Building the National Leadership Team by Gary Brown

In December 2021 we wrote a blog on the National Leadership Network’s journey so far. A follow up has been well overdue – but as a rapidly growing project we have been, well, busy! Let’s pick up where we left off…

In our previous blog we told you that National Leadership Network (NLN) now had five partners who would host the project, but we didn’t tell you who they were. Gordon Main from Our Hearings, Our Voice told us when we announced the hosts – ‘‘that’s some 5 a side team’’ – and in terms of high-quality players we couldn’t agree more. The line-up is Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ), Columba 1400, Resilience Learning Partnership (RLP), Scottish Through Care and Aftercare Forum (Staf) and Who Cares? Scotland. Precisely who’s in defence and who is upfront scoring goals, only time will tell.

Let’s remind ourselves of the NLN vision (surely a key element of any pre-match pep talk):

This five-year initiative will build a National Leadership Network with (young) people with care experience at its heart. It will have a clear focus on building skills and confidence amongst (young) people and expanding their personal networks. By making space for social activity, peer support and creativity the network will demonstrate its values; nurturing strong relationships between people will be fundamental to all network activity.

Right now, you might be thinking ok Gary but why is the word ‘young’ in brackets? Well, that’s one for later, to keep you reading.

First, context….as our vision states, we have tried to build the early stages of the Network up with young people with care experience at its heart. We initially employed ten young people to pick who would host the NLN. We also employed two other young people as consultants to help with strategic thinking and help us focus on our comms. We then employed four people who became our Interim Oversight Board who have steered everything we have done and who took a lead in our recent recruitment for the NLN Steering Group.  And talking of the Steering Group we have appointed four people on to that too.

Although that sounds like a lot, all of these people – who have played an integral role in the NLN story to date – have been on short term contracts. We have just promoted the opportunity to be on our Steering Group again and had a great response to that. Look out for more information on what is happening with the Steering Group on our social media platforms in due course.

Now back to the bracketed ‘young’. There is good reason for this. We’ve had some brilliant conversations with young people working at the NLN who have shared their thoughts, ideas and opinions and have made a lot of (sometimes difficult) decisions. Their confidence, honesty and authenticity has been amazing. Many have said that they didn’t understand why the Network was focused only on young people. They’ve made valid points about the issues accessing opportunities and experiences when you are over twenty six.

What we are hearing is that age doesn’t matter, and that maybe great things can happen between different generations if the Network is for all people with care experience. Ultimately the NLN needs to be inclusive, person centred and be trauma informed if it’s to last the full match, that is what people have told us.  

By now, you’re hopefully forming a picture of a Network that is all about people with care experience front and centre but if we go back to the vison – how will confidence be built, where does peer support come into play and what even is ‘social activity’.  

We intend for this to happen in leadership projects which are funded or are sign posted by the National Leadership Network. Our Steering Group of around 12 people with care experience will hopefully be in place by the end of the year and will play a really important role in how leadership projects are funded. They will look at NLN hosts bids for funding which will aim to meet needs identified by people with care experience and/or relate to research, relevant data, etc. The Steering Group will decide if the bids are suitable and monitor and evaluate them. Confidence will hopefully be built in projects and the Steering Group will be encouraging this to happen.

Peer support can obviously happen in different ways, and this is being encouraged already with those who have been working with us for a while being encouraged to support the young people on the Steering Group. We are keen to host ‘social activities’ ourselves such as the recent NLN Virtual Quiz that encouraged people to come together to enjoy each other’s company, meet new people and have fun. Indeed, this is something that we believe should be included in all funding proposals as all good projects need time for food, fun and relationships to be built. Relationship will always be at the centre of the work of the National Leadership Network. It is what we will do to keep true to the Life Changes Trust legacy and it is what we will do, amongst other things to keep The Promise to Scotland’s care experienced community.

So, our 5 a side team is just getting warmed up, working out how to play the best game and thinking about each other’s strengths and how we play well together. We feel lucky that many people encourage what we are trying to do and the way we are doing it. And it’s exciting to think that our team is part of a bigger national team working in partnership with lots of outstanding individuals, teams, partners, and allies.

To find out more, please contact me at gary@thenln.org.

7 November 2022