Parent Champions Conference 2020

We were delighted to welcome our wonderful Parent Champions to the annual conference on Tuesday 10 March, hosted in the Queen Elizabeth II Centre at Coram Campus. 

The event was a fantastic opportunity to catch up with schemes from all around the country to learn more about the incredible work they are doing in their communities. Parent Champions play an invaulable role in providing information about local childcare and support available to families. Our established peer-to-peer model fosters meaningful connections between volunteers and local parents, as well as enabling Parent Champions to develop their skills.

The day got off to an exciting start with an inspiring keynote speech from Sophia Parker, CEO of Little Village. Little Village collects donations of clothes and toys for babies and children up to the age of 5 and gifts these donations on to local families who are dealing with challenging circumstances such as homelessness, unemployment, low wages and domestic violence. Sophia told the audience about her own story of developing the charity, from its very early stages storing nappies in her living room, to its current operation, working in three key locations across the capital; Wandsworth, Camden and Southwark.

Claire Harding, Head of Coram Family and Childcare, shared important insights from our latest Childcare Survey. The annual cost of childcare continues to be a huge issue for families in the UK and we hope to see genuine reform from Government to improve and simplify the current system of support. Claire highlighted the instrumental role of high-quality early-years education: “we know it makes a difference all the way up to GCSEs.” Free entitlements allow greater access to these overwhelmingly positive outcomes.

After the lunchbreak and a spot of networking, our guests were invited to take part in the Ideas Cafe, where they could choose to particpate in a variety of talks with sector experts and schemes. Richard Desjardins, Programmes Manager, commented on the success of these sessions:

After these fantastic talks, the only thing left to do was to hand out the all-important Parent Champions awards. We were honoured to be joined by Carol Homden, CEO of Coram, as she hosted the ceremony. Parent Champions Croydon took home the prestigious Scheme of the Year award owing to all of their amazing work in the community.

Selda Aygun from Parent Champions Islington won Coordinator of the Year and Harpreet Kaur, Parent Champions Slough, won the award for Best Personal Development. Anita Khalil from Parent Champions Camden took home the award for Biggest Impact and Joanne Bolton, Parent Champions North Lincolnshire won the award for Best Newcomer of 2020.

We want to thank everyone who attended and nominated for making the day so special. We look forward to seeing you again in 2021!