliance on staid measures to show economic value rather than more meaningful measures, such as improving social mobility, influencing the conversation or enhancing local culture.

Furthermore, some universities were criticised in the report for playing a passive rather than an proactive anchor role, with their anchor impact simply happening as a result of their size, rather than thinking about how to leverage their anchor role8

Therefore, listening to key stakeholders, being intentional about the civic impact we want to make and how we might measure this in a meaningful way are all key indicators of success.

Equally, the CST has identified five principles9 which should be borne in mind for a school trust that is thinking about how it best delivers a civic role. It says:

Civic work has the most impact when it is delivered in partnership with other civic actors. There will be some areas where it makes sense for school trusts to take the lead and others where it will be more appropriate to take a supporting role

• Work should be designed around what the local communities where school trusts are based actually want, and any programme of work should be preceded by a period of activity of consultation with the community Work should be appropriate to the scale and the strengths of the trust and its partners

• Civic work should be a conscious part of a school trust’s activity. This means that for civic work to be meaningful it should have an executive level sponsor as well as support from the trust’s board, and it should receive regular scrutiny from the board to ensure it continues to be focussed and useful

• Civic work should sit alongside the trust’s broader strategy

UPP

Building a deeper understanding of communities

The CST paper School Trusts as New Civic Structure begins to suggest ways trusts can reflect upon how they focus their civic work, identifying three key audiences that should be considered when planning civic work.

• Parents, carers, the local community and other local schools, both trust schools and maintained schools;

• Local governmental partners - local authorities as well as larger areas of regional government where they exist such as mayors/combined city regions;

Wider civic partners in an area, like the health services, the police, other educational bodies (most likely to be colleges, universities), other charities, local cultural institutions (museums, galleries, sports teams etc), and local businesses.

The paper also gives some tangible examples10 of what this civic work could look like:

Parents, community and other schools/ trusts

Publishing a ‘promise’ to parents, carers and the wider community like Eleven by Eleven – eleven experiences that your child will have by the time they turn eleven.

Offering some services in a school that may formerly have been offered by the local children’s centre, like a parent coffee morning.

Supporting schools in another area, for example establishing school-centred initial teacher training provision in an area that is struggling to recruit teachers.

Local government

Developing a public compact with local government demonstrating how the trust or trusts in the locality will help to advance education as a public good including working with LA maintained schools.

Public compact as above but operating city-wide/across local authorities to help solve more widespread education problems in a bigger area.

Working with regional government on a wider strategy for school places, including expanding of provision, new schools, coordination of post 16 places, etc.

Wider civic partners

Working with a local charity on a specific issue in a community and supporting volunteering by trust staff and students, or fundraising within the trust for the project

Working with other civic partners (NHS and local government) on the child and adolescent mental health pathway in a locality.

Working with regional government/ housing authorities to consider affordable homes for teachers.

This approach, by key stakeholder groups, is reflected in Big Move 3 of Windsor Academy Trust’s own strategy11 and helps provide the foundations from which we can begin to codify our approach to civic leadership.

Measuring civic impact

A key learning in the In the UPP Foundation Civic University Commission’s paper Truly Civic: Strengthening the Connection between Universities and their Places, was that too many organisations rely on “staid measures to show economic value of civic action”.

It says “standard economic impact reports tend to overclaim and do not take account of opportunity costs or claim credit for things that would have taken place in any case. Reliance on these narrow measures of economic contribution lacks imagination. More notice should be taken of the other effects [organisations] have: building … scientific knowledge, accelerating innovation, improving social mobility, influencing public and intellectual discourse, enhancing local culture and so on12.”

For where we are in our own civic journey, the following quantitative and qualitative metrics will be used to measure our progress and will form the basis of an annual Civic Impact Report moving forward:

• Progress against key deliverables in the WAT strategy

• Civic outputs

Economic, social and cultural value (where this can be quantified)

• Focus group feedback

• Civic case studies and testimony

In addition, UPP Foundation suggests we ask the following questions as a ‘temperature check’ when evaluating our civic endeavours:

• Can people talk about our organisation with pride and awareness?

• Is civic activity aligned to public need?

• Are the views of local people reflected in either the formal governance or informal and communications structures and strategies of organisation?

Codifying our civic approach

Objective:

To drive education for the greater public good to create social value and deliver civic impact.

Key Outcomes by 2025:

• Civic agreements in place with four wider civic actors/ anchor organisations

• A culture of civic engagement centrally and in each academy

• Civic leaders have been developed through civic leadership professional learning

• Staff at all levels view themselves as civic actors

• Students regularly undertake civic actions (WAT Pledge)

Published report on the research findings impact of civic engagement

• WAT presenting on national platforms and articles written about WAT as a leading educational voice

12 UPP Foundation: Truly Civic - Strengthening the Connection between Universities and their Places (2018) 11 Windsor Academy Trust 2022-25 Strategy: Powering into the Second Decade

Our Delivery Model:

Measuring Impact

• Annual civic impact report

• Ongoing scrutiny by Executive Team Sponsor, Board Director Champion and School Civic Leads

Ongoing Civic Action

• Centrally and by school

Wider Civic Agreements

• Partnership agreements

• Public compacts

• Centrally and by school

Civic Action Plans

• Central civic action plan

• School civic action plans, linked to School Improvement Plans

Community Engagement

• Civic tear downs

• Listening without agenda

Community Stakeholders

• Parents, young people, community and other schools/trusts

• Local government

• Wider civic partners

A Codified Approach:

It is recommended the following programme of civic activity should be implemented annually both Centrally and at a school level using the template resources available. This should be led by the Executive Team Sponsor and Civic Leads in school and activity will be reviewed at the half-termly Civic Leadership Network meetings.

Driver Activity

Civic Tear Downs

Listening Without Agenda

Civic Action Plans

Civic Agreements

Taking Action

Measuring Impact

Create or review your Civic Tear Down of the local community to understand needs and strengths. Template resources available*.

Conduct a minimum of one listening group with a key stakeholder group** to help shape the focus of civic activity. Template resources available*.

Use information gathered through Civic Tear Downs and Listening Groups to develop a Civic Action Plan for the year. Template resources available*.

The Civic Action Plan should be linked in the School Improvement Plan.

One Civic Agreement to be agreed per school each academic year in line with the needs identified in the Civic Action Plan. Template resources available*.

Civic Action to be carried out throughout the year in line with each Civic Action Plan. Examples of Civic Action are detailed below***.

Civic Actions to be logged by each school in the Civic Impact Spreadsheet****.

Best practice examples of Civic Action to be logged in the Civic Case Study Log*****.

Half-termly Civic Leadership Network calls with DoC and School Civic Leads to review, share and collaborate.

Ongoing scrutiny from Executive Team sponsor (DoC) and Board Director Champion.

Centrally-led annual Civic Impact Report. To be developed.

Recommended Timings

September

September

October

Ongoing

Ongoing

Ongoing

Supporting Key:

*Templates Templates are shown in the appendix. Editable versions are located in the Civic Leadership area of LaunchPad:

• Civic Tear Down template

• Listening Without Agenda template

• Civic Agreement template

Civic Action Plan template

**Stakeholders Priority stakeholders include:

• Young people/ students

• Parents

• Members of the local community

Community organisations and groups (i.e. cultural centres, sports clubs, food banks, charities etc)

• Key businesses

• Schools

• Local authorities

Local MPs/ mayors

• Wider civic partners e.g. NHS, universities, school trusts, sports organisations, arts and cultural organisations, Chamber of Commerce, educational organisations, third sector organisations

***Civic Action Examples could include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Volunteering

• Fundraising/ charitable fund (WAT Community Foundation)

• Donations e.g. food bank donations

• Community events/ performances

• Sustainable action Awareness campaigns

• Partnerships/ collaborations/ public compacts

• Support services and provisions

• Promises and commitments e.g. WAT Pledge or Armed Forces Covenant

****Civic Impact Spreadsheet Located in the Civic Leadership area of LaunchPad.

*****Civic Case Study Log

Located in the Civic Leadership area of LaunchPad.

Appendix: Supporting templates

Editable versions of the following templates can be found in the Civic Leadership area of LaunchPad.

Community Tear Down - [SCHOOL NAME/CENTRAL] [Created/updated] on [DATE]

Local Context

Include an overview of the local area and the community your school serves, including key demographic data and insights

X

X

X

Key Stakeholders

Detail below any key stakeholders we already engage with or have identified as potential partners for engagement. Please refer to the Civic Leadership Codified Approach for more information about different types of stakeholders.

Parents, community and other schools/trusts

SWOT Analysis

Capture below the ‘Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats’ in your local community so you can begin to identify what are the strengths you can build on and where are the needs/opportunities to make a difference.

Supporting Information

Capture below any other information that might be helpful in shaping your Civic Action Plan.

Listening Without Agenda - [School / Central] Focus Group [Stakeholder Name] - [Date]

The following template is designed to help with preparing for and structuring a Listening Without Agenda focus group, as well as providing a place to record notes from the conversation

You may want to prepare some topic areas or questions to discuss with the group in advance - or you may simply want to let them lead the agenda and capture these key themes during the session

Try and keep focus groups to no more than 6-8 people and allow an hour for the discussion Someone from the school/ central team should lead the discussion and someone should be appointed note taker so there is an accurate record of what was discussed and agreed

Attendees

Windsor Academy Trust/ School:

● X

Stakeholder Group:

● X

Introduction and Aims

● Introductions

● About [school/ Windsor Academy Trust]

● About [community group/ organisation]

● Explain the focus group is an opportunity to meet, get to know each other better, listen to their perspective/ experiences and understand how we can work together to best support them/ the local community

● Aim is to come away with some agreed actions to take forward by the end of the meeting

● Capture discussion points Topic/Theme/Question/Discussion 2: [XX]

● Capture discussion points

Topic/Theme/Question/Discussion 3: [XX]

● Capture discussion points

Summary

of

Actions and Next Steps:

● Capture actions

● Actions to be fed into the school/ central Civic Action Plan

Civic Action Plan - [School/Central] [Month/Year]

Objectives:

● X

Strategy:

● X

Local Context:

● [Include summary from Civic Tear Down]

Local Insights:

● [Include summary from Listening Without Agenda focus group(s)

Priority Focus Areas for [Year]:

● X

Reporting:

● Examples of best practice to be recorded in the Civic Case Study Log

● Civic impact (e.g. money raised, stakeholder feedback etc) associated with civic activities to be recorded in the Civic Impact Spreadsheet

Civic Partnership Agreement

Between [School] and [Organisation]

We, the undersigned, commit to honour the commitments set out in this covenant. We recognise the value of working together in partnership to contribute and serve young people in our local community

Partnership agreement to include:

Signed on behalf of

Signed on behalf of [School/Windsor Academy Trust] [Organisation]

Signed:

Position:

Date:

Signed:

Position:

Date:

References

The following papers and reports have been used to inform our codified approach to Civic Leadership. These papers are available in full in the Civic Leadership area of LaunchPad.

Windsor Academy Trust 2022-25 Strategy: Powering into the Second Decade

Confederation of School Trusts: Community Anchoring: School Trusts as Anchor Institutions (2023)

Confederation of School Trusts: School Trusts as New Civic Structures (2020)

UPP Foundation: Truly Civic - Strengthening the Connection between Universities and their Places (2018)

Department for Education: Commissioning High Performing Trusts (2023)

Confederation of School Trusts: Building Strong Trusts: Assurance Framework’(2023)

The Reach Foundation Cradle to Career Partnership: Great Schools are Necessary but not Sufficient for all Children to Enjoy Lives of Choice and Opportunity

The Health Foundation: The NHS as an Anchor Institution https://www.health.org.uk/news-andcomment/charts-and-infographics/the-nhs-as-ananchor- institution