Making parents and carers partners in their children’s education
Parent Power, an initiative by FEA member The Brilliant Club, features in our 2026 Report Card as a case study in schools as part of connected communities, one of our priorities for Government.
In this Bulletin, Policy and Public Affairs Lead Sophie Ireland shares what the programme has learned about building trusting relationships with parents and carers, and how they are leading change in their own communities.
Parents and carers play a vital role in their children's education and futures. Yet the parents and carers who could gain the most from being involved in their child's education are often the ones schools and services have found it hardest to build relationships with. At The Brilliant Club, where I lead on policy and public affairs, that is the gap our Parent Power programme sets out to close: building real, lasting relationships with parents and carers, and supporting them to shape the opportunities available to their children.
We know from research that most parents want to be involved in their child's education but often do not feel equipped to provide that support. We also know that parents' own experiences and expectations of education can strongly influence their children's outcomes. Since launching Parent Power in 2021, we have built sixteen local parent power chapters across the UK and engaged over a thousand parents.
Parent Power works in two main ways. First, we give parents the information, advice and guidance they need to become partners in their children's education, often delivered in partnership with local universities. Second, and what makes the programme distinctive, we train parents in relational community organising: an approach that puts relationships, trust and personal connections at the centre, and equips parents to lead campaigns on the educational barriers that matter most in their own community.
Parents from the Fenland chapter with their campaign letter
In our Fenland chapter, parents identified transport as the fundamental issue limiting opportunity in their region. With the support of Parent Power, they successfully campaigned to build a cycle lane giving young people access to their local train station, opening up a new world of extracurricular and work experience opportunities. The Highways & Transport committee at the council have since allocated £2 million for a Guyhirn to March cycle route - to be delivered by March 2028.
Other chapters are campaigning on issues from work experience to access to mental health support and, in one case, the provision of A-levels locally. Parents drive the direction of every campaign themselves.
Partnerships sit at the heart of this work, whether with schools, universities, multi-academy trusts or local authorities, all of whom act as anchor institutions for our chapters. Evaluation by King's College London found that Parent Power increases parental knowledge of the higher education system and parental confidence in supporting post-16 decisions, alongside breaking down barriers between local communities and institutions.
We believe this shows exactly why we need to invest in creating the conditions for place-based collaboration, as the Report Card sets out. I hope the relational principles behind Parent Power are adopted more widely in approaches to parental engagement, whether through government measures or school-based policy.
Sophie Ireland
Policy and Public Affairs Lead
The Brilliant Club