NAFIS Awards 2025

About the NAFIS Awards 2025

Thank you to everyone who sent in a nomination for the Awards. Nominations have now closed. 

The annual NAFIS Awards recognise the excellent work of Family Information Services around the country and celebrate their remarkable contributions to local communities.

Nominations were received in four categories of awards. Nominations were received for Family Information Services in Cornwall, Hounslow, Islington, Reading, Redbridge, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Sussex, Westminster, and York. The standard was high, and selecting the winners was no easy task for the panel of judges.

The winners of the 2025 Awards were announced on Wednesday 26 November 2025 at the NAFIS Awards 2025 ceremony online.

The NAFIS Award 2025 for Best promotion of the expanded childcare entitlements has been won by Cornwall County Council Family Information Service.

This award recognises teams that have effectively promoted the expansion of childcare entitlements for working families alongside promotion of the whole range of funded entitlements, focusing on:

Helping working parents understand the expansion of funded entitlements; reaching families least likely to take-up early education, particularly families experiencing disadvantage; effective outreach; online engagement and innovative use of social media; addressing the local barriers to take-up of funded early education; using innovative promotion strategies and materials; and working to ensure sufficiency is being met for all the childcare funded offers.

The judges noted that the Cornwall Family Information Service (FIS) team have taken a proactive, inclusive, and innovative approach to promoting the expanded childcare entitlements for working families, and worked tirelessly to ensure families can access the support they need.

After receiving the award, Tiffany Kerr-Knight of Cornwall Family Information Service said: “We are really honoured! We’ve expanded our work in the community, especially through our Parent Champions scheme, so it is great for the team to be recognised with this Award”.

Two of the NAFIS Awards 2025 were won by Reading Borough Council Family Information Service, Best Local Offer Directory and Best FIS Directory.

The Best Local Offer award celebrates the incredible effort that goes into setting up a successful Local Offer which meets the needs of families of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The award focusses on how parents, carers and young people co-produced the Local Offer directory; ways that the Local Offer is easy to navigate online; ways that the Local Offer is promoted, including with other services; how the Local Offer is integrated with other teams and services.

The judges noted that in the last year this service has provided brokerage support to 1,338 families who contacted the SEND Local Offer, and has taken the SEND Local Offer into the wider community, by delivering more than 20 outreach events this year.

The Best Family Information Service Directory award recognises the important work that goes into providing an accessible, welcoming, and user-friendly FIS directory. It focusses on how parents, carers and young people have been involved in the design of the directory; ways that the directory is easy to navigate online; ways that the directory is promoted; how easy it is for parents to find out about the childcare available in their area; and how well the directory provides information about free early education.

The judges noted that Reading’s FIS directory platform was created with parent carers to avoid jargon, use easy to understand language and make sure it was easy to navigate. This directory has robust advice and guidance pages that are written by the experts in that field and regularly updated. The FIS Childcare page QR code is in the red baby books, so parents can quickly go straight to the page. Advice and guidance pages are linked with the childcare search lists, and parent carers can create their own shortlist of childcare settings.

On receiving these two awards, Maryam Makki of Reading Borough Council said “Thank you to my whole Family Information Service team and to the parent carers who work closely with us, they have been great. Thanks also to the voluntary and community organisations in Reading who are amazing in supporting local people in our community. We’ll keep working hard together as long as local parents need us”.

The NAFIS Award 2025 for Best Community Engagement has been won by Suffolk County Council Family Information Service.

This award celebrates Family Information Services that are excellent in connecting with local families and community partners, focusing on partnerships and collaboration with local services and other organisations; understanding the needs of their local community; use of social media and digital tools for community engagement; other engagement through relevant events, or marketing.

The judges noted that Suffolk Family Information Service and local authority stands out for its community engagement, acting as a lifeline for local families. Their accessible, online hub connects local people with over 7,000 local services, giving access to childcare, health, financial and wellbeing support, and community activities – breaking down barriers to inclusion

Receiving the award, Anita Abram of Suffolk Family Information Service said “Firstly, a big thank you to colleagues in our Family Information Service and our public health and community teams. This has been a collaboration over 20 years, pulling together to make a difference for families in Suffolk. We are very pleased to receive this award. Thank you”.

The NAFIS Awards judges were Charlotte Faircloth, who is a trustee of Coram Family and Childcare, Martha Njele, Parent Champion volunteer in Lewisham, Diane Price, Parent Champion volunteer in Blackburn with Darwin, and Flora Jenkins who is Senior Programme Officer for Coram Family and Childcare.

Why should you nominate your Family Information Service for an Award?

NAFIS Awards give Family Information Services the opportunity to spread the word about their hard work. They provide a national platform to both share and celebrate achievements. The NAFIS Awards are judged by Parent Champion volunteers and a Coram Family and Childcare Trustee.

Previous award winners say that winning a NAFIS Award has led to greater recognition of their Family Information Service at local and national level. NAFIS Awards are valued and recognised by the wider community.

Each winner receives an Award certificate for display. Coram Family and Childcare offer support to help Award winners promote their achievement.