Together, the best in each of us
enriches all of us
There’s two of us, Francine (left) and Lesley (right) and between us we have a wealth of experience in working with families. Our involvement in education and counselling, including time working with children at high risk of exclusion from school, and with additional needs, has enabled us to develop evidence-based, supportive, and therapeutic parenting programmes, accredited with the CANparent quality mark – the only quality mark that covers the work of all providers of universal parenting classes. We work hard to create a safe, judgement free environment to enable family diversity to be acknowledged and validated.
A bit about us
We are compassionate, respectful qualified facilitators and pride ourselves on sharing our knowledge with clarity, sensitivity and energy, mixed with an infectious sense of fun.
Our courses are free to Hertfordshire parents and we provide comprehensive monitoring and evaluation reports, and receive outstanding feedback form every course we deliver.
We are qualified in PTLL’s (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector) level 3 and 4, have Level 4 City and Guilds Working with Parents, and are qualified sleep therapists with the Children’s Sleep Charity.
We personally facilitate all parenting courses and professional training workshops and follow the Family Partnership Model in working with parents.
We each have over 25 years of personal and professional experience in the world of SEND.
The story so far…
2006
2007
2009
2011
2012
2013
2014
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
Francine, Lesley and Jane Petrie had an idea…
Families in Focus became a Community Interest Company.
Courses were researched, developed and delivered to the first parents
Our Working for Parents Level 4 was delivered across Herts
Jane left to pursue a new path
We developed and researched Parenting with Empathy
Dr Amanda Gummer, Founder of the Good Play Guide joined as the third director
Families in Focus was named as Hertfordshire County Council’s preferred provider for courses through TPF
National Lottery Good Causes funding was secured for us to run Parent Network for three years
We secured funding with Children in Need for our newly developed Siblings First programme to run for three years
We gained our Sleep Trainers qualification with The Children’s Sleep Charity
We held a PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance) conference
Our funding from The National Lottery for Parent Network was granted for a further five years
We ran a second PDA conference
We added anxiety and suicide training to our services
Due to the COVID19 pandemic, we moved all of our services online so that we could continue to support parents in a safe environment.
FiF Arms, our weekly SEND social launched via Zoom
Parent Network will expand to include Early Years, Teens and Let’s Put the Kettle on groups each month
As a mother of a son with additional needs I am passionate about bringing parents together and creating a safe space for them, enabling them to help their families flourish.
Francine
As a parent I realised life can be a bit like a rollercoaster – the highs and the lows and never knowing quite what’s around the next corner! By bringing all of our personal parenting experience and our professional knowledge together to develop our courses, our intention is to work in the best way we can to offer parents tools to inspire and encourage all family members to reach their full potential.
Lesley
