The UK’s first Knowledge Transfer Partnership designed for nursery education is under way at the University of Northampton. Regional business engagement officer Adam Lawton explains more.
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Innovate UK has been running Knowledge Transfer Partnerships for nearly 50 years. They are designed to drive innovation and growth by forging collaborative partnerships between businesses and universities.
There are currently around 800 KTPs running across the country. Up to 75% of the costs of a KTP are covered by Innovate UK. Last month we provided an overview of the programme. Now we look at one of the recently awarded KTPs at the University of Northampton.
Many KTPs are focused on high-profile challenges of the day such as Artificial Intelligence, data science and mechanical engineering. But the University of Northampton and business partner Childbase Partnership are challenging this norm with a KTP that focuses on social impact as well as a commercial return.
This will be the first KTP in Early Childhood Education and Care.
Childbase Partnership is an employee-owned business whose head office is in Newport Pagnell. It has 44 nurseries spread across the Midlands and the South East and is a leading player in the market, with all settings rated either good or outstanding by Ofsted.
Dr Tanya Richardson (pictured left), supported by the university’s Knowledge Exchange & Enterprise team, will be working with Childbase Partnership, which has a long-standing connection to the university. She is a former nursery owner and now an academic at the university who completed her PhD in 2019. It was this study that developed the audit tool to be used in the KTP.
The KTP involves further developing Tanya’s audit tool and using it within nursery settings to assess their play and learning environments in order to enhance young children’s speech and language development. This builds on her doctoral study and focuses on supporting children with the crucial area of development that, if children are behind when they start school, can impact upon their chances throughout the whole of their lives.
Post Covid we are seeing an increased need in nursery children as well as a staff shortage in the sector, thus presenting an increased need for intervention. We have recently recruited a Masters graduate as an associate who will act as project manager for the KTP. The associate is employed by the university and supervised by Dr Richardson but will work within Childbase.
This is a demanding role that will require travel throughout the estate to understand the settings, work with the local teams and assess the children but also significant work at head office to ensure the whole business is engaged and informed about the KTP and working to support the project.
Regular meetings will be held between the teams (known as the management committee), including our local representative from Innovate UK. This is a requirement of the KTP programme and provides guidance and support to the associate.
Our aims are to improve the standards of speech and language not only within the settings but also to inform decisions when planning new or refurbishing existing settings. Beyond this we will disseminate our findings at industry conferences and with published papers, with a view to ultimately training and developing the wider sector.
KTPs have a real impact on society and our partnership with Childbase exemplifies this.
If you have a strategic innovation idea for your business but do not have the in-house expertise needed to develop it, contact the University of Northampton on 01604 893560 or .
Adam Lawton is regional business engagement officer, Knowledge Exchange & Enterprise at the University of Northampton.