Released On 02 July 2016
The latest from Cityparents HQ
Cityparents HQ has been a hive of activity this past quarter, as we’ve been welcoming more new members, celebrating achievements and working on new initiatives.
Conference tickets now on sale
We were delighted with the positive response to our announcement in our previous newsletter about our first Cityparents Accelerator Day to be held in the autumn. This one day conference will take place on 14 October and offer all our members (whether parents or not) the chance to explore in more depth different aspects of balancing a career with a personal/family life. We’re pleased to announce that bookings are now open for this conference. Tickets cost £200 per head and you can book your place here. A limited number of discounted tickets priced at £150 per head are available for members holding a Gold Pass and members whose employer holds a Corporate Access Pass (click here to check the list of CAP holders). Please note these discounted tickets are offered on a first come, first serve basis, so do book quickly to take advantage of this special offer. For further details about the conference including an overview of the agenda, please click here.
Other event news
We’ve held a number of new Seminars in the last quarter, including ‘Confident Communication’, ‘Feeding your Children Well’, and ‘Bridging the Gap – parenting children aged 10-14’. Our first Seminar with the charity Place2Be on ‘Children’s Mental Health’ received exceptional interest from members and very high praise, so we will be aiming to repeat this event at a later date, and other popular Seminars too. We welcome all feedback after our events and take this into account when planning our busy schedule of seminars and Speaker Series lunches, so please do let us know your views.
Our last event before the summer holidays takes place on 13th July, then the autumn schedule kicks off on 6th September with, appropriately, our Seminar on ‘Back to School’. We’ve a wide range of Seminars available offering career advice, skill development and parenting guidance, so have a browse here and put the dates in your diaries. New topics include managing your ‘Personal Brand’ with Carol Doughty; ‘Stress-free morning routines’ with Anita Cleare; ‘Parenting for working parents’ by Carol and Nadim Saad; and in response to member requests, a seminar covering Carol Dweck’s work on developing a ‘Growth Mindset’ in children, to be led by Jackie Beere.
Cityparents survey results
Last month we invited all members to share with us their experiences of juggling a City career with a home life via our annual member survey. A big thank you to all 1,099 of you who participated – we’re grateful you took the time to do this. The results provide a fascinating perspective on working life in the City and how well employers are supporting their different employee groups. Read more here, and we’ll share more detailed findings over the coming months.
Winning workplaces
Last month our charity partner Working Families announced the winners of its ‘Special Awards’, aimed at recognising employers who support the work-life balance of all their employees. The awards honour companies that show excellence in seven categories, including workplace initiatives for parents and schemes such as flexible working. Cityparents was proud sponsor of the ‘Best for all stages of motherhood’ award, and we were delighted to present this jointly to Deloitte and Sacker & Partners. The keynote speech at the awards ceremony was given by Mena McMahon, a member of the Cityparents Network Committee and Co-Chair of the RBS Families & Carers Network. You can read Mena’s speech here.
Working with employers
Many of you will be aware of our Cityparents Policy Works forum, where HR and Diversity & Inclusion experts meet quarterly to share best practice in family-friendly workplace policies across the City. Participants are nominated by the 79 City firms who hold Cityparents’ Corporate Access Passes. The forum has been running successfully for over 18 months now, covering topics such as Flexible and Remote Working, Shared Parental Leave, Wellbeing, Time Off and Gender Diversity. We’re currently working on plans to expand this offering for employers towards the end of this year, and will be sharing these with our corporate members over the next few months and inviting their feedback.
Major milestones
In May, we were delighted to welcome our 9,000th member and with more signing up each day, we’re on track to reach 10,000 members by the autumn. We’re thrilled to be connecting with so many ‘City’ parents and professionals through our networks and appreciate all the positive feedback and suggestions we receive from many of you. In the autumn we’ll be celebrating our 4th anniversary as Cityparents, and look forward to celebrating the occasion with many of you at a special event.
In the meantime…
Did you know Cityparents now has a Facebook page in addition to our existing Twitter and Linked In group? We post news and links to relevant articles daily through our social media channels so, whether you’re looking for inspiration or to keep on top of the latest developments, join us online. And you can always get in touch by email.