How to win up to £20,000 funding, inspiring office space and up to two fixed term salaries The Teach First Innovation Unit is supported by the Credit Suisse EMEA Foundation and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
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Award
Teach First is a registered charity, number 1098294
Teach First is a registered charity, no. 1098294
teachfirst.org.uk
The Teach First Innovation Award is an award for ideas which can help ensure that no child’s educational success is limited by their socio-economic background. Currently, the single biggest factor affecting a child’s performance at school and life opportunities is their family’s income. We are looking for the next big idea that can help to solve this. By 2022, we want to see the gaps between young people from poorer and richer backgrounds narrow in five key areas. These Fair Education Impact Goals are as follows:
cy
Goal 1: We want to see the gap in numeracy and litera high income areas low and between pupils attending primary schools in narrowed
een pupils at schools
Goal 2: We want to see the gap in GCSE results betws narrowed t area
in low income areas and those in the wealthies
socio-economic
Goal 3: We want to see more young people from low ience and resil grounds develop the key strengths, including back wellbeing, to support high aspirations
young people not in
Goal 4: We want to see the gap in the proportion of people from poorer young employment, education or training, between and wealthier backgrounds narrowed
uation rates of
Goal 5: We want to see an increase in university grad at least 5,000 year g people from low-income areas, so that every youn 0 from the most selective more young people graduate (including 1,60 universities).
New ideas are needed to help achieve these goals and we want to support their development. We’re not interested in ‘sticking plaster’ solutions or small-scale interventions – we’re looking for something that could change the game permanently.
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ENTERING THE AWARD Your entry for the Innovation Award will be judged across four broad areas, each of which is split into two to make a total of eight criteria, set out below:
How critical is this idea to achieving the 2022 Impact Goals? Conceptual power
Potential scale
Practical Viability
Organisational fit
CASE FOR CHANGE
How compelling is the case for change?
INNOVATION
How innovative is the idea?
SCALE
How many young people from areas of need could benefit?
DEPTH
How much impact will there be on each young person?
SUSTAINABILITY
How sustainable is the funding model?
LEADERSHIP
How strong is the proposed partner’s leadership?
VALUE-ADD
How much can Teach First support this innovation’s growth?
IMPACT GOAL FOCUS
How closely does this innovation align with the Fair Education Impact Goals?
We’ve made this guide to help you craft your answers to give you the best shot at winning the Award.
1. CASE FOR CHANGE- HOW COMPELLING IS THE CASE FOR CHANGE? These two questions are all about showing us that you have a deep understanding of the problem, and a powerful solution for tackling it. Many ideas that aim to make a difference in society end up simply ‘plastering over the cracks’. Whilst they do a lot of great work, if they were to vanish overnight, the impact they make would vanish with them. We’re looking for ideas that go further – that ultimately, change the system permanently. To impress us on these questions, you need to show that you deeply understand the problem your idea solves. And that you really understand the challenges that the young people you intend to be your beneficiaries face. You may choose to focus on a specific part of the problem, but we would like to see that you have done your homework and can present the evidence that what you say is a problem, really is. References to reports, research and media articles can be used to complement anecdotal evidence from your first-hand experience. We also need to see that your approach to the problem has the potential to change the way it is tackled for good. We don’t expect you to say you will wipe out the problem but to show that you have a solution which builds on some evidence that indicates it will work, and that also could get copied by others to such an extent that if you and your organisation disappeared, the great impact you’d been having would continue.
HOW WILL YOUR IDEA BE JUDGED? 0 The innovation addresses a narrow or minor problem, and describes a weak solution
1 The innovation addresses a narrow or minor problem, but describes a good solution
2
3
The innovation addresses a broad or deep problem and describes a good solution
The innovation addresses a broad or deep problem and describes a potentially game-changing solution
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2) LEADERSHIP- HOW STRONG IS YOUR LEADERSHIP? Any entrepreneur will say: coming up with the idea is the easy part. Thrashing out the perfect business plan isn’t too difficult either. The hard bit is actually doing it. There is only one thing that will save you here – and it’s your leadership skills. Why? Because getting other people behind your idea is what will push it along. Those other people are going to be both above and below you in terms of their experience. And you need both. You need to get individuals with a track record of achievement who can give you great advice. You also need to get some people to help you do the work. You’re one person – or perhaps you’re a pair or a trio – but with only twenty-four hours in a day, you’re not going to be able to do it all yourself. What we’re looking for in your answers to these two questions is evidence that you can make things happen and get others on board. You don’t have to show us that you’ve started an organisation before – just that you’ve gone that bit further than your peers, that you have taken the initiative, stuck to your guns in adversity, started something up, or achieved something noteworthy that stands out against the achievements of others. Tell us who you’ve already got behind your idea – no matter who they are. Share with us their endorsements, because if you’ve got other people saying good things about what you’re doing, we want to know. We want to see that you’ve got resilience, tenacity and that you can get people behind you.
HOW WILL YOUR IDEA BE JUDGED? 0 Leader has not attracted a credible team, board or supporters
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Leader has attracted a credible team, board or supporters; will be a very good social enterprise manager
Leader has attracted a strong team, board and supporters; will be a very good social entrepreneur
Leader has attracted an impressive team, board, and supporters; has potential to achieve wide acclaim as a social entrepreneur
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3) SCALE- HOW MANY YOUNG PEOPLE COULD ONE DAY BENEFIT? Here, we want to see how big your idea can get! Having a brilliant innovation is not enough. The anthropologist Jared Diamond tells a great anecdote about a chap who invented printing on the island of Crete in 1700 BC. Unfortunately no-one knows his name because his invention was forgotten for about 900 years, when it was inadvertently re-invented by the Chinese, and adopted across the entire world within a few centuries. We would not want your great idea to suffer a similar fate as that of our young Cretan friend, so tell us how you are going to make sure your idea is not imprisoned upon the proverbial island. What we do not want to see here is grand platitudes of the “my idea is going to reach 19,141,320 young people by next year” variety, which by the way just happens to be the number of 0-24 year olds in the whole of the UK. What we want to see is a clear strategy for how your idea could reach scale, within a timeframe that you define. You don’t have to be an overnight hit (although it would be nice), but you do need to show that you have thought about how you can get from doing something brilliantly and small, to doing something just as brilliantly, that will have an impact on as much of your chosen target group as possible.
HOW WILL YOUR IDEA BE JUDGED? 0
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The innovation cannot be significantly scaled and is restricted to a small proportion of its potential beneficiary group
The innovation could be scaled to benefit a significant proportion of its potential beneficiary group, but with difficulty
The innovation could clearly be scaled to benefit a significant proportion of its potential beneficiary group
The innovation could clearly be scaled to benefit most of its potential beneficiary group
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4) DEPTH OF IMPACT - HOW MUCH IMPACT WILL THERE BE ON EACH YOUNG PERSON? Here, we want to see how deep an impact your idea can make. What we want to see is that you can change lives. We want to see impact that is transformative. How might this look in practice? Well, much of the time it is to do with the amount and type of contact you have with the young people that you work with. If you are only thinking of working with your beneficiaries for a brief one-off, or trying to get at them through indirect means, you could find that you’re not having as much of an impact as you had hoped. To transform a life needs lots of input. You might also consider how you will know how much of an impact you are having. Impact measurement and evaluation are tough nuts to crack, but without them, you will never know whether you are putting your time and energy into the right things - and neither will your funders or customers. So it’s worth putting some serious thought into them from the get-go.
HOW WILL YOUR IDEA BE JUDGED? 0 The innovation will have a limited impact on the lives of individual beneficiaries (perhaps by lacking direct, regular, or long-term contact with them)
1 The innovation will have some impact on the lives of individual beneficiaries (perhaps due to direct, regular, or long-term contact with them)
2
3
The innovation will have a considerable impact on the lives of individual beneficiaries (perhaps by combining direct, regular, and long-term contact with them)
The innovation will have a transformative impact on the lives of individual beneficiaries (probably by working with them directly, regularly, and for an extended period of time)
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5) INNOVATION- HOW INNOVATIVE IS YOUR IDEA? Of course, everyone wishes they could have the great idea that will be the next big thing. In reality, it is extremely difficult to have a completely original idea. The process of innovation is usually a case of taking the very best of what is already out there, and adding a unique new twist that no-one else has got to. Choose almost any invention you care to, and you won’t have to go back much further than its debut to see that it was built upon a grand pedigree of other people’s similar work beforehand. So, what we need to see in your answer here is that you not only fully understand which projects already exist and can articulate what makes yours different. But you also need to show you understand the precursors that your idea stems from, and can articulate how you have found a way to add some ‘zing’ to it – a new twist, something novel, something exciting, something that wows us so much we can’t help but keep it under our hat so we get the privilege of helping you make it happen. Not innovation for the sake of it, but something that gives us that irresistible sense of urgency. So get creative!
HOW WILL YOUR IDEA BE JUDGED? 0 The idea lacks a sense of innovation compared to current practice and existing organisations
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The idea is similar to current practice or existing organisations, but has some sense of innovation
The idea is exciting and represents a clear innovation over either current practice or existing organisations
3 The idea is extremely exciting and is a clear innovation over both current practice and existing organisations
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6) SUSTAINABILITY- HOW SUSTAINABLE IS THE FUNDING MODEL? This question is all about making the dream a reality. The old cliché is that money makes the world go round. Without cash, nothing is going to move. It sounds obvious – so show us how you’re going to pay for it all. What we’re looking for is not only that your funding model can keep you going, but that it can enable you to scale up. Getting a steady income stream is a great start. You could think with a business brain and devise a way to sell your services (perhaps to schools). Then, once that is ticking along nicely, you could take a loan or approach a Social Impact Investor to get a big chunk of cash to take things to the next level. But it’s not the only approach. Many social organisations rely on human altruism and the generosity of donors, and there is no sign that people are going to stop giving any time soon. There are plenty of grant funders who would love to help you out with scaling. It’s perfectly legitimate to have a donor-driven funding model, if you think your idea suits it.
HOW WILL YOUR IDEA BE JUDGED? 0
1
No sustainable funding model is in place OR funding model does not allow proposal to scale-up
Funding model is sustainable but will not facilitate growth, OR funding model will facilitate growth but is not sustainable
2 Funding model is both sustainable and will facilitate growth
3 Funding model actively drives rapid growth
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7) VALUE - ADD- HOW MUCH CAN TEACH FIRST SUPPORT YOUR IDEA TO GROW? If you win the Innovation Award (or reach the final), we’d like you to feel that you’ve landed the perfect partner. There are many organisations out there to support burgeoning social enterprises, so why did you choose Teach First to help you grow? Buying into our vision is a start, and you’ll get to show us how you do that in the next question – but it’s not everything. What are the practical elements of Teach First’s work that you think could be most useful to you in growing your idea? We’re most well-known for our Leadership Development Programme, but there’s much more to our work than that. Have a good solid browse of our website and see if you can identify one or two key areas where your idea directly interacts with our work, or where Teach First has assets that could come in handy as you grow your idea. Tell us how you would like to work with us for the year you would be spending as part of the Innovation Hub, because if you’ve got a good idea, we’ll do everything we can to help you to bring it to life.
HOW WILL YOUR IDEA BE JUDGED? 0 Teach First is not uniquely positioned to support the innovation’s growth
1 There are some ways that Teach First is uniquely positioned to support the innovation’s growth
2 Teach First is uniquely positioned to support the innovation’s growth in a range of ways
3 Teach First is uniquely positioned to help to actively drive the innovation’s growth
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8) IMPACT GOAL FOCUS- HOW WILL YOUR WORK HELP US TO ACHIEVE THE FAIR EDUCATION IMPACT GOALS? By 2022, we want to have achieved the five Fair Education Impact Goals, in collaboration with others, so that we have measurably narrowed the gap in access, attainment and aspirations between children from the lowest and highest socio-economic backgrounds. All of our work is dedicated to achieving these goals, and we seek to work with others who are dedicated to realising them too. So we need you to tell us exactly how your idea is going to help in the effort – and how we’ll know that it has. In this answer, you need to show us that you a) totally buy into our vision to end educational inequality in the UK, b) believe it can be done, and c) that your idea has a laser-sharp focus on helping to do it. That doesn’t mean your idea needs to be taking on all five Impact Goals head-on – the problem is huge, so it is enough just to be helping to address just one, or even just a part of one, provided that it’s an explicit focus of your work. And if you happen to have a few secondary benefits along the way, that’s a bonus.
HOW WILL YOUR IDEA BE JUDGED? 0
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The innovation supports one or more of the Impact Goals only weakly, and this is not an explicit focus of their work
The innovation supports progress towards one or more of the Impact Goals, but this is not an explicit focus of their work
The innovation explicitly focuses on work that supports progress towards one or more of the Impact Goals
The innovation explicitly focuses on work that directly contributes towards achieving one or more of the Impact Goals
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JUDGING CRITERIA How critical is this innovation to achieving the Fair Education Impact Goals? Conceptual power
CASE FOR CHANGE
How serious is the problem, and how powerful the solution?
The innovation addresses a narrow or minor problem, and describes a weak solution
How innovative is the idea?
The innovation is not exciting and is similar to current practise and existing organisations
How many young people could one day benefit?
The innovation cannot be significantly scaled and is restricted to little of its potential beneficiary group
How much impact will there be on each young person?
The innovation will have a limited impact on the lives of individual beneficiaries (perhaps by lacking direct, regular, or long-term contact with them).
INNOVATION
Potential scale
SCALE
DEPTH
Practical Viability
SUSTAINABILITY
LEADERSHIP
Organisational VALUE-ADD fit IMPACT GOAL FOCUS
0
How sustainable is the fund- No sustainable funding model ing model? is in place OR funding model does not allow the innovation to scale-up
How strong is the entrepreneur’s leadership?
Leader has not attracted a credible team, board or supporters
How much can Teach First support this innovation’s growth?
Teach First is not uniquely positioned to support the innovation’s growth
How closely does this innovation align with the Impact Goals?
The innovation supports one or more of the Impact Goals only weakly, and this is not an explicit focus of their work
1
2
3
The innovation addresses a narrow or minor problem, but describes a good solution
The innovation addresses a broad or deep problem and describes a good solution
The innovation addresses a broad or deep problem and describes a potentially game-changing solution.
The innovation is similar to current practise or existing organisations, but has some sense of excitement
The innovation is exciting and represents a clear step forward from either current practise or existing organisations
The innovation is extremely exciting and a clear leap beyond both current practise and existing organisations
Idea could one day benefit a larger proportion of its potential beneficiary group
The innovation could clearly be The innovation could clearly scaled to benefit a significant be scaled to benefit most of its proportion of its potential potential beneficiary group beneficiary group
The innovation will have some impact on the lives of individual beneficiaries (perhaps due to direct, regular, or long-term contact with them)
The innovation will have a considerable impact on the lives of individual beneficiaries (perhaps by combining direct, regular, and long-term contact with them)
The innovation will have a transformative impact on the lives of individual beneficiaries (probably by working with them directly, regularly, and for an extended period of time)
Funding model is sustainable but will not facilitate growth, OR funding model will facilitate growth but is not sustainable
Funding model is both sustainable and will facilitate growth
Funding model actively drives rapid growth
Leader has attracted a credible team, board or supporters; will be a very good social enterprise manager
Leader has attracted a strong team, board and supporters; will be a very good social entrepreneur
Leader has attracted an impressive team, board, and supporters; has potential to achieve wide acclaim as a social entrepreneur
There are some ways that Teach First is uniquely positioned to support the innovation’s growth
Teach First is uniquely positioned to support the innovation’s growth in a range of ways
Teach First is uniquely positioned to help to actively drive the innovation’s growth
The innovation supports progress towards one or more of the Impact Goals, but this is not an explicit focus of their work
The innovation explicitly focuses on work that supports progress towards one or more of the impact goals
The innovation explicitly focuses on work that directly contributes towards achieving one or more of the Impact Goals
LEVEL
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