Ark Start is a not-for-profit nursery provider, offering flexible, affordable childcare and early education for disadvantaged families. The organisation works to close the achievement gap that opens up before primary school, ensuring all children, regardless of their background, start their education ready to succeed. Ark Start opened its first nursery in October 2020 and its second in March 2021; an unorthodox time to launch during lockdowns. Starting with just five or six members of staff, the charity had ambitious plans for expansion but needed to build a strong organisational culture that could scale with them.
Challenge
Managing Director Katie explained the challenge: "We came to the Cranfield Trust to talk about how we could support the creation of a really positive culture amongst our staff. As we grew, we wanted to make sure we could build out that culture to reflect the values and aims of our organisation.”
Regional Manager Nicky Everett recognised the complexity of the situation: "They were trying to create cultural behavioural change whilst in the middle of a significant organisational expansion. It's quite challenging, and this is why it's important to have someone who can adopt a nuanced approach to the problems presenting themselves.”
Solution
Nicky conducted a thorough search for the right volunteer, looking at geography, skills, previous experience and feedback from past projects. The brief required someone with expertise in cultural change and transformation, excellent coaching and facilitation skills, and the ability to act as an independent critical friend. This search led Nicky to David.
David brought a calm, curious approach and extensive experience in organisational development. His focus from the outset was on changing conversations rather than implementing systems. David explained: "A consultant I worked with once said, 'If you want to change the culture, change the conversations.' A lot of my focus was about helping people get away from the day-to-day nuts and bolts conversations to more future-focused and developmental ones.”
The work ran alongside Ark Start's expansion from two nurseries to six, with plans for twelve. Rather than waiting until the organisation had reached its target size, David worked with the team to embed the cultural work into the growth itself. Katie reflected on this approach: "It's allowed us to build this work into the very fabric of the organisation as we've grown. I think that feels really important. In two or three years' time, you'll recognise a lot of the things that have been put in place, whereas changing things is always harder than knitting it in.”
David worked closely with Katie and her senior leaders, Molly and Sarah, running workshops and coaching sessions. Over time, former workshop participants became co-facilitators themselves. David noted: "I'd pay tribute to the commitment of the senior team because this thing would have died if it hadn't been for Katie, Layla, Molly and Sarah. I often don't appear for a couple of months, and then I pop up, and they're as enthusiastic as the first time I appeared.”
Impact
The project has delivered significant results for Ark Start, building leadership confidence across the organisation. Katie described the transformation: "The biggest impact has been creating the confidence in senior leaders specifically, to think about how you manage teams and cultural change in a way that they feel very clear and confident about. That confidence, even to the co-facilitation of workshops, feels like the real impact.”
The cultural work has helped Ark Start navigate a complex challenge: building a unified team from a hugely diverse workforce. Staff range from qualified teachers with master's degrees to first-time apprentices, from private nursery veterans to state school educators. Katie explained: "All of this project has been about how we build that group of 50 staff so that everyone feels they understand what we're doing and can reflect on their practice. If you walked into our nurseries now and asked any staff member who'd been in post for six months about why we're here and what's important, they'd give very similar answers. You can take that for granted, but it's not an easy thing to achieve.”
For Ark Start's beneficiaries, the children attending their nurseries, the results speak for themselves. Katie shared the impact:
"Over the last five years, 91% of the children who have attended an Ark Start nursery have achieved a good level of development at the end of reception. The national average was about 67% in 2024, and about 45% of our children are entitled to free school meals. Our children are disproportionately above the national average, despite being disproportionately disadvantaged.”
She emphasised the connection between staff culture and child outcomes: "That isn't possible if the adults aren't doing a really brilliant job minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. You can't just magic up those sorts of outcomes.”
David highlighted the profound nature of the change required: "You're asking these adults to help children thrive and develop, and they're adults who themselves may never have experienced real development. The change we're looking for is quite a profound one for them.”
Katie concluded:
"I am incredibly grateful to David for all his time, commitment and energy. I feel incredibly lucky to be part of this and incredibly grateful that Cranfield Trust exists."
