This Year's Achievements
A society in which everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed
To empower people to fully realise their potential
The SOHK psychology is the key to our success and is what makes us special. Understanding how we change behaviour is key for us in continuing to do it effectively.
We aim to create internal change to enable positive external behaviours. Using sport as a vehicle for this works brilliantly because you can identify issues within a sporting context first; before exploring these issues on a personal level.
Who are the School of Hard Knocks? Find out more here.
England
Scotland
Wales
Delivered in all locations. Operating more than 18 courses a year. Results consistently outperform comparable employment initiatives.
Operating in Cardiff, Fife and London. Currently working with 30 cohorts across 14 cohorts Coach-player relationship is used to encourage changes in the behaviour.
In our adult work in England, we reached 151 beneficiaries, mostly working on payment-by-results contracts for the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP). We were pleased to deliver courses in a wider variety of locations than previously, including Haggerston, Clapham, Croydon and Lambeth, and we feel our work in this region is now established on a firm footing going forward. We are excited to be delivering two further DWP contracts in the next financial year, including our first one in West London.
SOHK for Schools also had an excellent year, reaching 305 students in London and Hertfordshire. The primary aim of this programme is to help students stay in mainstream education, and so we were delighted that 94% achieved this, a truly outstanding result. While pressures on school budgets make it difficult to secure the future of this programme, the impressive performance to date will help us make a compelling case to grant funders, as we ask them to underwrite the programme where schools are no longer able to pay a share of the costs.
Work in Scotland (OSCR registration number SC046118) covered both Edinburgh and Glasgow in 2017-18. In Glasgow, our partnership with NG Homes continued with the Pitstops programme, which works with some of the most deprived and in-need individuals in Europe, and we heard moving testimonies from participants who had used the course as a springboard to success, sometimes from serious histories of abuse or addiction. The partnership will run until the end of January 2019 and we hope to secure further work both in Glasgow and on the Pitstops model, which is reaching up to 60 beneficiaries a year in small, targeted cohorts.
In Edinburgh, our partnership with Heineken allowed us to begin a full programme of adult work, which reached 132 unemployed adults. Our new team there achieved a fantastic success rate, helping 70% into employment, education or training, and 53 of these individuals found full-time work. They also had a particular highlight as a team of participants played a match in the Murrayfield Stadium footprint before the European Challenge Cup final. This office will begin schools work in September 2018 and we look forward to seeing them continue their great work.
Our Welsh office began in 2015 with help from Principality Building Society and focused initially on schools work. In the last financial year, they worked on five school sites, with students drawn from seven partner schools, reaching 283 beneficiaries. Their work continues to impress, with only two students across all our schools being permanently excluded, despite every cohort being selected on the basis that they are seriously at risk of expulsion.
In December 2017, the team also won funding from the European Social Fund to run employability training in East and West Wales and The Valleys. We look forward to seeing the results of these initial projects in the coming year.
# OF MALE PUPILS
231
0
230
461
#OF FEMALE PUPILS
22
48
70
% IMPROVEMENT OF ALL STUDENTS
Behavior - 62%
Attendance - 50%
Fitness - 72%
Mental health - 90%
#OF MEN
88
80
49
217
# OF WOMEN
96
34
7
137
% ENTERED FULL OR PART TIME EMPLOYMENT OR EDUCATION
14.1%
38%
46%
School of Hard Knocks is about the development of the whole person. It provides a safe, trusting and appropriately challenging environment that actively acknowledges that periods of vulnerability are 'typical' but 'manageable' through effective coping skills and by the provision of social support.
By enabling self-worth through an environment of genuine acceptance and sense of inclusiveness, these 'at-risk' individuals can move from a mindset characterised by threat, instability, confusion, and contradiction to one that promotes and maintains optimism, emotional resilience and ultimately life satisfaction.
SOHK has grown rapidly, with income increasing from £127k to £950k in 5 years. We have now consolidated at this level but need a kick again to reach new areas and more beneficiaries.
Growth to date has been underpinned largely by sold services, delivering a series of small payment-by-results ‘welfare to work’ contracts for the DWP in London
Key performance indicators demonstrate that although income is down by 1.6% from 2016/17, SOHK experienced a healthy financial year in 2017/18. This was driven by the charity's expansion in remit by providing courses to children in Scotland and increasing the number of adults courses offered. Losses sustained were visible in the number of voluntary donations.
£237,631
£937,310
£574,301
£127,913
£122,711
£934,363
£1,065,223