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History of Parent Champions

In 2004, 42 per cent of parents said that they did not have enough information about childcare. Parents agree that information resources that are currently available are helpful, but there are still many parents who were not aware that such resources existed and did not know where to find official information about childcare. Accessing information about childcare is made even more difficult for families and communities where English is not their first language.

Consequently, many parents rely heavily on word-of-mouth to find out about childcare. If a parent is not linked with other parents, or if a particular community is less informed about particular benefits and services, further barriers to obtaining information are created.

The Parent Champion role was developed to bridge this gap by reaching parents who are not engaged with local services to offer information and support about childcare and early learning services.

Parent Champions pilot project (2007-8)

From August 2007 to March 2008, Daycare Trust led the delivery of Parent Champion pilot schemes in three London boroughs; Camden, Newham and Tower Hamlets.

The Parent Champion pilot schemes were designed to test whether, with support and armed with full information, parents with good experiences of childcare can act as advocates in their communities and influence the choice of parents they may not have previously known. This project was an opportunity to test a variety of methods of reaching and engaging with parents about the benefits of childcare through the work of Parent Champions. The project also considered the effectiveness of a Parent Champions model in increasing take-up of formal childcare.

Daycare Trust worked in partnership with three organisations to deliver the project locally. These organisations were Community Links, Women Like Us and Working Links.

The most successful trial, in Tower Hamlets, recruited five Parent Champions who worked for five hours a week to producing the results below over a twelve month period. The majority of parents engaged with were from BME groups who were not accessing any services locally.

For more information about the results of the project, download a copy of Parent Champions: Project Highlights.

For a full evaluation of these schemes and other similar parent outreach pilots, download our Report on Parent Champions for Childcare pilot schemes.

Toolkit for local authorities (2009)

Following the success of the pilot schemes, Daycare Trust were commissioned by DCSF to produce a toolkit for local authorities outlining the processes and resources needed to set up a Parent Champion Scheme. The toolkit includes:

• benefits of a Parent Champion scheme, for example, to support the work of local authorities to meet national and local targets;
• recommendations of key stakeholders for a scheme;
• guidance on setting up a scheme including selecting a delivery organisation;
• guidance on recruiting and training Parent Champions; and
• downloadable project resources including, scheme cost planner, template monitoring forms and a Parent Champions handbook.

The toolkit is currently being re-developed as part of the National network of Parent Champions schemes and will be available in February 2012.

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