FBB IMPACT REPORT | 19/20Download

FBB supports young people who are passionate about football but disengaged at school in order to help them finish school with the skills and grades to make a successful transition into adulthood. We do this by providing long-term, intensive support, built around relationships and young people’s passions, in the classroom and beyond.

Social and emotional skills benefit all aspects of a young person’s life. Developing social and emotional skills not only has positive effects on attainment, but also provides young people with the tools to be able to form positive relationships with peers, practitioners and teachers. We believe that the social and emotional skills (defined by CASEL) of self awareness, social awareness, self-management, responsible decision making and relationships skills are pivotal to leading a fulfilled and enriching adult life.

Our programme is run in partnership with secondary schools across the UK. Schools are a really important place for the development of the whole person. This year, the pandemic has demonstrated the role that schools play: they are a vital community for every young person. They are not just about attainment, but provide a space for social and emotional growth, positive adult and peer relationships, and foster a sense of safet and security in a young person’s life.

According to the Education Endowment Foundation’s extensive research, social and emotional learning (SEL) is most effective when taught explicitly. We do this through our bespoke SEL curriculum, which works through each CASEL competency in six-week classroom projects. The football sessions then allow young people to put these skills into practice. For FBB, the football pitch is a safe space for our young people to experience, reflect on and learn from both positive and negative emotions.

For some of the most at-risk young people, therapeutic support is needed in addition to the SEL curriculum as it provides the space for intensive, relational work on the underlying causes of their disruptive behaviour.

We are delighted to share our findings from 2019/20 with you in this Impact Report. Although the disruption of COVID-19 presented some challenges for evaluation, we are confident in our findings that the longer a young person spends with FBB, the stronger their SEL is. In addition, young people who have had a year with FBB have a stronger attitude to learning than those without. Both of these indicators are correlated with better academic achievement.

Furthermore, FBB exists to ensure that young people finish school, meaning that they are not excluded or managed-moved out of the secondary school they started with. Although the year was cut short due to school closures, we are still happy to share that 98% of our young people finished the year in school. Nationally, school exclusions increase annually between the ages of 10-14, whilst this is not the case for FBB participants. The rate at which young people on an FBB programme are excluded or manage-moved declines as young people spend more time with FBB.

During the school closures caused by COVID-19, we established the FBB Virtual School Day to ensure the wellbeing of every young person and support them with their school work. We are proud to report that we were able to reach 93% of the total cohort.

For further details, please download the full Impact Report.