Shifting the dial on impact and measurement

13th May 2026

Shifting the Dial on Collaboration – Caroline Slocock, Co-founder of the network

Caroline introduced the Better Way principles and behaviours, emphasising collaboration and relationship-building as key components.

Looking at what we measure – Cate Newnes-Smith, formerly Chief Executive at Surrey Youth Focus and Founder Mountain Top Consultancy

We're trying to shift from individual organisations working separately, to organisations working together. We need to move from measuring our individual organisations to measuring what is going on across the system.

The problem is that this transition will take time and systems often don’t have patience, they want to see results. So we need to find ways of proving that change is happening, even whilst the desired outcomes for our citizens are not yet emerging.

Here is the full event summary.

Shifting the dial on learning and adapting

6th May 2026

Here are some notes taken from the meeting on 6th May. Attendees came from a range of public and third sector organisations.

Shifting the Dial on Collaboration – Caroline Slocock, Co-founder of the network

Caroline introduced the Better Way principles and behaviours, emphasising collaboration and relationship-building as key components.

Multi-Agency EBSNA Partnership Framework – Su Freeman, formerly Collaboration Manager at Surrey Youth Focus and Associate Mountain Top Vision

Su shared her experience addressing emotionally-based school non-attendance (EBSNA) by bringing together a diverse group of professionals across education, health, and social care sectors.

The work started with one conversation. A colleague from a parent carer forum described families—her own included—at breaking point with needs unmet, made worse by COVID. So I started asking: “Is anyone else seeing this?”

Across mental health, social care, schools, the voluntary sector—the answer was a resounding yes. She had uncovered a shared pain point: children and young people struggling to attend school due to emotional distress—what we now recognise as Emotionally Based School Non-Attendance. Its’ impact was profound, stretching across whole families. But alongside recognition, she also noticed blame. “Why aren’t schools doing more?”, “Why is this so late?”, “Why isn’t that service stepping in?” A familiar pattern: them and us.

There was no single offer, no shared understanding, no joined-up response.

Here is the full event summary.

Shifting the dial on collaboration

29th April 2026

Here are some notes taken from the meeting on 29th April. Attendees came from a range of public and third sector organisations.

Shifting the Dial on Collaboration – Caroline Slocock, Co-founder of the network

Caroline introduced the Better Way principles and behaviours, emphasising collaboration and relationship-building as key components.

Cate Newnes-Smith, formerly Chief Executive at Surrey Youth Focus and now Founder Mountain Top Consultancy

Cate shared her experience as former Chief Executive of Surrey Youth Focus, a collaboration charity that worked across multiple agencies in the Surrey Children's System.

Surrey Youth Focus held an unusual place in the system – its original role was supporting children’s charities including sitting on boards to represent them. Over time it morphed into being a collaboration charity, bringing people together on a

range of issues related to children and families. Despite being a very small organisation it was extremely well connected at all levels through strong relationships – health, councils/social care, police, OPCC, education and charities of course.

It carried out numerous collaborative projects with the public and third sectors. Often, when it initiated a piece of work, team members would just reach out to the people they knew in different organisations to join the work. This could be at any level.

Here is the summary of the event.