The opportunity gap that spurred a mission to change Britain’s classrooms
Susannah Hardyman (2004) is the Chief Executive Officer of impact funder Impetus. The charity invests in a portfolio of 23 education and employment non-profit organisations supporting young people facing disadvantage and carries out research that regularly influences government policy.
A freelance job earning extra cash as a personal tutor soon after leaving university was the inspiration behind a career that has made Susannah Hardyman one of the most influential voices in education policy.
Following a degree in Theology at St John’s, Susannah began doing some private tutoring, as well as volunteering to support pupils from an underprivileged area in South East London in her spare time.
The disparity of opportunities between the two groups and the obvious benefits of tutoring led her to launch her own charity to help bridge the educational gap for children from lower income backgrounds.
“I’d always been interested in education, and I’d also always been really interested in questions of inequality and social justice,” says Susannah.
“Moving to London highlighted for me the inequality in the UK. I’d seen it abroad, but in my early days as a recent graduate in London I started doing some private tutoring to earn a little bit of extra money. I was also working in the charity sector and became so aware of this huge inequality, with incredibly wealthy parents in very nice houses in leafy West London paying for private tutoring, often on top of private school fees, and I could see it was really helping these kids. There’s a reason parents will pay for it – because it works. But at the same time, I was doing some volunteer work in South East London with children predominantly from lower income backgrounds and I could see that they weren’t necessarily any less ambitious or interested in their futures, but they just were never going to have that kind of support. That made me think there must be recent graduates out there like me, with a bit of a social conscience, who might tutor for free if they could be matched with young people who wouldn’t otherwise access it.”
From this seed of an idea, the charity Action Tutoring was born, launching in 2011. It began as a programme working with two schools in London and staffed by a handful of volunteers who offered to help children preparing for English and maths GCSEs, who were at risk of not achieving what was then a C grade. By 2024, when Susannah stepped down after over a decade at the helm, more than 6,000 children and young people in primary and secondary schools were benefitting each year with support delivered by 1,900 volunteers, and Action Tutoring had been at the heart of designing and then delivering the government’s National Tutoring Programme during the pandemic.
Since 2014 Action Tutoring had been backed by Impetus, and in January 2025 Susannah moved to become CEO of Impetus. She was also awarded an MBE for her work at Action Tutoring.
“Impetus was born out of the private equity industry with the aim of bringing the principles of private equity to the charitable sector, particularly with a vision to tackle issues affecting young people facing disadvantage in education and employment,” says Susannah.
“We are quite unusual as a funder in that we don’t just write cheques. We also give hands-on strategic support to our partners. We pride ourselves on finding not necessarily organisations that have already got it all cracked, but the most promising organisations with real potential. We give them long-term unrestricted funding, capacity building support through our talented investment team, and then access to our world-class pro bono network.”
Corporate partners may offer not only funding but also hands-on support to portfolio partners, for example free legal advice or help with strategy projects. “We act as a bit of a dating agency on the pro bono side,” she says, “matching up the needs of our portfolio organisations alongside our corporate partners who are willing to donate their time for free.”
The results have been impressive. Impetus has a portfolio of 23 organisations working across education and youth issues across the country, with the goal of supporting more young people, especially those facing disadvantage, to be able to engage and thrive in school, achieve good qualifications, and go on to fulfilling, sustained employment. Support from Impetus helps portfolio partners to really deepen their impact, to drive meaningful results and to demonstrate their outcomes, while growing their reach sustainably.
Alongside supporting direct delivery, Impetus has a public affairs team, taking their own research and insights from the portfolio to drive systems change on their areas of focus. For example, during COVID, Impetus helped to design the National Tutoring Programme. More recently, together with portfolio partner Voice 21 they have been championing oracy skills which, as a result, will now be included in the new national curriculum.
Most recently, research carried out by Impetus was referenced in the new Alan Milburn-authored Young People and Work Report. It cited the Youth Jobs Gap research published by Impetus. The review found that over 1 million young people aged 16 to 24 in the UK are not in education, employment or training (NEET). Impetus’ research highlighted that disadvantaged young people are twice as likely to be NEET as their more affluent peers and that English and maths at grade 4 and above remain the biggest protective factor against a young person becoming NEET.
Susannah says: “Our research was quite widely cited in his report, and we’ve been working with Alan Milburn and his team behind the scenes to influence the final recommendations report, drawing too on evidence of our portfolio for what really works for young people.”
She explains their recommendations include: “long-term sustained support and consistency of the adult and who’s showing up. Often, young people need a real blend of practical skills alongside pastoral support, access to work experience or a CV workshop. A lot of it is around building their confidence and also unlocking those connections with employers, helping them to prepare for their first interview and ensuring they are turning up for training. For those furthest from the labour market, often those facing disadvantage, consistent long-term support is vital to help them overcome barriers but it pays off. That’s what our partners are giving and the evidence shows that it works.”
Some of the very first volunteers at Action Tutoring were friends Susannah had made while studying at St John’s. Now she is calling on any alumni interested in supporting education and young people to get involved with Impetus. “We’ll always, of course, welcome donations for the work, but it could be pro bono or volunteering too. This could be giving professional skills and expertise to a portfolio partners, or perhaps to mentor one of our charity executives.”
