Reshaping education

Welcome back to another exciting episode of Leading the Field with me, Simon Phillips, powered by the GC Index. On this podcast, we dive deep into the lives of trailblazers who are making a difference and leading the way in their respective fields. I am thrilled to introduce an exceptional guest, Alex Hanratty, whom I had the pleasure of meeting a few years ago. She was just getting her new charity, ReconnectEd, off the ground.

Alex's journey in the non-profit sector spans almost two decades, where she has passionately focused on helping children and young people in need. Her career started in the private sector, but she quickly found her calling in the not-for-profit space. Alex's early experiences working with children and young people in North Kensington, near Grenfell Tower, deeply influenced her understanding of the importance of creative solutions in addressing their challenges.

Over the years, she transitioned into more strategic roles, where she worked on national initiatives, empowering young people to access education opportunities that could change their lives. However, her focus eventually shifted to supporting children excluded from school, a critical area where she believed she could make a significant impact.

In our conversation, Alex shares how personal experiences, including her brother's exclusion from school, sparked her passion to make a difference in the lives of these vulnerable young people. ReconnectEd was born out of her vision to help these individuals flourish in mainstream schools and overcome the barriers they face.

ReconnectEd is a social enterprise with a powerful mission. Through a trauma-informed emotional coaching model, they recruit local coaches from deprived areas to work closely with young people aged between nine and fourteen. By addressing mental well-being and self-regulation, these young individuals develop healthier relationships and improve their learning abilities, leading to better school attendance and attainment.

Alex's journey as a social entrepreneur has not been without challenges, but she firmly believes that taking leaps of faith and trusting the flow of life can lead to miraculous opportunities. She credits her faith and intuition for guiding her in setting up ReconnectEd and has been pleasantly surprised by the outpouring of support from partners, communities, and friends.

Beyond her work with ReconnectEd, Alex is taking on another extraordinary challenge—a marathon! With the same determination she applies to her career, she is training for her first marathon to raise funds for ReconnectEd's cause.

As we delve into Alex's inspiring story, we also discuss her GC Index profile and how her high Iimplementer energy complements her role in leading ReconnectEd. Her passion for creativity, innovation, and making a tangible impact truly shines through.

If you're looking for a dose of inspiration and a reminder of the incredible impact individuals can make on the lives of others, this episode is for you. So join us on this incredible journey with Alex Hanratty as she continues to lead the field and empower change in the lives of young people facing adversity.

Don't forget to check out our playlist called Leading the Field, where Alex shares a song that has been a source of inspiration for her on this incredible journey. And if you want to learn more about ReconnectEd and support their efforts, head to www.reconnecteducation.co.uk or find them on JustGiving under "ReconnectEd."

Until next time, keep smiling and remember, we all have the power to lead the field and make a difference in the world.

Episode Transcript

Simon Phillips
Welcome back. This is Simon Phillips and this is the Leading The Field podcast powered by the GC Index. We're here talking to people who are really leading the field in their space there, people who are out there forging new relationships, making things happen, and basically enabling the rest of us to live better lives. And I'm really excited to talk to today's guests, Alex Hanratty, who I met a few years ago, just as she was getting a new charity up and running and off the ground.

Simon Phillips
So, Alex, it's lovely to see you again. How are you? Good to see you. Thank you so much for inviting me today. I'm well, thank you. I'm well. Brilliant. So, Alex, welcome to Leading The Field. We've got a few fun things up our sleeves to chat about, but I'd like to get us started by you sharing a little bit with the audience.

Simon Phillips
Tell them who you are, and and what you've been up to most recently. Lovely.

Alex Hanratty
So I, I have been in does my career that the not for profit sector all my career that's nearly 20 years of my sins and I have really typically been focused on children and young people in need. So I started off actually in the private sector just for two or three years and in a start up helping children with their maths and English, then moved to the not for profit sector, running a small grassroots charity in North Kensington, which the Grenfell Tower is their seven years.

Alex Hanratty
That's a huge amount there in terms of thinking outside the box and that creative approach to dealing with problems of what some inspirational people there that really helped me. Then I moved into a more strategic role again, working with children, young people on some of a national level with the start up and I came in in year two, I think it was their second in 40, and that was helping children, young people access bursaries to go to top independent and state boarding schools.

Alex Hanratty
And then from there I started to focus more on the area of children being excluded from school and how we could address those problems. I am a trustee of a school for children and young people who've been excluded and also I ran a very small charity that's much in the pandemic, helping schools that work with young people who have had been excluded to improve outcomes and then approaching walls. Yeah, and then that led me to set up reconnected to co-found, reconnected a couple of years ago Now.

Simon Phillips
Magic Alex That's fantastic. Sort of tracing things back because certainly sometimes when we look back we realize just how much we've done, isn't it? So, but I understand we, we were chatting before the show that, you know, you haven't obviously got enough on your plate.So you decided you would run a marathon as well. Didn't that. Yeah. You know, it started it was really last year where I've been working remote so easy not perhaps so I thought well how long I can go for a walk outside. But it does take one if you're going to get enough fresh air in your lungs.

Alex Hanratty
So I thought, okay, I'm just going to stop running. So I started running and I literally started doing 10 minutes, 12 minutes, 15 minutes. And then I was really having dinner last February with a friend of mine who said, Why don't you run the marathon for reconnected? It's not like, Yeah, and it just made sense. And I contacted my colleague Georgia and she was like, Yeah, it's great.

Alex Hanratty
The two of us, along with five of our friends and let let's do that. And of course I thought lots of time, you know, it's going to be over a year until we, we get it all sorted, you know, and work, work towards it. But then I got Covid and then I got forward again and, you know, it was and it lingered and.Yeah, and then life gets in the way. So actually I've had to a fast track training plan for the marathon. Yeah. Coupled with a serious bike accident I had in January. It's touch and go with I could run it but I decided just in the last week or so that I can because I ran a half marathon and that was okay.

Alex Hanratty
I was able to walk. Yes, it's a three and a half week. Yeah. I like I like how, you know, a little efficiency conversation led to a marathon. So you thought it more efficient to run than walk to get fresh air in my lungs. Now I'm like, that's not so. How many weeks have you got before that? Before you do your first marathon?

Alex Hanratty
Three and a half. Well, just over. And the Second of April role is the Brighton Marathon. Yeah, I'm excited. I mean, this is what I've actually been enjoying the training as well. Bizarrely, maybe not following the runs. Get me off to it. So what's what is it about the training that you enjoy? I, I love being in nature.

Alex Hanratty
I live near the river. I love being in nature. I love the psychological challenge, physical challenge of doing that and working towards a goal. I love that. I love just feeling like you're getting more fit, you know, in lockdown. It’s so easy not to exercise. It was certainly was me and some people got super fit. I didn't follow that as well.

Alex Hanratty
And I think my father ran eight marathons and he passed last year. So I'm doing it for him as well. And I loved the teamwork side of it. So I love training outside and knowing the alone. I'm doing it with Georgia and all friends. So lovely and I was thinking about your GC Index and your results and and this marathon running and some of those reasons that you love it are absolutely aligned with the results you got from your GC Index, weren't they?

Alex Hanratty
So for the for the listeners and viewers, when you got your report back, it showed you are a nine out of ten implementer and then second and third were strategist and game changer. And then then it was playmaker and polisher wasn't it. So I can see you know related back to those numbers, I can see why the notion of running a marathon would be really, you know, exciting to you because it's a big challenge and it's something you can break down and be keeping incredibly active in pursuing.

Alex Hanratty
Yeah, absolutely. I did a values exercise a few years ago and achievements and growth, but in my top five I think it was I just know hard work like that to well it gives me such a sense of achievement and and satisfaction getting things done and meeting goals and even just the training, you know, five miles, six miles, ten miles, thirty miles.

Simon Phillips
You know, you really it's very uplifting for me. Yeah, But yeah, these spots on and so Alex how did you respond when you first saw the the numbers in your GC Index?

Alex Hanratty
I immediately so I thought I was a different I thought I was more of a playmaker than I was. So I was expecting that. But the implement sight made complete sense and the strategic side as well. And so yeah, I, I was a little bit surprised but then very quickly realized that was, you know, spot on for me and it was quite enlightening to look at the narrative behind the numbers that were, yeah, not full to me and what,

Simon Phillips
what was it that led you to think you might have been more playmaker, if you like, in terms of your proclivities?

Alex Hanratty
I think I'm naturally quite a nurturing person. So the whole idea of orchestrating, getting people together does excite me and I do enjoy leading a team. I enjoy reading in my personal life as well as professional, you know, with friends and as well as with with colleagues. So that whole aspect of play, I think is a big part of who I am as well.

Alex Hanratty
Yeah, so that's probably why and that's why I'm when we were exploring it and thinking about it, we, we landed on this notion of esteem. It's our intentions, if you like that drive our GC Index school. So for you, whilst you are naturally just a lovely warm person that loves to forge good social relationships with people and in a standard, let's say, work context, those relationships you see as being the best way and and a great way of ensuring that we're all doing the right job and we're all focused on the same goals and we're all, you know, aiming to achieve the same things, if you like.

Alex Hanratty
And so it's it's there helping you drive your implementer agenda. If you like, not in a not in a machiavellian way. That's right. I need to manipulate people, but just you know, that that works in terms of the best teams are the ones that achieve the most. And so you always got that. You're always playing with those two things according to the to the numbers mean, as you said and in the in the words sit behind that.

Simon Phillips
So if you think back over your career, can you see that in action? Can you see the your your proclivities, if you like, in action?

Alex Hanratty
In terms of my implementer role, yeah, definitely. And actually it's interesting because I got as I got this, the index, I was working part time work for a charity called the Niemeyer Project, and I've been tasked with setting up projects for them. And it's so implementer focused and I've really enjoyed it. So that has been very interesting because I was able to directly see very obviously how much I enjoy that site. And actually that was also placed to my strengths. So yeah, and there been various projects that I've set up for them and I've been able to tangibly see the milestones achieved in in partnership with the rest of the team that so it's been really it's been yeah, it's been an interesting discovery and also Yeah, enlightening I'd say.

Simon Phillips
Mm. And quite often we see in people's careers that, that the biggest decisions they've made, if you like, the ones which they felt stirred to make as opposed to forced to make it quite often correlate with their best, strongest proclivities. So have there been times in your career where you felt your implementer was being squashed, if you like, or you didn't have the opportunity to make things happen?

Alex Hanratty
A make a tangible difference and therefore decided, no, I want to, you know, move on and get something different when I can do more of that, definitely. So I was in a role. I took on a role a few years ago, which I felt I'd have a bit more responsibility and autonomy within the role, and that's how sold to me.

Alex Hanratty
It wasn’t what I thought it would be, and I my hands were tied. I wasn't able to move things forward and it became untenable. So I had to resign. I had to resign and it was the right thing. And it felt, you know, I'm a firm believer of going on your gut instinct, so trusting what your your heart and your, you know, your gut says and the right thing, even though it didn't logically make sense because I left it without a role to guarantee when the pandemic.

Alex Hanratty
So it was what I [unintelligible] then what that leap of faith that to me setting up reconnected so yeah saying well how these things can one thing can lead to another that seems, you know, a negative thing at the time, but actually that's fruit and there's positivity for many challenges that you experience. And there that's a huge mountain in that role where I wasn't able to to implement.

Alex Hanratty
I learned a lot about myself and then learned about where I think my strengths lie. What you learned about the kind of people I need around me in order to be able to flourish and to succeed and to achieve. So it was a fascinating experience, although very challenging at times, too.

Simon Phillips
Yeah, brilliant. Alex, we're going to take a quick break for when I come back.I'd like to find out, ask you much more about Reconnected and all this amazing work you're doing and really excited to hear that. So we'll take a quick break and then we'll be back in a few moments.

Simon Phillips
Welcome back to part two of Leading The Field with my special guest, Alex Hanratty. We've been talking about Alex's career today and her implementer energy, which has so carried her through a whole load of fun tasks, not least of which is preparing for the first marathon in a couple of weeks. Some I'm laughing because it's just such a ludicrous thing to do.

Simon Phillips
But anyway, it's actually Alex. At the end we can share where people can maybe donate to that once they've heard all about this wonderful charity that you've started. So come on to tell us about Reconnected.

Alex Hanratty
So I would say Reconnected is really the culmination of all I've learned in my career, and I have co-founded it with two amazing and super talented women called Belinda and Georgia, both of whom I've worked with in previous roles.And what it is, is a social enterprise set up to help young people at risk of school exclusion to flourish in mainstream schools. So school exclusion is a national problem. The children are excluded from school. They've got a one in two chance of going to prison and they have one and two chance of not going into training or employment the age of 16 and having a sustained and a destination.

Alex Hanratty
And they're much more likely to have mental health issues. Special educational needs are being care, be very, very vulnerable. So they are the most vulnerable young people. And you can imagine if a young person’s got loads of trauma happening in the home, it could be through addiction or domestic violence or debt poverty, then those young people are less likely than to want to turn up school and less likely to want to attain.

Alex Hanratty
So our focus is helping those young people who are extremely vulnerable in areas of extreme deprivation to succeed. And how we do that is we have a trauma informed emotion coaching model where we recruit local people from the children's communities. In deprived areas. We've got lived experience is of the issues that the young people face to go in and work intensively with a small group of young people aged between about nine and fourteen to help them with their mental wellbeing and their self-regulation.

Alex Hanratty
So they make better choices and then they're better able to cope with life, better understand themselves, better understand others. And so through those improved relationships, they are then better able to learn and attain and achieve their potential. So we work the coaches work not just with young people, but also with the families, which is critical. And with us.

Alex Hanratty
Yeah, and we are place based. So what I mean by that is that we are [unintelligible] in Sheffield, so North East Sheffield and we are and I'm not, I'm not from Sheffield my father was born in Chesterfield just around the corner but none of us Linda, Georgia and I live from the area so we have what we're working very closely in partnership with the Multi-Academy Trust for County learning Trust, and they are employing in match funding coaches so that those coaches are integrated into the school community, which is critical.

Alex Hanratty
And the idea is we're having a three year pilot. We want to work with up to 100 young people and then through that the ripple effect will be a further thousand peers, teachers and family members that will have a positive ripple effect as a result of the improved better mental wellbeing of those young people who all are really struggling.

Alex Hanratty
So that is our idea. It's exciting. We got our second coach so we when we were really new, so we constituted only in December 2021, So only just over a year old. We employed, we started the that the actual program in January was just two months ago. We've got off two coaches now in, in post. We've employed a fantastic coach supervisor as well to provide additional support and mentoring to those coaches.

Alex Hanratty
The two coaches are alumni of the school that they are supporting, so they really know that that and go very, very well and they've been brilliant, they've been amazing. They are very passionate about supporting these families and they have lived experience of the issues and they are they're great and the school have been great. And then we also try and provide additional support through local business and other local organizations so that we were very much a partnership organization.

Alex Hanratty
So working with the community to help help them say excellent and, where did the idea come from Alex to set this charity off. I mean, well, actually, let me correct myself because as you said, it's a social enterprise, not a charity. And there is a subtle difference there. But where did the idea come from? So I have personal experience of exclusion and my brother was excluded from school.

Alex Hanratty
So I saw the impact that that had on him and his family and he is very bright that he struggled in school and it just broke my heart, see that he was not able to fulfill his potential because he was academic and so there's this innate, deep desire to help to change the system so that young people who maybe aren't academically or very bright, very good at particular area can shine in the area that they need to shine.

Alex Hanratty
So that's a fundamental driving force. It's also a really big problem. It's a really big problem and it's not very well understood. The the whole system at the moment for young people who've been excluded is very fragmented and very misunderstood. And it's also incredibly chaotic. Now, the government is definitely shining a light on this in recent years, but there's still so much work to be done.

Alex Hanratty
So it's a really big problem. And so we felt let’s go where the need is. But Belinda also and Georgia and I have all got a real passion for working with young people. You know, I work part time with with some men who've been incarcerated for crimes related to addiction, and 100% of them have had childhood trauma or been excluded from school.

Alex Hanratty
And it takes, as you can imagine, and the listeners will understand, it takes so much more work and is so much harder to change when you're older than it is. Yeah, So we will start early and help those young people before and to a stage where it's just almost impossible to change. And in terms of this, the help and the support that you're providing, so you're providing these coaches and it sounds like they're doing a brilliant job models and what are the outcomes that we're trying to achieve.

Simon Phillips
Now, obviously, you said these young people making better choices, but is it is the intention to get them back into school or to set them up to make great choices of whatever avenues they choose?

Alex Hanratty
Both. So one dents from the pandemic school attendance has really been affected by the pandemic. So is to get them regularly and to improve their attendance. It's also then, of course, more time in school. More hours in school means they have a greater chance of attaining. It is also to help them to reconcile some of the conflicts that they are feeling within themselves. Some perhaps their distrust of the education system, parents as well. It's to build those bridges that have been damaged as a result of childhood trauma, adverse childhood experiences.

Alex Hanratty
So it's the outcomes are for improved attendance and improved attainment. Your exclusions, both suspensions so fixed term and permanent exclusions and also a greater re-engagement with schools. So that could be, for example, attending additional extracurricular activities, afterschool clubs that could be just engaging more in school, doing homework, reduced detentions, etc.. So it's that general view is the patient and the school community which we are tracking as well.

Simon Phillips
You know, obviously what we're here doing and and chatting about is all about Leading The Field. So you're out there doing something, filling a gap in the current system in many ways and helping the people around you, if you like, understand that message and understand why this is so important on a day to day basis, what what motivates you to keep going?

Simon Phillips
Because this is hard work let’s not pretend getting something up off the ground, getting funding through the door, helping to identify all the key people that need to be involved, getting the partnerships in. We're talking about a lot of activity, and it's largely driven by you and Linda and Georgia. So what is it that keeps your motivated? Because there'll be lots of people listening who have ideas, big things that they want to achieve.

Alex Hanratty
And I thought more than most people with your high implementer energy, if you like, you would, you would have some good insights as to, you know, what it is or what's required on the motivational side of things. So the first thing I should say is I never, ever thought I would be a social entrepreneur. I've got friends who have set up their own businesses, and I had horror stories of them working every hour of the day and not making ends meet.

Alex Hanratty
And I thought, who would want to do that. Where in truth, I was forced into this. I mean, I think I mentioned earlier I left a job without a job to go to, and then I had this blank canvas in front of me and it was really Belinda's inspiration. She said, Alex, why don't we go alone? Let's just see what we can do.

Alex Hanratty
And so I then felt, well, let's explore it fundamentally. Also in terms of my motivation, I'm a woman of faith, so my, my faith is really being a strong motivator for me. If I felt that God was drawing me in a certain direction, I couldn't say no. I just had to follow it. So coupled with that, the strong intuition and gut feeling.

Alex Hanratty
So when Belinda mentioned the idea to me, I went for a walk along the river and I felt so excited I couldn't get the idea out my head and I thought, This is crazy. We're emerging from a pandemic. I need to earn some money. I you know, how where's it going to come from? Where's the money going to come from?

Alex Hanratty
But I just wouldn't say no. It's like I just had to do it. And then I've been so pleasantly surprised by the amount of people who, including yourself, who've offered their time, their skill set, their experiences to help shape reconnected. We are very much a product of all the people that have helped shape reconnected from its very early days, spent a year and a half building the model.

Alex Hanratty
So the motivation aspect has also been a really exciting one. I found the whole creative energy around setting something up very exciting. I love thinking, trying to think anywhere, at least outside the box and how I can meet a challenge in a creative way. Man, Think about, Oh, well, let's just not think narrowly, let's think, let's cast on that.

Alex Hanratty
Why eat and see what might come of it? I really enjoyed that. Being so pleasantly surprised by the amount of people who have offered to help us. So the creative energy, the sort of intuition and the faith and also I work with such lovely people and you know, you want to I want to do things with Belinda and Georgia, you know, I want to create with them.

Alex Hanratty
The school community up in Sheffield have been welcomed us on Sheffield Council and you know that the partners have welcomed us with open arms. And I feel like there is, you know, it's it lots of doors have opened saying, you know, Now having said that, there's obviously many challenges that are going to come our way. And, you know, we've also, you know, funding obviously is is an eternal challenge and it's not easy.

Alex Hanratty
We've had to think really outside the box and tens of that as well. Then it's running the marathon. Yeah, one was always going to be tricky because people find the idea exciting, but they feel it's too much of a risk because we're still early, early and haven't yet. What evidence of impact, which I can fully understand. But yeah yeah it's it's been it's but I do feel if you just trust the flow of life, if trust it and you do your best is also allowing room and space for miracles to come and opportunities to arise as they do, they do.

Alex Hanratty
They consistently do. If you put that in, if you take that leap of faith, I do feel you are caught, you know. Yeah. I mean, thank you for sharing that. Yeah, that. That's brilliant. I was actually talking to somebody earlier on who was who's just getting her business up and running. And there's a temptation to pick up some sort of quick and easy work back in with her old employer.

Alex Hanratty
And we were talking about. But is that work the work that's calling you? Is that the work that sets you alight? And it isn't, but it's a level there's a level of security about it. There's a level of, you know, known known territory, if you like. But it's, it's helping her see that if you do make that leap of faith, then other opportunities will start to open up for you because it's very clear then the path that you're trying to take so other people will automatically be able to see how they can support you, where they can, where they can get involved, and how they can help you move forward.

Alex Hanratty
So I'm hoping that she'll listen to this episode as well and listen to and be inspired by what you just said there, because I think it your story resonates with me and a lot of other people as well. So that's great. It's interesting. I just this morning as I was doing my one of my training runs, I was listening to Brené Brown.

Alex Hanratty
[unintellligible] did it as either. So I read it that she talks about courage and the importance of courage. And she says, Courage comes very close to fear and courage very close. You know, you can't almost have courage without having fear as and that certainly been my experience. I mean, yeah, I do feel. Do you feel sometimes anxious about the future and ensuring we've got the funds to meet the need, but also we look at the risk and we look at our growth plan.

Alex Hanratty
buzzsaw our risk strategy to help mitigate those risks that we've got safeguards in place and being as proactive as we can. I need to also have to just sometimes take a bit of a risk and just hope for the best. So that sense of optimism, I believe, is really important as well. And it's one of our values and just hoping for the best and doing what you can.

Alex Hanratty
You know, we're all human. We're all going to make mistakes. But just allowing, you know, taking that leap again and just trusting that it will be the best outcome, even if there's even if there's a problem and there's a challenge and you have a slight detour, there's something you can learn in that detour. So I think that's, you know, essentially it's that believing in the theater of life or however you want to, but to name it. Love it, that Alex has been absolutely wonderful talking with you today and hearing all about where you've got to so far with Reconnected, I'm absolutely certain it's going to keep going from strength to strength.

Simon Phillips
The vision is amazing and I do encourage people to find out more if they want to do that. Alex How can they find out bit more about be connected and maybe even support you also with your fundraising efforts in this marathon adventure.

Alex Hanratty
Absolutely! and well our website is www.reconnecteducation.co.uk So we are known as Reconnected and our marathon sponsorship is a crowdfunding page through Justgiving again reconnected.

Alex Hanratty
I can certainly put it in the chat or however works, but yeah, you can find it through justgiving crowdfunding and then reconnected there and helping young people face adversity to flourish at school, at home. That's how it's that's how it's that's the title. Perfect. Thanks, Alex. One last thing before you go. We've got a playlist called Leading the Field.

Simon Phillips
And I’ll ask all my guests, Can you share with us a tune that's maybe accompanied you on your journey or something that really inspires you could just be your favorite track of all time. Who knows something that we can add to the playlist? What do you got for us? Yeah, well, I've always loved ever since I was little, you two and being a nineties girl, etc. And so You Choose one, I think is one of my favorite songs of all time.

Simon Phillips
I love it. I just love the tune. I love the words. I love its mission. I think it's it's just such an uplifting song. So that would be a wonderful selection. What could I expect? That was brilliant. Thanks, Alex. That's a makes a worthy addition to the playlist. Good luck with everything and do come back and tell us when.

Simon Phillips
Sure. Maybe when you're flying in a year or two come back and tell us more about how it's going. We'd love to hear from you, but until then, good luck with everything and we'll we'll catch up with you soon. Thanks so much, Simon, And thanks for all your support. You've been a part of this journey, too, so it's been a pleasure.

Simon Phillips
Thank you. My pleasure, Alex. You've been listening to Leading The Field with me, Simon, and my special guest, Alex Hanratty, the CEO and founder of Reconnected. So we will see you back here again for the next episode until then, keep smiling and we'll see you soon. Cheers.