West London Zone

Offering a tailored programme of support to disadvantaged young people in West London schools via a dedicated charity, West London Zone (WLZ).

  • Location

    West London

  • Launch

    Jan 2017

  • Area

    Education & Employment

Collaborators & funding partners

  • Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council

  • City of Westminster

  • Brent Borough Council

  • Hammersmith & Fulham Borough Council

  • Schools & Philanthropy

  • Life Chances Fund

Delivery Partners (selection from 40+)

  • The Children’s Literacy Charity

  • London Sports Trust

  • Place2Be

  • Launch Pad for Language

  • FutureMen

  • The Clement James Centre

Team

Collaborators & funding partners

  • Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council

  • City of Westminster

  • Brent Borough Council

  • Hammersmith & Fulham Borough Council

  • Schools & Philanthropy

  • Life Chances Fund

Delivery Partners (selection from 40+)

  • The Children’s Literacy Charity

  • London Sports Trust

  • Place2Be

  • Launch Pad for Language

  • FutureMen

  • The Clement James Centre

  • Andrew is Co-Founder of Bridges Outcomes Partnerships and Executive Director of Operations, Innovation and Learning. He is a Director of Kirklees Better Outcomes Partnership, GM Homes Partnership, Homelessness Support, the Single Homeless Prevention Service and is a Trustee of West London Zone.

    Prior to Bridges, Andrew was Managing Director of a social enterprise “Baobab” in Madagascar, and a non-Executive board member of two other financial inclusion social enterprises, in Senegal and China.

  • Lucia Santirso, Director at Bridges Outcomes Partnerships, has been working with Bridges for the last 6 years, during which time she has designed and implemented more than 10 Outcomes Partnerships related to:

    • Supporting young people in Kenya to take control over their health choices and paths to do more with their lives,
    • Improving the health and wellbeing of adults in the UK with long-term health conditions,
    • Helping elderly adults in the Netherlands improve their mobility and reduce their risk of falling,
    • Supporting unpaid carers in the UK to improve their wellbeing and sustain their caring role,
    • Supporting young people in the UK to attain better wellbeing and education outcomes, and
    • Supporting young people in the UK with special education needs to increase their independence towards adulthood.

    Before joining the BOP team, Lucia worked in Investor Relations at Bridges Fund Management. Lucia was also part of the Global Steering Group (GSG) Policy working group and is a co-author of the resulting report: “Catalysing an Impact Investment Ecosystem: A Policymaker’s Toolkit”. Prior to joining Bridges, Lucia worked in Equity Research at J.P. Morgan.

    Lucia holds a MSc in International Finance from HEC Paris and a BSc in International Business Administration from Rotterdam School of Management.

Overview

West London Zone (WLZ) improves life chances for the 20% of children most at risk of poor outcomes in this geographical area.

The programme does this by enabling local community resources to work with local schools, and bringing together funding from local authorities, philanthropists, central Government and the schools themselves.

West London Zone provides a two-year, personalised and intensive package of support tailored to each child’s unique strengths, needs and aspirations. Each child has a ‘Link Worker’ to guide them through the programme; with the aim being for children to progress in all aspects of life, particularly in wellbeing, confidence, relationships and academic achievement.

In 2020, this programme contract was renewed in four London boroughs, enabling it to continue supporting children to realise their potential and set themselves up to thrive.

Delivery innovations

An outcomes partnership has enabled a much more collaborative, flexible approach to problem-solving. This has facilitated a number of significant delivery innovations, including:

  • WLZ is deeply embedded in its local community and has actively listened and thoroughly integrated its approach into the community in which the team operates.
  • Building trusted relationships has created additional opportunities: including securing funding to renovate a local play park, having supported young people’s community organising.
  • Joint-working with local commissioners has created tangible benefits, such as earlier referrals to Early Help, or Local Authority visibility of new data.

Outcomes

2,800+ children and young people have started the WLZ programme, which provides children with a rich and diverse set of local resources so they receive the best support.

  • 2837

    Starts to the programme

  • 2053

    Engaged in the programme after 2 years

  • 2452

    Personalised outcomes achieved

  • £18.6m

    Outcomes achieved

  • School-based support in West London

    Pioneers in the community come together to galvanise better support for local children.

    Read case study