A raft of charities and charity leaders have emerged as the most well-connected organisations and individuals to influence government on policies around children’s services.

Academics have collected more than 1,000 documented connections, between May and November this year, to compile a map of influence in children’s policy.

Each organisation and individual is given a rating based on factors, such as the strength of their connections and size of their organisation, in being able to influence government policy.

The academic research gives teacher training charity Teach First the top score and prominent rankings to social worker training charity Frontline, as well as the charity Ark, which runs schools across the UK.

Other charities to feature prominently on the map include the Youth Endowment Fund and teaching charity Now Teach.

Meanwhile, organisations from other sectors on the accademics' influence map include Pricewaterhouse Coopers and education company Ambition Institute.



Teach First’s chief executive Russell Hobby, as well as the charity’s former director James Darley, who is now chief executive of the Transform Society, are also given high scores in terms of influence, among individuals mapped.

Others include Ark deputy chief executive Michael Clarke and Natasha Porter, founder and chief executive of the charity Unlocked Graduates, which helps recruit prison officers.

The map has been developed by academics from the universities of Sheffield, Essex, Dundee as well as Northumbria University and the Open University.

“The value and uses of the map include being able to trace these policy connections, recognising the level of influence private organisations have in children’s services, following policy as it moves through this network, and understanding who’s who when it comes to leadership, appointments, contracts, etc,” said the academics involved.

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