BigTalk Education vision and values

BigTalk Education’s vision is to ensure as many children and young people as possible receive high quality Relationship & Sex Education, to help keep them safe, healthy & happy.

Our mission is:

• Grow sustainable revenue sources to aid us in expanding our expert team to reach more children/young people.
• Create and distribute more quality age appropriate resources to educate children and young people.
• Train and support as many school staff as possible to allow them to feel confident in RSE.
• Publicise the importance of RSE, highlighting emerging trends and issues, to ensure key influencers in the media, political arena and education professionals.

BigTalk Education is proud to be a recognised social enterprise. The definition from Social Enterprise UK states that “social enterprises are businesses that are changing the world for the better. Like traditional businesses they aim to make a profit but it’s what they do with their profits that sets them apart – reinvesting or donating them to create positive social change… This allows them to tackle social problems, improve people’s life chances, provide training and employment opportunities for those furthest from the market, support communities and help the environment… It’s business for good and when they profit, society profits.”

How do BigTalk Education align with the six criteria that define a Social Enterprise?

• Have a clear social and/or environmental mission set out in their governing documents.

The vision and mission goals listed above are the founding principles of our organisation.

• Generate the majority of their income through trade.

BigTalk Education generates income through providing relationship and sex education (RSE) services and resources to universities, schools, educational professionals and parents.

• Reinvest the majority of their profits.

As a mission driven organisation, we strive to ensure that as many children as possible receive good quality age appropriate RSE. We reinvest profits in areas where we feel this mission can best be achieved.

Our team of experts is constantly growing, and we currently deliver in over 200 schools nationwide.

Our organisation is active in the National Children’s Bureau’s Sex Education Forum. Lynnette Smith Our Founder has previously held the voluntary position as Chair of the Advisory Group. Lynnette and other team members also speak regularly at conferences, workshops and seminars sharing insights from the RSE work we undertake with education professionals, politicians, academics, the Media and other stakeholders in RSE provision. An example being Lynnette’s involvement in Parliaments’ Women and Equalities Committee in its public evidence session on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence in Schools. This was a key milestone that led to the March 2017 Department for Education’s announcement of statutory RSE for all pupils in UK schools.

We also provide additional support for parents and professionals on our website.

We are constantly reviewing our resources and work closely with partners to ensure that they are relevant and remain inclusive.

Going beyond our direct contribution to RSE policy and provision, we are also committed to support Barnardo’s as our chosen charity, whose purpose is “to transform the lives of the UK’s most vulnerable children.”

• Are autonomous of the state.

As an independent organisation we are not controlled by a local authority, however many of our staff have local authority backgrounds in youth work, RSE and safeguarding. 

• Are majority controlled in the interests of the social mission.

BigTalk Education has never received outside investment.

• Are accountable and transparent.

BigTalk Education annually publishes the number of children, professionals and parents we educate, which is how we benchmark our performance against our mission.