Create and collaborate in the North Star Cancer Collective
The evidence:
The State of the System report (2024) found that “all of these reforms cannot be consistently achieved at scale by any one organisation within the sector. It will require an enhanced long-term well-being of children and young people with cancer, and their families, a systemic and coordinated approach.”
Collective impact is a network of community members, organisations, and institutions who advance equity by learning together, aligning, and integrating their actions to achieve population and systems level change” (Collective Impact Forum, 2025).
Collective impact emphasises shared agendas, shared measurement, and mutually reinforcing activities. Evidence shows collective impact can drive meaningful systems and population-level change, particularly where backbone support, shared metrics, equity, and strong community engagement are well-integrated (ORS Impact and Spark Policy Institute, 2018).
What we are curious about:
How can we create greater impact through collective action?
How can new models of governance enable system improvement?
How can collaboration reduce fragmentation across the system?
What we want to see happen:
Stronger collaboration and engagement across the cancer support system.
Greater confidence to test new ideas and innovate together, building trust, data sharing and more aligned action across organisations.
A less fragmented system, with less duplication and a better, more joined-up experience for children, young people and families.
Why is this important?
We believe that a more connected, collaborative and learning-oriented cancer support system — with less duplication and stronger collective action — is essential to improving long-term wellbeing for children, young people and their families.