Craig Tomlinson on an innovative partnership between BBC Children in Need and The Hunter Foundation that works with communities to improve people’s lives from the inside out

Poverty is the biggest challenge facing our nation. Governments, local authorities and funders must think and act differently when using resources to counter this significant social problem. Numerous local projects have done great work but have ultimately failed to remove systemic barriers – especially in the face of funding cuts, closing services and increasing need.

We understand what’s happening, but we must go deeper in asking why issues are entrenched and what it takes to make the differences that will lead to lasting change.  A key reason for lack of progress has been the rush to reach a solution before understanding the problem.

After two decades of evaluating UK social change efforts, I’ve seen how the rush to prove impact often precedes understanding of how or whether we should act. This is most evident when dealing with complex, deep-rooted problems requiring innovative ways to address them.   Our haste often leads to wasted effort and missed opportunities. It became clear, the way we learn about and measure the success of community programmes needed to change.

I discovered a paper in 2012, Evaluating Social Innovation. Things started to click – we needed developmental learning. This means taking the time to understand an issue, listening to those impacted and adapting your approach as insights emerge, before trying to measure success. This insight has fundamentally shaped how I work and guided my thinking when I became involved in the partnership between BBC Children in Need and The Hunter Foundation to implement What Matters to You (WM2U).

WM2U is an approach that works with communities to improve people’s lives from the inside out. It brings together families, enabling them to use their voices, and empowering them through training to become local leaders and start their own community initiatives.

In Dundee, East Ayrshire and Clackmannanshire, WM2U has supported everything from local crafting groups to community-led grant making. This helps people to express themselves, access opportunities and realise the benefits of playing an active role in their communities. It’s helped people directly influence local systems and improve their lives.

We knew this approach required dedicated support, would operate with community voice at its centre and involve values-based leadership. Learning was a central pillar - to help those delivering and coordinating activities to proactively reflect, adapt and improve. Within three years we aimed to move from developmental learning to an evaluation phase that would articulate the impact of the WM2U approach and identify what practices effectively created change.

In reality it has taken five years, guided by our learning team, to reach a point of clarity. We know what WM2U is. We understand what it achieves, how it works and what we want to leave behind when we step back and communities take full ownership. We also recognise that developmental learning has become an essential component of the WM2U approach. It is central to our local coordinators, leadership initiatives and community run grant programmes.

The WM2U oversight team is now sharpening its focus as we ‘get off the pitch’ in 2026. We’re ready to evaluate the approach – validate the model and surface what other funders, local authorities, service providers, governments and policy makers can learn from it.

One important lesson from the last five years is this: learning doesn’t just support the work; it is the work. Learning isn’t a luxury. It’s the bridge between activity and impact; it’s what turns ideas into movements. To fundamentally transform systems, we must be ready to invest in our capacity to learn.

If you’re planning similar activity, ask yourself: how will learning be built in and not bolted on? How will you ensure everyone involved has the capacity to figure out what it takes to do the work?  Are you prepared to be patient, and adapt, based on what you learn?

To shift the dial on entrenched issues, we must ask ourselves these questions and create the time and space - for ourselves and the communities impacted by the systems we seek to address - to learn.

Craig Tomlinson is Head of Insights for BBC Children in Need

Interested to know more about embedding learning in your work? Sign up to our webinar Real Change That Sticks: Voice-led Approaches to Systemic Change on 27 August.