Maximising Social Impact

Impact matters: at Breslin Public Policy and Breslin Social Impact we are committed to working with partners in the private, public and voluntary sectors on assignments, projects and programmes that enable individuals and organisations to maximise their social impact.

We are also developing a range of social impact programmes of our own, such as Give Five and Use Your Vote, and we’re actively seeking investors to work with us on these and other projects. Click on the logos on the right for more information.

Our specialist consultancies such as Transform Education, Transform Politics, Transform Communities and Transform Organisations give an idea of the range of our expertise – we are in the process of developing a dedicated web presence for each and an associated blog.

Our recent work on governance across the sectors showcases this approach. Click on the Transform Governance logo on the left and you’ll be taken through to transformgovernance.org.uk, where we highlight a body of work that we are developing with a range of partners, a number of whom are showcased just under the logo.

We appreciate your interest, we’d welcome your feedback, and we’d love to work with you.

News and Views

Why building the capacity for lifelong learning can’t wait until school’s over!

In this latest in his series of Lockdown Blogs, Tony Breslin outlines how a culture of lifelong learning needs to be developed during the school years, and how such a responsibility, post-virus, could be transformative, both for schools and for relationships between professionals in the compulsory and post-compulsory phases.

Catch-up, recovery and the ‘water-cooler moments of childhood’

In this blog for Young Citizens, Tony Breslin argues that, in the rush to address curriculum catch-up, we forget to address the social and developmental losses of lockdown or, as he puts it. the 'water-cooler' moments of childhood: how does a six year old catch-up on a year of missed playdates, or how does a fourteen year old replace twelve months of corridor jostling and school yard banter?

Schooling beyond lockdown

In this blog, originally commissioned by publisher Routledge, Tony Breslin, the author of new book, Lessons From Lockdown: the educational legacy of COVID-19, considers the emergent challenges that COVID-19 presents for curricular catch-up and psychological recovery, and what these mean for schooling. The post includes a set of suggested action items for school leaders and their staff to consider and, more broadly, issues an invitation to all educational professionals to use the experience of lockdown to reflect on how we ‘do’ schooling.

Schooling the Pandemic

In this post, first published by the Fabian Education Policy Group, Fabian Society member and 'Lessons from Lockdown' author Tony Breslin assesses the impact of the pandemic and the need for a fresh approach – not just to educational policy but to how such policy is made.

Catch-up, recovery and the future of schooling

With schools 'closed' and the majority of children and young people learning online from home, in this blog, first published by the RSA, Tony Breslin argues that many of the challenges facing the UK’s education systems have been highlighted and exacerbated by Covid-19 but precede the pandemic. The challenge now is to build coalitions that learn from lockdown.

Lessons from Lockdown: key challenges in supporting the needs of able learners

In this blog, first posted on the NACE (National Association for Able Children in Education) webite, Tony Breslin outlines three of the key headlines emerging from his new book, 'Lessons from Lockdown: the Educational Legacy of COVID-19', and explores the implications for able children and those working with them.

Schools as the creators of lifelong, life wide learners

I recently participated, as a panelist, in a webinar convened by the Workers' Educational Association as part of the Festival of Learning. This post sets out the twelve observations that I offered on the task facing schools if we are to create a nation of lifelong and life wide learners.

Capturing the lessons of lockdown

In this second post originally written for the Freedom To Teach site from Collins Educational, I draw on a core theme in my book, Lessons From Lockdown: the educational legacy of COVID-19, to argue that high quality educational research, including a major longitudinal study - or a suite of such studies - has to be part of the response of educationalists and researchers to the pandemic, especially if we are to capture the rich detail and the differently nuanced ways in which the pandemic has been experienced by pupils, parents and professionals.