Community and partnerships

Our aim is that every one of our localities will have three things in place supported by Dixons schools: a community hub, a Citizens UK or Parent Power group, and a convening partnership bringing together local services which are used by our families, to make sure our communities can access the support they need. 

We’ve made huge progress in recent years.

Through our partnership with Citizens UK, our schools are member institutions of West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Liverpool Citizens. As members of their Citizens’ alliances, our students, staff and families have:

• publicly challenged Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotherham on bus services
• made progress with WYCA to better support families in temporary accommodation 
• participated in Citizens UK’s national campaign on school-based counselling that has led to increased support for mental health in schools
• won a commitment from Bradford Council to close the gaps in mental health services
• lobbied Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham on mental health, careers pathways and transport
• presented the Citizens UK manifesto and our work on racial equity in education to Angela Rayner at the Citizens UK general election assembly

In partnership with the Brilliant Club and Queens’ College Cambridge, we have established Bradford Parent Power, which is now the largest Parent Power chapter in the country and has successfully expanded access to tuition for year 9 and 10 students. We are in the process of establishing Wythenshawe Parent Power.

To achieve our mission of challenging educational and social disadvantage in the North, we are reorienting our organisation to effectively partner with the local public sector to integrate services for families and drive innovation. We have partnered with the NHS in Bradford to roll out family support workers across our schools. Employed by the NHS but based in school, this innovative new post allows for families to get support they need faster.

We now have community hubs up and running in seven of our schools with four more in the pipeline. Our community hubs provide basic necessities for families but also access to co-located public services from the NHS, DWP and local children’s services. They are also places of association where people can come together to build strong and supportive relationships. Recently, our students who founded the community hub in Dixons Unity Academy won the King's Trust JD Foundation Community Impact award.

We have strongly supported the development of the Education Alliance for Life Chances (EALC) in Bradford, begun forming a convening partnership in Inner West Leeds, joined one in Wythenshawe and we are working with our partners to develop one around Croxteth and Fazakerley.

We have been busy, but we know there is still a lot to do and we are excited at the prospect of developing greater partnerships with organisations looking to improve the lives of the communities we serve. 

Thoughts from our community