Parents and carers are among the most influential people in a young person’s education and career journey, yet engaging them effectively remains a challenge for many schools and colleges.
From a Higher Education perspective, this practical and interactive session explores how meaningful partnerships with families can strengthen career conversations, improve understanding of progression pathways and help young people make informed decisions about their futures. Through real examples, discussion and shared learning, delegates will discover practical approaches that can be adapted within their own settings.
Whether you’re looking to refresh your current approach or develop new ideas, you’ll leave with practical strategies that place parents and carers at the heart of career education.
You’ll take away
- Practical approaches to strengthening parent and carer engagement.
- Ideas and examples that can be adapted within your own setting.
- One action to help build stronger partnerships with families and support better-informed progression decisions.
Meet your Workshop Facilitators
Daniel Dutton
Daniel Dutton is Head of Student Recruitment and Outreach at the University of Cumbria, where he leads the strategic development of student recruitment, educational outreach, and widening participation across the region.
With over 18 years’ experience in higher education, he has worked collaboratively with colleagues and partners to develop regional strategies, strengthen partnerships and deliver initiatives that improve access, aspiration, and progression for learners. His work spans strategy, business development, marketing, stakeholder engagement, and partnership development, bringing together education, industry, local government and the third sector to respond to complex educational challenges.
Alongside his university leadership role, Daniel is the Strategic Lead for Hello Future, Cumbria’s Uni Connect partnership, working alongside schools, colleges, universities, and community organisations to address educational inequalities and improve progression into higher education for young people from underrepresented backgrounds. Through collaborative leadership, he has helped shape innovative, evidence-informed initiatives including the National Saturday Club in Carlisle, the Breaking the Mould programme, and the Cumbrian Boys Impact Hub, creating opportunities that connect education, creativity, careers, and communities while supporting long-term regional impact.
A defining feature of Daniel’s work is building connected educational ecosystems that enable organisations to work collectively towards shared ambitions. He is passionate about creating the conditions for meaningful collaboration, aligning education providers, employers, policymakers and communities around place-based opportunity, social mobility, and workforce development. By combining strategic leadership with evidence-informed practice, Daniel works with partners to turn shared ambition into sustainable action that delivers meaningful change for learners and communities.
Daniel is also a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) researcher exploring educational decision-making among under-resourced young males in Cumbria. His research introduces the concept of the “Illusion of Agency”, offering a new perspective on how place, identity and structural barriers influence educational choices. Through his research, he seeks to bridge evidence and practice, helping inform collaborative approaches to improving educational equity and progression.
Jimmy Pickering
Jimmy Pickering has extensive experience of building educational communities across the UK. Jimmy is Director of Communities at The Brilliant Club, leading the team of 19 who oversee our Parent Power chapters across the UK.
Parent Power is a community organising based model for parent/carer engagement in higher education, utilising relational techniques to sustain engagement, build trust and develop parent leadership.
Jimmy has also:
- Developed listening campaigns and leadership development programmes for young people, including a listening campaign with families in Barrow and alumni from the Welsh Government’s Seren programme.
- Completed a Churchill Fellowship, travelling to US East Coast cities to learn more about how long-term community organising in schools has created educational change and opportunity.
- Delivered external community building training sessions for several organisations, including the Reach Foundation and UK Young Academy.
- Been a trustee for Citizens UK since 2019, contributing to the strategic direction of the main community organising charity in the UK.
- Embarked on a part-time Education and Social Justice PhD at Lancaster University.
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