Education social enterprise training teaching assistants to help struggling learners will double its impact to support 100,000 pupils a year with expert business help.
Thousands more primary school-age children who struggle with basic literacy and numeracy skills are set to get the help they need to catch up with their classmates. The support comes from Catch Up®, a social enterprise training thousands of teaching assistants across England and Wales to deliver regular short, structured one-to-one interventions, proven to make a difference.
Currently Catch Up trains 2,000 teachers and teaching assistants a year working with 40,000 pupils. With backing from Social Business Trust (SBT) announced today, it plans to train 5,000 a year by 2020 to help 100,000 struggling learners annually.
It’s the effectiveness and simplicity of the Catch Up model that has attracted the interest of Social Business Trust (SBT), the charity that uses business expertise from top corporates and targeted grants to help high-growth potential social enterprises scale up.
Adele Blakebrough MBE, CEO of Social Business Trust said: “Every time Catch Up helps a child get up to speed on reading or maths, a young life is transformed. That’s why we’re focused on helping to increase its impact.”
Julie Lawes, Catch Up Director said: “SBT is already making a fantastic difference to Catch Up and we’re delighted to now have further support to help more struggling learners succeed.”
SBT awarded Catch Up an initial package of funding and expert business support in September 2014. Now an additional cash grant and further business assistance will increase that to a total package worth £500,000. This includes funding for a new post to develop awareness and take-up of Catch Up among teachers and teaching assistants.
Bain & Company has already worked intensively with Catch Up, through SBT, to develop a marketing strategy and continues to give regular business advice. Now, Thomson Reuters is providing a further package of support including IT assistance and hands-on expertise to help Catch Up strengthen its management information and reporting.
A Permira executive has joined the board of trustees and an EY secondee led due diligence for the investment, which is also supported by SBT’s other corporate partners, British Gas, Clifford Chance and Credit Suisse.
Approximately 16% of seven-year-olds and 6% of 11-year-olds have reading difficulties that restrict their access to the National Curriculum. In addition, 5% of 11-year-olds leave primary school with mathematical skills that are, at best, at the level of those expected of a seven-year-old.
SBT was started five years ago by Damon Buffini, founder and former chairman of private equity group Permira and social entrepreneur Adele Blakebrough MBE. Since then it has supported 19 outstanding social enterprises, selected from reviews of over 900.
They have in common the potential to achieve significant growth and make a positive difference to the lives of people facing disadvantage in areas including education, employment and poverty.
Last year, SBT committed £4m of cash and in-kind support and gave 3,000 hours of business expertise from its corporate partners. They provide high-calibre business assistance from volunteers and secondees, many at senior level, and funding that SBT uses to help its social enterprises grow.
