Dani’s Weeknotes (16th October 2026)
I’m Dani, Development Lead at the Centre for the Children’s Workforce. These weeknotes are a chance to reflect on what I’m thinking about, and learning, as we build something new. If you’re interested in our work, I’d love to connect. You can find me on LinkedIn here.
Reflections: A bit of a rollercoaster few weeks! Some disappointing news, but also plenty of moments of inspiration, connection and renewed purpose. From navigating a change of plans for our Foundation Degree, to launching our children’s workforce map, achieving Cyber Essentials certification (hurrah!), a brilliant Cradle to Career conference and some lovely time together as a team. Lots to reflect on, and plenty of reasons to feel hopeful and positive about what’s ahead.
Finding opportunity in uncertainty
After weeks of uncertainty and delays, we received the disappointing news that we won’t be able to launch our Foundation Degree this academic year. A real blow for us, our delivery partners, and our prospective students, who’ve invested so much time and enthusiasm in getting to this point.
But I’ve been so impressed by how quickly the team has turned its attention to what we can do.
We’re now developing a brilliant support offer for our prospective students, including two local, in-person events and a series of webinars across three different strands, giving people opportunities to explore their interests and develop their practice while we work towards the next intake. We also have some valuable time to really hone the curriculum and make sure we’re creating a brilliant learning experience.
Not quite the plot twist we’d hoped for, but there’s something exciting about what we might create with this extra time. And I’m incredibly proud of the care, creativity, and energy the team has brought to it.
Cyber Essentials: achieved! 🎉
A little win worth celebrating: we’ve officially achieved our Cyber Essentials certification!
After a rather frantic week of device surveys, software updates, chasing information, and learning considerably more about operating systems and firewalls than I ever expected (or particularly wanted!), we got there!
But in all seriousness, and more importantly, it opens up the potential for some really exciting work, making all the effort worthwhile. A huge thank you to everyone across Reach/CCW who helped us get this over the line, especially those who responded to my increasingly urgent requests for device details!
Not necessarily the most glamorous project I’ve worked on, but a rather satisfying one to tick off the list.
Belonging, and the spaces we hope to occupy
Last week I had the absolute pleasure of attending a Cradle to Career conference, and an even greater pleasure watching my brilliant Reach colleagues in action. Seeing people you work alongside doing what they do best is such a treat, and I came away feeling incredibly proud to be part of a team with so much talent, passion, and commitment.
One of my highlights was hearing Yansé Cooper, Headteacher at East London Arts and Music (ELAM), talk about preparing young people for their futures.
Something that really stayed with me was the importance of not just developing the academic, technical or creative skills young people need, but helping them develop the confidence and sense of belonging to see themselves in the spaces they aspire to occupy.
I loved that, and it really resonated with me. We can open all the doors in the world, but if someone doesn’t feel those spaces are for them, how much of that opportunity can they really access?
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I think there’s a parallel for our work at CCW too. Creating pathways and opportunities for the children’s workforce matters enormously, but so does helping people recognise the value of what they already bring and feel that they belong in those opportunities. It’s something I really hope we can nurture through our new support offer and through the way we continue to support people with their applications. Not just helping them take the next step, but helping them feel confident that it’s a step they’re capable of taking, and one they deserve to take.
Seeing the whole picture
Another huge moment was the launch of our Children’s Workforce Map, developed in partnership with ImpactEd Group [insert all the celebration emojis here]. Having previously worked at ImpactEd, it’s been pretty awesome to see two parts of my world come together like this! (I told you it’s a small world after all!)
I think the map is brilliant — huge shout out to Ned and Katy, along with our ImpactEd colleagues for their work on this. It brings together data from across the children’s workforce, helping us see the breadth of people, professions and services supporting babies, children, young people and families.
But what’s also really interesting is what it can’t show us… yet!
The relationships between those people. The conversations across professional boundaries. The person who picks up the phone, joins the dots or makes sure a child doesn’t fall through the gaps. And, of course, the places where our understanding of the workforce itself is still incomplete.
We talk a lot at CCW about building a more coherent children’s workforce, but to connect something we need to be able to fully see it. The map is an important step towards that understanding, and an invitation to ask better questions about what we don’t yet know.
The people behind the purpose
We also had another team day this week (two in as many months — we’re positively spoilt!). One of my favourite moments was hearing everyone share their ‘why’: why they work in this space, what drives them to do this work, and why they’ve chosen to be part of Reach/CCW.
The answers were wonderfully varied, reflecting the different experiences and passions everyone brings, but all grounded in a shared commitment to improving the lives of babies, children and young people.
I’ve said before how lucky I feel to work with this team, but this just reinforced it!
When we’re busy delivering projects, meeting deadlines and navigating the inevitable challenges of inovating/building something new, it’s easy to focus entirely on the what and how. So it felt really special to take stock and remember the why.
In the spaces between
Following some personally sad news, I’ve found myself reflecting a lot this week on the young people I’ve taught and supported throughout my career, and how much of their stories/needs were often held by different people, across different services. It’s reinforced for me why I care so deeply about building a more connected workforce, one that can hold the whole story of a child, rather than just the pieces we each happen to see.
At the C2C conference, my amazing colleague Shelley shared a poem (from Rebecca Solnit’s Hope in the Dark) containing a line that has stayed with me:
“In the spaciousness of uncertainty, there is room to act.”
I love that. There’s so much we still don’t know about the children’s workforce, and our map makes some of those gaps more visible. But maybe those gaps aren’t just things to understand or problems to solve. They’re also spaces for curiosity, connection and the possibility of doing things differently.
Reading/watching/listening
Time for the best TV of the year — Strictly, Bake Off and Traitors! Re-read Normal People by Sally Rooney after binging the entire series this week, and am now half way through Heart the Lover by Lily King. Also very much enjoyed watching/listening to Ned and Beck presenting their 3 Horizons session to us ahead of the CST conference!
