What is Emoco?
A movement for a culture of well-being in education.
Emoco is a Community Interest Company (C.I.C.) that exists to co-create an education system with well-being at its heart, so that no young person, educator, or parent/carer has to experience toxic stress stemming from the education system.
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Emoco works meaningfully in partnership alongside schools to co-create a culture of wellbeing. That is, a school environment, system and culture where positive mental wellbeing is held in equal regard to academic & vocational success.​​
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Emoco works preventatively. We go upstream. Rather than waiting until someone is already experiencing poor mental health, Emoco aims to address the systemic problems that cause poor mental health & wellbeing in the first place. And rather than trying to "fix" people, we work to fix the system. Rather than inadvertantly creating victim-blaming explanations by suggesting that people have to change something about themselves to fit the system, we rethink the system to work around people instead.
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Emoco's logo is designed to visualise our co-productive philosophy. The two rectangles represent families & educators, all coming together around the same table (the red circle) to exchange knowledge and collaborate together.
At the core of Emoco's philosophy is the notion that "systems are made up of people" and "change moves at the speed of trust." A culture of wellbeing cannot be imposed upon a school - it cannot be done "to". It must be done with - and in a sensitive, psychologically-safe space where nobody in particular will be blamed for the problem or come in for a needless, fruitless drubbing.
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Emoco will help you, as a school:
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Create the co-productive space you need to embed a culture of well-being.
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Identify, from the collective knowledge of your school community, what can be done that would make the most impact.
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Implement these changes and ultimately embed a culture of well-being.
Find out more.
Emoco is always actively looking to work in partnership with more schools to embed a culture of wellbeing. To find out the details of what our work together could look like, visit the "Join the movement" page below:
Meet Andrew Speight
Andrew - a Co-Production facilitator, keynote speaker, writer & Emoco's co-lead - has been working to embed a culture of well-being across the education system ever since he was at school himself.
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Andrew served as the Member of Youth Parliament (MYP) for Blackpool between February 2019 and March 2022, whilst also serving as the Chair of Blackpool Youth Council twice (March 2019 - April 2020, May 2021 - March 2022), serving as Vice-Chair in-between those two tenures. Recognised for his proactive campaigns and leadership, Andrew became the UK Youth Parliament's Steering Group representative from the North West of England (August 2021 - January 2024), supporting the following cohort of MYPs and ensuring the programme was governed in their interests.
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Around the same time that he became SG, Andrew also commenced employment with Blackpool Council as a Youth Advisor. Acting in a similar capacity to a consultant, Andrew provided his lived experience of struggling with education, employment & training to the co-production of strategies & services to reduce the number of young people in Blackpool who are not earning or learning. In this role, Andrew collaborated alongside schools to change the odds facing young people and educators, co-leading Blackpool's two Big Education Conversations - including one with Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, and playing a pivotal role in shaping and successfully securing Blackpool's £2.3 million partnership bid to the Youth Futures Foundation for the "Connected Futures" project. On the back of the Big Education Conversations, this included the "Connected Curriculum", which embedded vocational Level 2 courses and a wider range of GCSEs into the Key Stage 4 curriculum locally and created time for workplace encounters for school pupils.
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Andrew also served as the Youth Voice Representative to the Blackpool Education Improvement Board, where he became part of an intergenerational working group that led to the creation of Emoco. Andrew was a finalist in the 2023 Big Education Challenge with Emoco, winning an initial £10,000 grant to learn & develop the project before winning a Special Recognition Prize and a further £15,000 of funding to continue to develop the project.
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Andrew is driven by a burning desire to help make sure no young person, educator, or parent/carer has to experience the same kind of toxic stress and trauma that he did at school, and a sincere desire to respectfully collaborate with a range of stakeholders to make it happen. You can read more about Andrew's career and professional background on his LinkedIn page below.
Andrew's Story
Andrew struggled at school, buckling under the pressure of a "rigorous" system that prioritised achieving good grades at all costs. Andrew & his peers were told that, if they didn't pass their GCSEs, they would be "living on...bread & beans...on benefits" and they would be written off by society as failures.
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Living within this system day-in-day-out took a horrendous toll on Andrew's mental health. As he began to hear about more young people having similar experiences, Andrew concluded this was a systemic problem, and action was required to put it right.
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Andrew stood for election to his school's Pupil Council and successfully campaigned for the school to shift to a culture of well-being.
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From there, Andrew carried the torch forward beyond the boundaries of his school, being elected as the Member of Youth Parliament for Blackpool on a platform pledging to reform the education system to be more conducive to positive mental well-being.
Andrew's official school photograph from Year 10, October 2017.
Contact
Andrew's mission is to make sure no other young person has to go through what he did again, and is passionate about applying the lived experience of himself and others to solving the complex systemic problems we grapple with today.
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You can contact Andrew using the details opposite.
Tel: 07575 578275