Oxfordshire Parenting Forum
is Oxfordshire's premier charity promoting quality parenting provision, training, supervision and coordination.
We continue to pride ourselves on being a centre of excellence and we're pleased that you’ve decided to visit us - please browse our site to discover more about us.
We have an impressive history of supporting families and practitioners, and are one of the first organisations to champion 'father's work' (see SOME OF OUR PROJECTS) as well as supporting and valuing the role of 'Grandparents'. ALL carers of children are incredibly important and we strongly believe that this work should continue.
We hold resources and expertise to aid you in your work with parents and supervision is available at very little cost from the most experienced practitioners which we have links with via our QUALITY TASK GROUP.
Whilst we still have a small pot of funds;
Our SMALL GRANTS are currently unavailable due to lack of funding but we are working to find grants all the time.
Remember to take a look at our NEWS page in order to find links to latest events that we've been informed of and if you've any of your own we'd be happy to hear about them.
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Who We Are
Our Patrons
Dr John Coleman is a psychologist recognized for his pioneering work in the field of adolescence. He graduated from McGill University in Montreal, completed a PhD at University College, London, in 1966 and trained as a clinical psychologist at Middlesex Hospital before taking up the post of Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the London Hospital Medical College in 1967. In 1983 he launched the Sussex Youth Trust, which provides accommodation for disturbed teenagers, and in 1989 he founded the Trust for the Study of Adolescence (now Young People in Focus), where he was director until his retirement in 2005. He was Policy Advisor at the Department of Health from 2005-6, and is currently a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Education at Oxford University. He has written widely on the subject of children and adolescence, his most recent publications being Why Won’t My Teenager Talk to Me? (Routledge, 2014), which formed the basis for an OPF seminar in 2014.
Annette Mountford was the Chief Executive of Family Links from 1997-2015. Before that she worked as a Health Visitor for thirteen years, and then combined her experience in health, education and parenthood to introduce the Nurturing Programme (NP) to the UK in 1992. The NP promotes emotional literacy, and emotional and mental health. She has led the Family Links team in adapting the Nurturing Programme (NP) to meet national curriculum standards and in anglicising the NP for parent groups in the community, for schools and prisons, with Muslim parents and for parents of teenagers. She helped create the Parenting Puzzle book for parents. Annette developed a national training programme for practitioners working with parents and children in education, health and the community. She has written an ante-natal NP which is now being rolled out nationally. She received an MBE for her work in 2002.
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Rosie Hill’s first step into the parenting world was as a struggling lone parent with two children at primary school. The parenting class she attended then changed her life and since then she has been committed to disseminating to the wider community the valuable things she learned. For several years she ran classes for parents through Community Education centres in Oxfordshire, then in 2000 she got a job as Parenting Officer for the Youth Offending Team and set up the Oxfordshire Parent-Talk project to support parents of at-risk teenagers. She developed and published the Take 3 parenting programme to meet the needs of this project and she now spends her time training other professionals around the UK to use the Take 3 materials. She also works freelance as a supervisor and trainer, and on a one-to-one basis with parents of teenagers.
Our trustees
Lesley Williams
My career has been in Primary and Middle School education in Bristol, Southgate (London) and four Oxfordshire schools, concluding with headship at Chalgrove. I was then part of the former Oxfordshire Parent Education Development Team, focussing on Family Learning, when I first became involved with OPF. Latterly, I was Extended Schools Manager for the Headington Schools Partnership and still have a very part-time role with them. I have also worked with other Oxford schools on community arts projects - particularly Cowley Road Carnival and the previous Light Night lantern procession.
My interest is in parents' involvement oin their children's learning both at home and in school but must declare that I am not a parent or a trained parenting professional.
I am also a school Governor and involved with several other education focussed charities, inclulding the Hill End Outdoor Learning Centre.
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Kathy Peto
I started my working life as a teacher and a youth and community worker. I’ve been working in the field of parenting education and family support for the last 30 years as a practitioner, trainer, manager and supervisor within both the statutory and voluntary sectors, including 3 years as Oxfordshire’s Parenting Development Manager and 3 as the Parenting Programme lead for Family Links, for whom I now work as a freelance trainer. I was a founding member of the Parenting Forum in 1997 and have been a trustee for most of that time. I believe that vulnerable families deserve support from staff who are well trained and well supported, and my recent focus has been on creating resources and delivering programmes for professional training and development within the parenting sector.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Troup
I have been working with parents and families for the last 30 years, delivering parenting programmes and working one to one with parents/carers. I started my parenting career working for Oxfordshire based charities, Family Nuturing Network, Parentline Plus , Parent Talk and Family Links.
Since then, I have been working freelance in the County. Originally, I was working with the support of the Oxfordshire Parenting Development Team (OPDT) as part of a team training professionals using accredited programmes to run parent groups and working individually with parents in the County.
Now I mainly work one to one with parents ,increasingly alongside Cafcass (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service).
I have been a trustee of OPF since 2012.
Tania McCowliff
Tania has been running parenting programmes since 2004 and has continued to expand her breadth of experience in supporting families. Once a Home School Community Link Worker and subsequently a Senior for North and West Oxfordshire, she has continued to support families both within the community and through schools. Tania has been a trustee of OPF since 2012.
Rachel Hills
I retired from Oxfordshire’s Family Solution Service in 2022 where I was the Lead Practitioner for the Rose Hill Early Help Team.
My role including offering individual support for families and regularly delivering parenting courses including Take 3 and Family Links.
I regularly worked in partnership with Aspire offering Family Links and Talking Teens to parents, mainly fathers with an offending background.
I qualified as a Youth and Community worker in 1990 and worked in both city and rural settings in Oxfordshire in support of young people and their families until the closure of this service. I was also a tutor for 5 years on the Youth and Community Work degree at Ruskin College, Oxford and hold a PGCTHE and a diploma in counselling.
Throughout my career I have been concerned with the effect that social inequality and poverty has on families and their communities and the need to help build community cohesion and family strength. I am committed to supporting care givers in respecting and nurturing their children and young people by drawing on community and family strengths and offering parenting skills and strategies.
Sue Dowe
Sue has worked in Family Support since 2000 as a family learning tutor, home-school link worker in a primary school and Children Centre manager from 2007-2017. Sue is now currently a trustee of Botley Bridges - a local community family Support service. Sue is a firm believer that all families need information and support to help bring up children to be happy and emotionally happy adults who achieve. Sue feels that this support should be offered universally.
Small Grants
At the core of our service is the promotion of quality parenting and as part of this we aim to assist you in covering the cost of parenting groups and in some circumstances, work with individual parents.
Please see the two separate documents further down in this section
Small Grants Application Form for Assistance with One-to-One Parenting Work
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This is currently unavailable
Small Grants Application Form for Assistance with Group Parenting work
This is currently unavailable
NEWS
Oxfordshire 'What's On' in the world of Parenting...
OPF is currently in the process of developing a network for all those charities, organisations and agencies in the voluntary sector who are providing support of various kinds to parents and carers within Oxfordshire.
If you are interested in joining the network please contact us via the form just below and we will get back to you without delay
Read the document we have created through this below -
Contact us via the form below and we'll do our best to answer your queries promptly - thanks for visiting our website!