Welcome to the This Is The North Podcast, your source of transformative conversations. An intentional challenge to the systems holding back the North of England. Hosted by Alison Dunn, an award-winning charity chief executive and former solicitor. This podcast is supported by the Society Matters Foundation and is dedicated to curating and sharing knowledge, powering the change we need for a more equal and inclusive society.

In this episode, Alison sits down with Katrina Morley, CEO of Tees Valley Education, and Sean Harris, the trust's Director of Place. Together they have co-authored Tackling Poverty and Disadvantage in Schools, a book that refuses the comfortable myth that low income equals low aspiration and asks educators to be furiously curious about why that lie has held for so long.

Katrina was born in Middlesbrough. She trained as a chemical engineer before swapping careers, much to the consternation of family and friends and she has never looked back. Sean is a Lancaster lad who came to Durham first generation, started youth work in the East and West End of the city, and stayed. The first time a child told him they were going to the toon at the weekend, he had no idea what they meant.

Their argument is simple and uncomfortable. You cannot teach a child out of poverty. Educational inequality cannot be tackled by educational tools alone. Child poverty costs this country an estimated 39 billion pounds a year. We can find the money to pay for the consequences. We have not found the money to prevent them. World Book Day, packed lunch standards, school trips with souvenir shops, ballet classes that require tutus nobody told you to buy. These are not minor inconveniences but the daily architecture of exclusion.

Timestamps:

00:00 The DNA of a Trust

06:42 Five Academies, One Ecosystem

07:32 What Poverty Actually Does to a Child

23:07 Beyond the Crisis Narrative

29:27 Pay It Forward

31:48 People, Place, Policy

34:59 Expanded Free School Meals and Dignity

37:10 What Gives Them Hope

The question we're left with is what does it actually take to give a child in the North East dignity, opportunity, and agency, and who is doing it already. A child cannot wait for policy to catch up.

Host: Alison Dunn

Guests: Katrina Morley + Sean Harris

This podcast is produced by Purpose Made.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the 'This Is The North' Podcast, your source of transformative conversations. An intentional challenge to the systems holding back the North of England. Hosted by Alison Dunn.

In this episode, Alison is joined by Andrew Dunsmure, Chair of the Board of Trustees at Tiny Lives Trust, about his personal experience becoming a father at 28 weeks during COVID, when his newborn son was taken into neonatal intensive care with a brain bleed, uncertain survival, and later long-term disabilities. Andrew describes dissociation, the clinical language of early prognosis, and how he was separated from his wife and son for long periods, leaving both parents with very different and isolating experiences.

A later diagnosis of 22q deletion syndrome followed months of uncertainty and multiple medical issues, including a heart operation. Andrew details the wide-ranging impacts of the condition, developmental delays, growth and feeding issues, anxiety, and potential future mental health risks, and shares the pressure to become an expert in his child's care, the "cliff edge" many families feel after discharge, and the emotional load fathers often carry while trying to hold their family together.

He recounts a breakdown in his son's second year, reflecting on the lack of spaces for fathers to speak openly, and discusses how he has relied on the gym and meditation while also making difficult decisions about boundaries with family and friends. The conversation explores grief alongside love and joy, celebrating small milestones, and his son's personality and interests, including a love of dinosaurs and learning to walk again after foot surgery.

Andrew argues that dads need to talk more, sharing examples of men staying silent for decades, and redefines resilience as allowing yourself to fall apart and recover. He explains how his lived experience led him to Tiny Lives Trust, first as a trustee and then as chair, and outlines the charity's support for families at the RVI neonatal unit, including psychological and physiotherapy support, family groups, and a dads' peer support group. He closes with advice to be kind to yourself, accept that it's okay to fall apart, and embrace honest, realistic support rather than "toxic positivity."

Timestamps:

00:00 A dad's silent trauma

01:48 Emergency birth at 28 weeks

03:02 Clinical language, survival talk, and dissociation

04:09 ICU, brain bleed, and uncertainty

05:11 Coming home and the cliff edge

05:51 22q deletion syndrome

07:35 Becoming the expert

09:44 The crash in year two

11:37 Finding support and living with grief

14:08 Celebrating millimetres, not milestones

15:57 Why dads need to talk more

17:33 Turning pain into purpose

19:37 What Tiny Lives offers families

21:59 Kindness, realism, and toxic positivity

26:47 How to get support or get involved

This conversation is one of the most honest things we've published. Andrew doesn't perform strength, he describes what it actually costs, and why the silence around fathers in these situations helps nobody. If this reaches one dad who's holding it all together and falling apart at the same time, we hope it reminds you that you don't have to do it alone.

Host: Alison Dunn

Guest: Andrew Dunsmure

This podcast is produced by Purpose Made.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.