Our UK Education Collective Portfolio

The UBS Optimus Foundation’s UK Education Collective Portfolio supports organizations that are working to transform educational outcomes in the UK to help ensure that all children, regardless of their background, can thrive in education and beyond.

Baby and Parent

The early years of a child’s life are fundamental in shaping their educational and life outcomes. 

Helping parents to provide materially and emotionally for their children in their first years of life, providing high quality early years education and breaking cycles of abuse for the most vulnerable can all play a key role in providing young children from more disadvantaged backgrounds with the best start in life. 

Tutor Trust Alt Academy

Literacy and numeracy are the foundation of every child’s education.

Developing strong foundational skills in literacy and numeracy helps to provide children with the gateway to learning and accessing the wider curriculum. Pupils who fall behind struggle in comparison to their peers, not just in education, but also in later life. By focusing resource to accelerate learning for those that perform below average can help to address educational inequalities.

Student in Library

Many young people in the UK do not have the opportunity to access the range of benefits that higher education can bring. 

 

Tailored interventions that identify, empower and enable young people from disadvantaged background to raise their aspirations and successfully transition to the next stage of their education or employment journey can break down barriers to social mobility. 

Dismantling barriers to education

Supporting mental health and well-being, developing essential skills, and building a fairer and more inclusive education system in the UK.

Place-based change

Working collectively in partnership with local communities on a long term basis, to unlock solutions to the particular issues they’re facing.

Our Partner Stories

UK Giving Circle

Education can transforms lives. Helping every child reach their full educational potential can drive economic growth, support better health outcomes and foster social cohesion. In the UK, however, the gap in achievement and opportunity between disadvantaged children and their peers is growing. There are also stark regional disparities, differences by ethnicity and ongoing inequalities from the disruption caused by the pandemic.

Philanthropy can help change this situation. Launched in 2024, our UK Education Giving Circle brings together philanthropists who want to work collaboratively to tackle UK educational inequality. Leveraging the UBS Optimus Foundation’s expertise, the Giving Circle co-funds programs and initiatives within the UBS Optimus Foundation’s UK Education Collective Portfolio of 20 partner organizations. Specific areas of focus include early childhood education and care, foundational skills, and transitions across the education lifecycle. The funding supports activities in specific regions, helps organizations to scale their work and supports research and evaluation. Over two years, the members participate in a learning and insights program including a series of modules focusing on key concepts in effective philanthropy, combined with practical examples, expert talks and immersive site visits within the UK’s education system.

The Giving Circle currently has 21 members and over GBP 1 million has been raised (including UBS matching).

Right to Succeed

This initiative is using a collective impact approach to improve outcomes for children in disadvantaged UK communities by bringing together locals, professionals and decision-makers. Supported by the UBS Optimus Foundation, it is delivering 11 programs across 10 areas, impacting more than 53,000 children. The Cradle to Career program in North Birkenhead has closed a 15-month reading age gap for 8–16-year-olds and reduced the number of children in care or on the edge of care by 90%. It plans to expand in the Liverpool City region, Greater Manchester, East Anglia, the West Midlands and Cheshire.

Place2Be

Place2Be tackles the youth mental health crisis by implementing a whole-school approach that provides early intervention and ongoing support. According to a 2023 study by the Ontario Science Journal, nearly one in five children globally are experiencing a probable mental health condition, a figure that has increased significantly since the pandemic. This makes Place2Be’s work more critical than ever. Supported by the UBS Optimus Foundation, Place2Be impacted 45,000 young people last year, with 78% of those who received one-to-one counselling showing improved mental health.

In addition to direct support, Place2Be is addressing systemic issues by hosting a roundtable on school absence and introducing a Level 4 Diploma in school-based child counselling to fill workforce shortages. Looking ahead, it is developing a five-year strategy to expand mental health services and an apprenticeship model to train more counsellors.