A group of Surrey leaders came together in 2019 outside of their day jobs to consider this question…

Why do some children in Surrey struggle to thrive and fulfil their potential?

The group included key people from health, children’s services, the third sector (charities and community groups), education, the police and national experts, all inspired by the voices of children, young people and colleagues they work with.

They recognised that there is no one answer to this question and every child’s journey is individual.  However, they started to explore the key factors that were enabling children and young people to thrive and reach their potential. Five values began to emerge – Connect, Trust, Hope, Belong and Believe. These five values are the foundation of the Time for Kids ethos today and is relevant at work, at home and in our community.

In its early days, Time for Kids developed through key individuals embracing the values and thinking about how they could use them within their own community. More recently Time for Kids has taken on a life of its own and is used as the building blocks to rethink existing or new opportunities.

But how is Time for Kids being embraced?

In 2022…

…we worked with Active Surrey around their Holiday, Activity and Food programme (Club4), which provides activities and meals during school holidays in over 150 locations. The Time for Kids values were used to think about what more could be done to help build connection, trust and a sense of belonging for the children and young people who attend. This has so far led to changes in registration and a new training module.

…the SCC onboarding workshop will be launched to introduce the Time for Kids values to all new starters within SCC and partner organisations. This new initiative will provide an opportunity to use the values to start a different conversation, share experiences and perspectives between colleagues.

…the Lunch and Learn sessions brought individuals together from public and 3^rd sector organisations. Within these informal sessions we explored the Time for Kids values through different organisations sharing how they work towards each value in practice, as well as learning through sharing approaches and new ideas. Watch the sessions here.