Alexandra Landes
13 October 2017

This week the annual National Association of Family Information Services (NAFIS) Conference took place in London, bringing together Family Information Services (FIS) from all over the country to hear from government departments, take part in workshops and hear from distinguished speakers.

We asked Josie Barnett from Sandwell FIS and Liz Scott from Slough FIS about their experiences of the day and what they learnt from the conference.

Josie Barnett, Sandwell FIS

“My Colleague Sally Dowie and I had the pleasure of attending this year’s NAFIS Conference in London, which as usual I found to be a very useful and informative event. 

“The day began with introductions from the Family and Childcare Trust’s Chief Executive, Ellen Broomé, and NAFIS Steering Group Member, Phillip Ryan, before we heard from guest speakers about new and relevant topics for FIS.

“30 hours of free childcare for working parents has now been rolled out nationally and Jack Thomlinson from the Department for Education provided us with an update on where local authorities are at with take up of the free extended hours. Sarah Radford from HMRC gave a presentation on tax free childcare which was followed by an engaging Q&A session with the two speakers. 

 “Dr Debbie Weekes-Bernard from Joseph Rowntree Foundation gave an insightful presentation on the drivers of poverty and how we as FIS’s can support parents who are experiencing poverty by providing information, advice and guidance. Laura Bunt from Citizens Advice talked about the role of online advice to assist service users. 

“After lunch, Sally and I attended the three workshops available, one of which, hosted by Contact, discussed the SEND Local Offer and the support that parents can receive from the charity. The following workshop was a presentation on the evaluation of 30 hours from the areas which were early innovators, early implementers and early roll out. Overall the findings indicated that the national rollout should be a success, providers will offer places and parents will take up the extended offer. The third workshop looked at parental rights with regards to flexible working and the right to request parental leave and carers leave. 

“To sum up, the conference was a highly engaging day with lots to take away. I left better informed with several new ideas. I look forward to the same next year!”

Liz Scott, Slough FIS

“As always, the NAFIS Conference was an excellent opportunity to catch up with current topics, network with colleagues from other local authorities and learn something new.

“Three of us from Slough were fortunate to be able to attend the conference. It is always helpful to hear directly from the Department for Education and HMRC and to be able to ask questions. The highlights for us were the presentations from Dr. Debbie Weekes-Bernard from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation about family poverty and from Laura Blunt from Citizens Advice about improving the customer journey using examples from the development of their website. The information they presented was new and challenged us to think about how we could include the knowledge into our work of supporting families through the provision of information and advice. 

“Getting away from the office gave us a chance to think and learn without the day to day pressure of our work and it’s not often that we get something that is specifically designed for FIS teams. We enjoyed the day and have food for thought to take forward.

“Thanks to the Family and Childcare Trust and the NAFIS Steering Group for organising the day and to Phillip Ryan for chairing.“