Persistently disadvantaged children leave school on average 22 months behind their better off peers.

This gap is widening at primary level, suggesting a likely further widening at secondary in years to come, especially in the wake of Covid-19.

Children and young people are compartmentalised by ‘the system’, meaning support often comes too late or only focuses on one area of a child’s life.

Families can end up being supported by a large number of professionals. We need to change the system supporting children and young people, not just incrementally improving individual schools, youth centres or social care provision.

Yet currently, school leaders, youth workers and social workers are trained in isolation from each other and – mostly – carry on working in silos throughout their careers. There is little opportunity for leaders to understand each other’s perspectives or to develop new ways of supporting children and young people.

A 2023 report by think tank Demos highlighted a “fragmented” system, which sees work duplicated and many vulnerable young people unsure where to turn for support. The report argues that “public services and housing need to be more effectively joined up to improve long-term outcomes for young people and families facing disadvantage”.

JoinedUp began as a collaboration of award-winning and trusted organisations - Frontline, UK Youth, Reach Foundation, and Dixon Academies Trust - working to bring together school leaders, social workers and youth workers to better support disadvantaged children and young people across the UK.

There is a mismatch between the structure of the system and what is needed for children and young people to thrive.

In 2021, Big Change funded UK Youth, Frontline, Dixons Academies Trust and the Reach Foundation to come together to change this. The coalition aimed to develop a cross-sector leadership programme for professionals working with children and young people. Joined Up: The Collective Leadership Programme is for school leaders, youth workers and social workers who are deeply committed to the idea that - as leaders - it is their responsibility to create a system that allows all children to enjoy lives of choice and opportunity.

Since being supported by Big Change, Joined Up has evolved into two key initiatives, both of which will launch in 2025:

The Joined Up Institute: a year-round cross-sector experiential learning initiative, bringing together young people, the youth, education, employment, health, social care, youth justice, business, government, and civil society sectors to scale evidence of what works to transform outcomes for young people across the UK.

Youth First: a two-year accelerated leadership development programme for youth workers. The programme aims to transform the pipeline, diversity and calibre of leaders in the youth sector, to safeguard the development and wellbeing of millions of young people across the country.

Thora is Director of Network Delivery at UK Youth, the organisation leading JoinedUp.

Thora comes to UK Youth with a senior career spanning, operations, strategy, programme development and delivery across the education and youth sectors.

Previously, Thora worked at the Teaching School Hubs Council, where she led the executive team in the annual £17 million delivery of the Government’s national 87 teaching school hubs. Within its first year, the network was able to scale to deliver training to more than 30,000 people.