As we gear up for our annual Family Friendly awards evening later this month, we need your help in deciding who should win the prestigious Mumsnet Family Friendly Innovation Award.
We asked our members to enter their best Family Friendly ideas and innovations and they have come up trumps with the following ideas and innovations that highlight how they are helping to make life easier for families in the UK.
We'd like you to vote for the ideas that you think are the best. Please read on to find out about the this year's entries - and to vote. Everyone who casts a vote will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will get a £100 store voucher (for the store of your choice).
You can vote for up to three companies.
Some of the companies are household names and need no introduction, while others are not quite so widely known. Below is an outline of the policy each company has put forward as being their most innovative family friendly policy. Please click on the link on their name to find out more about their family friendly credentials and submissions, and then having read all the nominations, click on the link at end to cast your votes.
Butlins
Hard-working families formed our purpose of ‘Our True Intent is all for your Delight’. They told us that on a short break in the UK, they look for quality time together and so we have developed activities and quality live entertainment that the whole family can enjoy and make shared memories.
Heathrow
Our Stay & Play areas make air travel more fun for children, and easier on frazzled parents. There are tunnels, slides, soft foam shapes and someone to read stories or play games. It's part of an entire family-friendly approach stretching from family lanes in security to roaming arts and crafts. Look out for them next time you fly.
Barclays
There are 1 million unemployed young people in the UK. LifeSkills created with Barclays brings together students, schools, and businesses to tackle this problem head-on, with work placements and skills training for 11-19 year olds. With your help, LifeSkills aims to get 1 million young people ready for work by 2015.
BT
BT, together with the Transformation Trust, is encouraging school children to help get whole communities on-line. BT Digital Champions programme supports digital savvy school children and encourages them to share their IT skills with friends, family and the wider community. BT believes that a connected society is a better society
Matalan
We believe the most important thing is listening to our customers – so we’ve set up a ‘listening’ web link where our customers can tell us everything from their ideas to their in store frustrations and we’ll take them direct to our Family Friendly Board to be addressed.
National Trust
What were your favourite activities as a child? We bet at least one of them features on our ’50 Things to do before you’re 11 ¾’ list! The list features star gazing, making mud pies, kite flying, walking barefoot, playing conkers and running around in the rain, to name but a few. It’s all part of our campaign to encourage families to get outside and enjoy our great outdoors.
RSA/ MoreTh>n
Moreness - empowering employees to help our customers feel special: “Customer called after having a few problems with the garage. They were left with no car and his partner is 28 weeks pregnant. I sent a little surprise of a hamper for the baby and to show that we care”.
McDonalds
Research from the National Literacy Trust shows that only half of children really enjoy reading and a staggering 1 in 3 children in the UK don’t own a book. With 1,200 restaurants and 8 out of 10 families visiting McDonald’s each year, we identified a real opportunity to leverage our scale and presence in communities across the UK to help millions of mums, dads and children find the fun in reading.
Metro Bank
Metro Bank is making a difference to families, communities and local businesses through its new Metro Bank More service. Metro Bank More is completely free for customers and provides great local deals for all the family. It’s part of its commitment to provide our customers and their families with the best in service and convenience.
TalkTalk
TalkTalkTV launched a year ago to provide great TV to families seeking value for money. Unlike existing services that are costly, offer little flexibility and lots of channels families never watch, TalkTalkTV helps families watch TV their way. Handy features include 7-day catch up, the ability to pause, rewind and record live TV and a free YouView box worth £299, provide family entertainment without breaking the bank.
Starcom MediaVest Group
Back to BusinessShip: our unique opportunity for mums who have worked in the media/communications/advertising industry, who are considering a return to the workplace. A free 8 day programme balancing personal development and commercial skills run and funded by SMG. There will also be the opportunity for post programme work placements.
Pizza Express
This year PizzaExpress teamed up with nutritionists at the Children’s Food Trust to give its Piccolo menu its biggest refresh since it launched in 2006. The focus was on helping kids to get excited about fresh ingredients, to introduce gluten-free choices and to remove some of the unnecessary calories and fat.
Explore Learning
We provide free workshops for parents who would like extra support helping their children with phonics or maths homework from school. Our sessions help to take the mystery out of the National Curriculum and new teaching techniques and allow parents to ask questions in a relaxed environment.
So which of these companies do you feel has offered the most innovative way of promoting family friendliness?
You can choose up to three nominations and don't forget that everyone who takes part gets entered into a prize draw to win a £100 voucher.
<a class="break-all" href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MNFFinnovation13" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">VOTE HERE</a>
Many thanks
MNHQ