Islington Parent’s Cost of Living Report
Look at our Cost of Living Report - Created by our Parent Voice Group
The Parent Voice group are made up of 12 Islington parents who trained with The Parent House in community research techniques. They put in a huge amount of work to generate the data used in this report and they share the same concerns as the parents they spoke with. It was sad to hear some of the stories that parents told us, but we have been able to respond by running workshops and offering 1 to 1 support sessions around Cost of Living.
Whilst making the research Parent Voice talked to 64 parents in 9 various groups and schools in Islington.
These were the top three issues that arose for parents at all 9 settings
· Parents were experiencing high levels of stress, anxiety and guilt
· Parents wanted advice on how to budget and save money
· Parents wanted to get support with getting employment that could support their families
In response to this during the Autumn term 2023, the PV group used parents’ ideas drawn from this research to prioritise these actions,
Set up free relevant workshops in local venues -
Organised an event to influence Islington services Parents and professionals were invited to hear about the research and the results
Trained TPH workers in the use of Turn2us grant online calculators to teach to other Islington parents at Coffee Mornings. This work has continued
Trained TPH staff and volunteers in the use of Money Helper online calculators
The Parent House continues to provide Cost of Living workshops, Employment support session and one to one support sessions (in using Money Helper and Islington Council calculators) to help parents manage their budgets in this awful Cost of Living Crisis. We hope that politicians across all parties will work to solve the UK’s budget issues so that parents and children do not have to suffer the indignity and struggle that this structural problem has created for families.
Please read our report and think about the ways that you can do to respond to the needs of Islington families during this terrible Cost of Living Crisis. Follow this link to download
The report comes with appendix which include all the comments made my Islington parents, this adds to the texture and depth of the report and we recommend that you look at these too. Follow this link to download appendices
The Parent House Group have a presentation that they can give, if you would like to know more about this work.
The Parent House’s Cost of Living project is funded by Awards for All Lottery funding