Meet Sarah - winner of the Parent Champions Best Newcomer Award 2025

This awards recognises new Parent Champions volunteers who have made significant progress or impact since joining the scheme.

The annual Parent Champions Awards recognise and celebrate the work of Parent Champions volunteers and coordinators. Coram Family and Childcare’s 41 Parent Champion schemes reach almost 50,000 families a year (2023/24). Thanks to the amazing work of more than 350 Parent Champions volunteers, parents and carers are supported by their peers in their own communities.

The Parent Champions Best Newcomer Award 2025 winner is Sarah Sumner, from Blackburn & Darwen.

Sarah was nominated by her colleague Catherine who says:

“Sarah is new to the SEND Parent Champions volunteer scheme, having joined a year ago, but in that time, wow, she has made an extraordinary impact. Her enthusiasm, dedication, positivity and drive to help others has truly set her apart as a standout newcomer”.

From the moment Sarah joined the scheme, she hit the ground running and quickly began connecting with local families who needed support. Her ability to engage with parents, listen to their concerns, and offer practical advice has been exceptional. Sarah has been especially effective at making parents feel heard and valued, creating an immediate positive impact in the community. She has helped recruit others and provided really good insight about what's needed for the scheme.

Sarah explains why she wanted to get involved as a Parent Champions volunteer:

“As a parent of a child with SEND I am aware of that feeling of isolation and loneliness. After leaving full time work and putting everything into my sons education and well-being my goal is to now help and support other families on that same journey - sharing all my knowledge. Being able to solve problems is a passion of mine and that’s why I chose this role. I also participate in other community projects and all my roles work nicely together”. 

Sarah has actively sought out opportunities to learn and grow within hir role, with mentorship from a more experienced volunteer.  Sarah delivers the 'Lets Talk Sessions' at the local Family Hub and at school parent evening sessions. She designed and developed these sessions in schools to reach parents of children with SEND. Sarah is good at enthusing others and manages to get sensitive SEND challenges across to practitioners in a way that motivates them to make changes to their service. 

Sarah was invited to co- create SEND marketing resources, sharing insights and experiences about neurodiversity. She has influenced how the local authority’s SEND communication plans are developed to be more impactful and inclusive.

Catherine concludes “In just a short time, Sarah’s proactive approach, compassion, and drive to make a difference have had a lasting impact on both families and local SEND services. I feel we are already a great stage in our SEND Parent Champion Scheme due to Sarah. She is an awesome SEND parent champion, and the loveliest, sunniest person you could ever meet. Every SEND family needs Sarah in their life. Every SEND government department, organisation, or charity could do with a 'Sarah' on their team”.