I have raised the profile of work with parents in England and in Europe and helped convince the UK government of the need to provide more good quality support for parents. I initiated the development of National Occupational Standards for Work with Parents.
Though I have lived in London for over 40 years I still feel a strong connection with Ireland where I was born and brought up. I left when I was 24.
As well as being very beautiful, Ireland fosters a maverick independence of thought in its people and encourages a willingness to have fun and join in.
That hitting children be illegal throughout the world and we comply with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
I was Chief Executive of Parenting UK, the national umbrella body for people who work with parents, from January 1999 to December 2007. I led the development of the National Occupational Standards for Work with Parents which were approved for the UK in April 2005. (These are standards for practitioners, not for parents!)
I was a founder of the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners, a government funded organisation launched in 2008 “to transform the quality and size of the parenting workforce.”
Before joining ParentingUK, I worked in adult education as a local service director and earlier as a tutor.
I created and directed the EU transnational network project, Parenting in Europe in the 21st Century, linking organisations working with parents in eight countries across Europe. I am a member of the Conseil of the Federation Internationale pour l’Education des Parents. I have taken part in numerous TV and radio broadcasts, most recently a programme on absent fathers to be broadcast in September on BBC3.
In 2000, I was awarded the MBE by the Queen for services to parenting education and family learning and in 2008 the OBE for services to children and families.
I frequently speak at conferences throughout the UK, Europe and the US and in November 2008 was funded by the Australian government to speak at a conference in Melbourne on the topic of Reaching Vulnerable Families.
I has five children and three grandchildren.
