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About Coram Family and Childcare

Many parents in the UK today are frozen out of work by the cost of childcare and disadvantaged children fall behind their peers before they even start school. Coram Family and Childcare works to change this and to make the UK a better place for families.

We focus on childcare and the early years to make a difference to families’ lives now and in the long term. We work to make sure that every child has access to high quality childcare and every parent is better off working once they have paid for childcare. Families who face disadvantage, social exclusion and poverty are at the heart of our work.

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What we do

Our parent-led programmes support families to achieve their potential and services to deliver solutions that meet families’ needs. Our Parent Champions National Network has been running since 2007, helping families that are more likely to miss out on services to get the support that helps them to thrive.

Our research provides definitive data on the issues families face, including our Childcare Survey which is the most widely used source of information on the costs and availability of childcare in the UK.

Bringing together what we learn from our on the ground work with families and our research, we make change happen by campaigning for solutions that families need.

Before August 2018, we were known as the Family and Childcare Trust.

Our parent-led programmes

We run a range of parent-led programmes aimed at providing support for parents in the everyday but not-always-easy job of being a parent. Many of these focus on supporting parents to build the extended support networks that other parents can take for granted. 

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Young Dads Collective

The Young Dads Collective (YDC) works to improve the lives of young dads and their children by tackling the social exclusion that holds back young dads’ parenting skills and means. As experts by experience, the YDC’s young dads work with professionals to transform how organisations engage with young dads and overcome the hidden barriers that shut young dads out. The YDC directly employs and develops the skills of the collective’s young dads.
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Parent Champions

Parent Champions are parent volunteers who give a few hours a week to talk to other local parents about accessing childcare and other local family services. Coram Family and Childcare developed our Parent Champions programme to help parents who miss out on vital information. The Parent Champions model is delivered by parents for parents, with the support of a local authority, children’s centre or local community organisation.
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Parent-led childcare

Parent-led childcare is not for profit childcare designed and co-delivered by parents, for parents. Coram Family and Childcare is working with the New Economics Foundation to develop a feasible model for piloting and expanding parent-led childcare in the UK.

Our research and campaigns

Our research and advocacy focuses on making Britain as supportive of fulfilling family lives as possible, and on holding central and local government to account for doing all it can to remove barriers for families. 

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By revealing new insights into family life in the UK and formulating innovative solutions, our research aims to push the envelope on how families are supported in the UK. One of our flagship research projects is an annual survey of childcare costs, providing government, parents and charities with a reliable indicator of what’s happening to the cost of childcare in Britain.

Contact us

For general enquiries, please call 020 7239 7535 or email info@familyandchildcaretrust.org.

Unfortunately we do not provide a helpline or advice for individual families and we cannot reply to requests for this type of support. If you are looking for childcare or advice about finding childcare please use our childcare finder.

Lydia Hodges, Head of Coram Family and Childcare 

Lydia joins from the Actors’ Children’s Trust where she was Head of Family Support, and previously led services at several charities, including the National Autistic Society, where she worked for 12 years and her passion for supporting children and families began.

Policy and Research team

Sam Shorto, Senior Qauntitative Researcher

Emma Goddard, Policy Officer 

 

Programmes team

Ellie Grace, Programmes and Development Manager 

Susie Gething, Programmes Officer

Tamsin Hutton, Programmes Officer 

 

Fundraising statement

Coram Family and Childcare is part of the Coram charitable group, and fundraising activities are undertaken and assured by the central fundraising department. As the parent charity, Coram is registered with the Fundraising Regulator and adheres to the Fundraising Code of Practice. Our privacy policy can be found on our website here. If you have any comments or concern, please contact fundraising@coram.org.uk

Our annual reviews

Our annual review is a record of our achievements over the past year, providing details on our funders, staff and members of our trustee board.

Coram Family and Childcare was formed when the Family and Childcare Trust joined the Coram group of charities in 2018.

Family and Childcare Trust annual reviews:

You can also read our financial statements from 2016-17, 2015-16 and 2014-15

The Family and Childcare Trust was formed by a merger between the Daycare Trust and the Family and Parenting Institute in 2013.

Daycare Trust annual reviews:

Family and Parenting Institute annual reviews:

Working for us

Job opportunities

All available jobs and internships will be posted here as and when they arise throughout the year.

The benefits of working with Coram Family and Childcare include generous annual leave, pension contributions and employee assistance programme.

Please be aware that we do not accept applications submitted through agencies.

Current Vacancies

Policy Officer 

Contract: Fixed Term (for 1 year)

Hours: 35 per week (we are happy to discuss a range of flexible working options)

Salary: £26,000 per annum

Location: Coram Campus, Bloomsbury, London (with options for some home working)

About the Role

This role will work to achieve Coram’s goal of achieving better chances for vulnerable children by promoting best practice and influencing national policy. They will work to realise opportunities to influence policy, making use of Coram’s policy and practice evidence and expertise.

There will be a particular focus on childcare and early years policy helping to build Coram Family and Childcare’s reputation and achieve policy change to make a real difference for families. They will work to map and build key relationships across the sector, civil service, central, regional and local government and parliament to make sure that we are having the biggest possible impact. The role will work with our network of fantastic parent volunteers and make use of our evidence from research to build a convincing case for change. There is huge opportunity to make change happen within this role at a time when there is significant public attention on childcare policy.

Closing Date: 11.59pm, Sunday 11th December 2022

Interview Date: Thursday 15th & Friday 16th December 2022