You are here: Parent Champions Conference 2021
On Tuesday 25 May and Wednesday 26 May, we were excited to welcome over 150 Parent Champions National Network members from all over the UK to our first ever virtual Parent Champions Conference and Awards. Though we missed being able to catch-up in person, we were delighted to bring everyone together, say hello to many familiar faces and meet some new ones!
The day got off to a great start as Ellie Grace, Programmes and Development Manager, reflected on the remarkable achievements of Parent Champions over the last year. Volunteers have adapted to new ways of reaching their local communities, from hosting online events to running outdoor activities in line with social distancing. In a challenging year, their contributions made an invaluable difference to families everywhere.
We then heard from Amol Rajan, a very special (and famous!) guest, who wanted to pass on his personal thanks to our parent volunteers. The One Show and Today Programme presenter congratulated the network for their resilience in a tough year and their incredible dedication to helping other parents and families.
Next up, Matt Riddell from The National Lottery Community Fund's A Better Start, Donna Sherratt from Small Steps Big Changes and Parent Champion Amanda Doughty joined us to share more about their work in Nottingham and across the country. Small Steps Big Changes is one of five projects funded by A Better Start and they work to improve the life chances of babies and very young children by changing the way services are commissioned and delivered, involving parents as equal partners. Parents in Nottingham have been leading the way in raising community awareness though activities such as the Parent Obsession Group (POG) where a group of parents take on an issue they would like to change in their local area, most recently improving knowledge of oral health among families.
Delegates then headed off to workshop sessions of their choice. Sarah Ross, Campaigns and Programmes Officer, introduced the exciting work of Parent Champions for Better Childcare. This group aims to use parent voices and advocacy to persuade decision-makers to make positive changes to early years services. Parent Champions Brent presented their workshop on recruiting and supporting parent volunteers, an essential building block of any scheme. Parent Champions Wandsworth offered some brilliant tips on how to engage parents online, a great skill which has become particularly relevant this year. They have been busy creating engaging videos for the local community, on issues such as mindfulness and the Local Offer. Senior Programmes Officer Joanna Watts shared the amazing work of Community Connections, a project tackling loneliness and isolation among parents of young children. We were delighted to hear from Wolverhampton Parent Champion Zoe who talked about her inspiring personal journey through her involvement in the scheme. Parent Champions Doncaster talked to about how to support your local childcare entitlement strategy. They drew upon their fantastic first-hand knowlege and experience to share ideas. Dr Jasmine Chin, clinical lead psychologist at Coram, led a session on self-care and mindfulness support. Awareness around mental health and wellbeing has emerged as a key priority after the challenges of the pandemic.
Head of Coram Family and Childcare, Megan Jarvie, then delivered an interactive session on how the last year has shaped the way the Parent Champions programme is delivered. For example, we found that the shift to online communication has helped busy parents to be able to get involved more easily in some cases, but volunteers miss face to face outreach, particularly to meet the families most likely to miss out on information and support, including digitally excluded families.
The second day of the conference opened with Megan reflecting on policy and practice changes over the last year. Lockdown illustrated how much all of society relied on childcare and also highlighted the need to listen to the concerns and needs of the early years workforce.
Megan shared our latest data which reveals that Parent Champions have spoken to over 15,000 parents over the last year. 77% of these parents then went to take up a local service they weren't using previously. This is a remarkable achievement and we want to take the opportunity to thank all of our volunteers for this amazing success in a challenging year, where 95% of outreach had to take place online.
Parent Champions Croydon, winners of Scheme of the Year 2020, then joined us to share what they have been up to over the last year. Louise and Stella told us about their incredible work with the local community from organising online library and yoga sessions, to cooking and distributing Christmas dinners to local families around Croydon last December. It was truly inspiring to hear the lengths they had gone to in order to meet the needs of their local community.
The conference finished with the Parent Champions Awards which were so great they get a whole blog of their own! It was great to be able to provide the opportunity for staff and volunteers to hear what is happening across the country - we are amazed by what the fantastic teams have been able to achieve in this challenging year.
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