7th July 2025 - The end of last week saw three major policy announcements with big ambitions. Each are rich in rhetoric about prevention, localism, and improving outcomes for children and families. We’re reflecting on what this all really means for babies, children and young people and where the risks and opportunities lie. 

In June 2021, we made an organisational commitment to embed anti-racist approaches to our work and our organisation. Whilst a lot has changed since 2021, our commitment to anti-racism remains strong. Our new strategy is grounded in advancing systemic change with and for children and young people by shifting the underlying conditions that hold them back from thriving. We know we can’t do this if we don’t continue taking anti-racism seriously.  

This blog provides a brief update on our progress against the commitments we made back in 2021. It surfaces some learning about our experiences, and outlines our priorities going forward.

Today marks an exciting milestone as we share our ambitious new strategy Thriving Futures: Driving systemic change with and for children and young people. Building on over sixty years of innovative work, this forward-thinking strategy outlines how we will focus our expertise over the next five years to create lasting, positive change for children and young people across the UK.

This blog, focused on young people’s involvement in evaluating the impact of Youth Social Action (YSA), is part of a learning series produced as part of the #iwill Fund Impact Evaluation and Learning Contract (IELC). It is hoped that by reading this it will raise awareness of how to best support young people to be involved in evaluating YSA, set out some benefits of involving young people in evaluating YSA, and share key learning from our process so far from the perspective of young people themselves.

This blog, focused on mental health and wellbeing in Youth Social Action (YSA), is part of a learning series produced as part of the #iwill Fund Impact Evaluation and Learning Contract (IELC). We specifically look at four themes that can better understand how quality principles apply to different aspects of YSA and in different context – these are: mental health and wellbeing, equity and antiracism, youth-led design and accessibility in YSA. It is hoped that by reading this it will raise awareness of mental health among young people taking part in YSA activities, which ultimately helps children and young people to have a thriving future. 

This blog, focused on anti-racist practice in youth social action (YSA), is part of a learning series produced as part of the #iwill Fund Impact Evaluation and Learning Contract (IELC). We specifically look at four themes that can better the quality of YSA practice – these are: mental health and wellbeing, equity and antiracism, youth-led design and accessibility in YSA. It is hoped that by reading this it will raise awareness of anti-racism within YSA activities, ultimately helping all children and young people to have a thriving future. 

UK Youth’s Thriving Minds Fund, which spans from 2022-2025, set out to support 99 charities and not-for-profit youth organisations to investigate best practices around mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people. A key ambition of the Fund was to enable and strengthen connection and learning between those working within the youth sector. 

As the Learning Partner on the Thriving Minds Fund, we’ve been working with UK Youth and grantees to generate evidence about what enables the sector to work better together and share knowledge around best practices to support young people experiencing mental health challenges.

Led by the Dartington Service Design Lab’s Lambeth-based community research team, eco-mapping was used to explore how (and if) systems of social support (like LEAP) influenced families within the nuance of their local social, economic, and cultural contexts.  We wanted to share the learning to help others looking to transform their services and community offers to better help families and children.

As part of our commitment to sustainable and participatory approaches to evidence, we wanted to promote the learning from the work co-designed by our three Community Researchers living and working in Lambeth, working with us to evaluate the Lambeth Early Action Partnership (LEAP) systems change project. Using this method helps unpick complex, place-based systemic problems and can support tailoring services to better serve communities. We are sharing these insights to support others in the research and evaluation community who are thinking about or already undertaking community-led research, particularly in the early years sector.

With a change in government and one committed to taking a “preventative approach” to social issues, more than ever, Dartington Service Design Lab’s work is needed.

We’ve not only been reflecting on what this change means for children and young people, but by harnessing the evidence and our expertise, we have identified five ways to turn government rhetoric on prevention into reality.