“I’ve experienced the education system as a ‘disadvantaged’ student, a teacher, and now a SEND parent. One thing is clear: to truly change outcomes, we need to build systems where parents and carers are heard on their terms. With GEC Homes, we’re bringing together families, leaders, and experts to create a framework and technology that turns listening into meaningful action — driven by empathy, not sympathy.”
Dr Nicole Ponsford, Founding CEO, GEC
GEC Homes is the Global Equality Collective’s research programme focused on parent and carer voice in education.
The National Parent and Carer Voice Survey has now closed.
Thank you to every parent and carer who contributed their experiences, reflections and insights.
This research represents one of the largest independent lived-experience datasets exploring inclusion, belonging and education through the perspectives of parents and carers.
Over the coming months, the GEC Research team will analyse the findings using our Kaleidoscopic Data methodology — ethically surfacing both quantitative trends and lived experience to better understand what families are really experiencing across education.
We are deeply grateful to everyone who trusted us with their voice.
The findings will contribute to the development of the new GEC Parent & Carer Inclusion Index, alongside a national report and practical recommendations for schools, trusts and policy leaders.
Because inclusion is not something done to families.
It must be built with them.”
Let’s build an education system
that listens, understands
and acts with empathy.
Method
The development of the Parent & Carer Voice Index has involved a mixed-methods research process, including:
focus groups with parent carers
collaborative workshops
one-to-one interviews
Image by the wonderfully talented Eliza Fricker of Missing the Mark
The Global Equality Collective (GEC) has spent several years developing Kaleidoscopic Data, an approach designed to surface lived experiences within education systems that are often invisible within traditional metrics.
To date, this work has focused primarily on student and staff voice, helping schools and system leaders better understand patterns relating to belonging, inclusion and wellbeing.
The development ofour Parent & Carer Voice Index represents the next stage of this research, recognising that families hold important insight into how education systems operate around children and young people.
This work is grounded in a principle widely used within participatory research:
Understanding how families experience their relationships with schools is therefore a critical part of understanding the broader ecology of education systems.
Parent and Carer Voice: The Why? Extending the Evidence Base
Research context
Research on parental engagement and involvement has long demonstrated the importance of relationships between families and schools in supporting children’s learning (Epstein, 2011; Desforges & Abouchaar, 2003).
Sociological studies have also shown that families experience education systems differently depending on their social context, with factors such as class, culture and institutional expectations shaping interactions between parents and schools (Crozier & Davies, 2007; Lareau, 2011).
In parallel, research within SEND and disability studies has documented the complex journeys many families navigate when seeking appropriate support for their children (Runswick-Cole & Goodley, 2013).
While these studies provide valuable insight, much of the literature is based on small qualitative samples, while national surveys of parents typically involve 1,000–2,000 respondents and often focus on general satisfaction with schools.
Relatively little research combines:
• large-scale parent voice data
• lived experience insight
• intersectional interpretation
• practitioner knowledge
within a single dataset.
A Kaleidoscopic Data approach
The Parent & Carer Voice Index seeks to extend this evidence base by applying the Kaleidoscopic Data framework, developed through the doctoral research of Dr Nicole Ponsford.
This approach combines:
quantitative survey data
qualitative lived-experience insights
practitioner interpretation through the GEC Circle
contextual understanding from school leaders and education experts
By placing parent voice alongside student and staff voice, the project aims to generate a more complete understanding of how belonging, trust and engagement are shaped within education systems.
Who has been involved?
Parents and Carers
Sharing their lived experiences to inform the project.
School and Trust Leaders
Helping to shape a framework that works in real-world contexts.
The GEC Circle of Inclusion Experts
Providing expert guidance on inclusion and engagement practices.
In Partnership with SquarePeg
SquarePeg is our main partner in this research project due to their depth of experience, wide community and shared vision.
Also involved are:
Why Now?
Why this work matters now
Current national conversations about education frequently focus on indicators such as attendance, behaviour and attainment.
While these measures are important, they often capture the outcomes of disengagement rather than the conditions that produce it.
Understanding how families experience their relationships with schools is therefore an important part of moving the conversation upstream, toward the conditions that enable children and young people to thrive.
This survey was created to help surface those experiences ethically, thoughtfully and at scale. By listening directly to parents and carers, the research aims to better understand the realities that families navigate every day — including belonging, communication, trust, support and inclusion.
These insights form part of the GEC’s wider commitment to using Kaleidoscopic Data to humanise educational data, ensuring that lived experience sits alongside traditional metrics to support more intentional, relational and inclusive educational practice.
