School improvement charity Challenge Partners gets business backing

April 28, 2014 - PRLog -- This represents the latest investment for SBT, bringing its portfolio (http://www.socialbusinesstrust.org/our-portfolio) to eleven social enterprises.

SBT saw the potential in helping Challenge Partners to grow based on its results to date. The charity developed from the London Challenge programme which, during the last decade, has transformed London schools from being some of the worst schools in the country to some of the best. Through a challenging yet supportive system of peer reviews and collaboration, developed by Challenge Partners, schools are outstripping expectations and improving in quality all over the UK.

SBT wants to help this ambitious social enterprise to sustain and deepen its impact. Initial work will look at expanding the ground-breaking Challenge the Gap (http://www.challengepartners.org/challengethegap/) programme, which focuses on improving the attainment levels of students from low income households. The programme has been proven to have a dramatic impact on students, and is already operating in 130 schools with 19,000 low-income students across the UK. Future plans include developing an efficient method for teachers to access the vast amount of knowledge held within the many schools that are members of the Challenge Partners network.

Previously, Secretary of State for Education, Rt Hon Michael Gove MP has commented on the work of Challenge Partners: "I am grateful for the invaluable work that Challenge Partners play in driving up standards in schools through peer-to-peer reviews. It is vital that we encourage collaboration and sharing of best practice between schools."

Professor Sir George Berwick (http://challengepartners.org/blog/view/88#.U1p8WvldXvY), Chief Executive of Challenge Partners, described the news: “These are exciting times for us, and challenging times for schools. We want to make a positive difference in improving the education standards in the UK, and are very pleased SBT is going to be supporting us in the next stage of our journey. This award of business expertise, together with our educational heritage and credentials, will be crucial for our improvement strategy.”

CEO of SBT Adele Blakebrough MBE (http://www.socialbusinesstrust.org/about-us) said “Challenge Partners is an amazing social enterprise with a real track record in turning around failing schools in London. We want them to continue to improve standards in UK schools and make this service available wherever it is needed. At SBT we are all about deepening impact, and we feel Challenge Partners is in a great position to develop itself as an organisation, and continue to help schools to excel.”

SBT provides support to its investees in partnership (http://www.socialbusinesstrust.org/about-us/our-partners) with seven major businesses – Bain and Company, British Gas, Clifford Chance, Credit Suisse, EY, Permira, and Thomson Reuters.

Ends.

For further information contact:

Rebecca Pain, Social Business Trust

T: 0203 011 0770

M: 07974 212544

Twitter: @rebeccapain or @SBT_UK

Notes to Editors:

Social Business Trust was formed in December 2010. Since then it has invested in eleven social enterprises. The aims of the Trust include positively affecting the lives of one million people in the UK.

Adele Blakebrough, chief executive, outlined the Trust’s mission on inception as: “We at the Trust will look at a social enterprise and assess the obstacles to growth it faces and establish the best possible support from our partners. We will then manage the investment and relationship between the social enterprise we are supporting and our corporate partner organisations.

We believe that there has never been a more important time for social enterprises to exist and to thrive. But they will only do so if they have a robust business model and a desire to grow. By working with us, we can help them achieve their ambitions and, thereby, help many more of the UK’s most disadvantaged people.”

The Social Business Trust investment portfolio is comprised of eleven of the UK’s most exciting social enterprises:

Bikeworks (http://www.bikeworks.org.uk/)

Challenge Partners (http://www.challengepartners.org/)

Fashion Enter (http://www.fashion-enter.com/)

Inspiring Futures Foundation (http://www.inspiringfutures.org.uk/)

London Early Years Foundation (http://www.leyf.org.uk/)

Moneyline (http://elmline.co.uk/)

The Challenge (http://www.the-challenge.org/)

The Reader Organisation (http://www.thereader.org.uk/)

Timewise (http://timewisefoundation.org.uk/)

Shakespeare Schools Festival (http://www.ssf.uk.com/)

Young Advisors (http://www.youngadvisors.org.uk/)

What is a social enterprise?

In the UK the accepted Government-backed definition of social enterprise used by the UK social enterprise sector bodies comes from the 2002 Department of Trade and Industry report 'Social Enterprise: a strategy for success' as:

‘A business with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose.’

A suitable and more thorough exploration of social enterprise is listed on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_enterprise), where the UK section includes the above definition and further examples of social enterprises.

About Challenge Partners

Challenge Partners is a national network of local partnerships that challenge each other to improve. The charity, built on the teaching schools model, is school-owned and represents 238 schools across England.

The charity began in 2011 and developed from the London Challenge programme, a government funded initiative which ran from 2002 to 2011 and focused on making London the place where the link between deprivation and poor educational outcomes could be broken.

The charity aims to improve the quality of education for pupils through advancing the quality of sustainable teaching and leadership. This is done through facilitating constructive collaboration and challenge between schools and providing a platform for activities which would not be possible for a school to undertake on its own.