A fairer start: who are we innovating for?
www.nesta.org.uk/project-updates/a-fairer-start-who-are-we-innovating-for/
www.nesta.org.uk/project-updates/a-fairer-start-who-are-we-innovating-for/
Emerging learnings on the goals and needs of parents and caregivers of under fives in the UK
Parents across the UK face a variety of challenges, often shaped by high poverty rates and limited routes to improving their life situations. To capture this complexity in an easy-to-use way and ensure evidence-based interventions and services appropriately respond to the needs, behaviours and context of diverse families we are exploring using dynamic personas. These are based on primary research with diverse families from across the UK, and we plan to keep them up to date with new learning and reinforce them with secondary research and quantitative data in the future. While they are informed by the lived experience of specific people, the personas focus on the common underlying goals and needs we’re beginning to identify for caregivers.
Over the course of our projects, we've gained deep insights into the lives of parents experiencing challenging and complex life situations. We're confident in sharing these learnings and explaining how some of our ongoing projects aim to meet their needs. It's crucial to understand that not every project we undertake will address the needs of all parents and caregivers. Equally, some types of support/products/services might respond to multiple goals, or focus more on a particular type of life situation. This might seem counterintuitive, especially when considering scalability. However, by being precise about the needs to meet and ensuring we meet those needs exceptionally well, we can create a more impactful and widely adopted solution. Trying to address everyone's needs often results in a solution that doesn't fully work for anyone.
We explore three distinct personas and the key goals they represent, which we've identified as valuable through our direct interactions with parents, caregivers and frontline practitioners. Each persona reflects a different level of life complexity, and the goals associated with them range from low to high levels of challenge and need. By focusing on these goals within the context of each persona’s unique circumstances, we aim to develop solutions that make a meaningful difference in the lives of the families we serve.
To illustrate how these insights are applied in practice, we have included case studies that show how different interventions and projects are being designed to align with the identified goals.
Give it a go – if you’re a caregiver consider which goals most resonate with you and the life situations that fit eg, do you wish you could ‘keep your cup full’ more often? It’s also worth remembering that your life situation can change – sometimes rather extremely and unexpectedly eg,. being made redundant might mean you can no longer afford to ‘keep your cup full’ like you used to. Policies, services and interventions need to be designed to account for this reality, and we’re excited about the contribution our dynamic personas can play in this. The personas below have been designed in a slightly different way than usual, centred around goals and exploring life circumstances that range from lower to higher complexity.
Goal: As a parent or caregiver, my goal is to create stronger bonds with my child by being emotionally present and actively engaged in our time together. By focusing on high-quality interactions that foster trust, security and a deep connection, I can nurture healthy mental and physical development for my child.
“He dictates the play, obviously he's not on his feet yet so it's soft play and run around games… his reaction is always great.”
Mum, 28 years old
Infographic contrasting parent-child bonding behaviours
Strong bonds with parents and caregivers during the early years are essential for a child's emotional, social and cognitive development. To support this, Nesta has teamed up with Early Ideas Limited to create TANDEM who created a mobile app that uses generative artificial intelligence to promote book sharing among disadvantaged families with children aged 3–5 in the UK. Nesta has supported this project by conducting user testing and gathering insights from customers and beneficiaries to ensure TANDEM effectively meets its intended audience's needs.
TANDEM is designed to make book sharing interactive and engaging by encouraging parents to point at pictures, ask questions and follow their child's lead. This approach helps parents build strong connections with their children without the pressure of perfect reading. The app creates personalised stories tailored to each child's interests and developmental level, making the experience even more enjoyable and relevant.
The collaboration with TANDEM aims to explore how well the app meets the needs of priority families and identify any necessary adaptations. By focusing on the specific challenges and circumstances faced by these families, we seek to understand how to best support adoption and sustained engagement.
This thoughtful design approach aims to foster a habit of regular nurturing and stimulating interactions while supporting improved literacy skills and enhanced parent-child relationships.
Our collaboration helped us determine how effectively these goals are being met and what further adjustments might be needed for the product to develop.
Goal: As a parent or caregiver, I need to ensure my own well-being is nurtured and replenished so that I have the ability to share joyful and loving moments with my little one. Taking care of myself helps me be present, patient and fully engaged in our interactions.
“I was working 24 hours over two days, every weekend and then having my kids all week, and that's why my house got as bad as it did, because I had no energy.”
Single mum, 25 years old
Infographic comparing self-care behaviours among parents
Prioritising self-care is not a luxury but a necessity. It can allow parents to be more present, patient and engaged with their children. Taking time for self-care is crucial because it helps parents maintain their mental and emotional health, enabling them to provide better care for their children. Self-care practices like regular exercise, adequate sleep, healthy eating and mindfulness help parents recharge and manage stress effectively.
Setting boundaries and making time for oneself is not selfish but necessary for maintaining balance and energy. By keeping their own cups full, parents can create a positive environment that benefits both them and their children, fostering stronger bonds and healthier family dynamics.
Nesta and Art Fund are embarking on a two-year research and development journey with eight museums, working together as a cohort. This initiative aligns with the importance of self-care for parents by bringing together evidence of effective parenting support and child development, along with the unique creative power and expertise of museums — collections, spaces and expert practitioners.
The programme aims to:
Goal: As a parent or caregiver, I need to establish and maintain a caregiving routine and prioritise getting themselves and their children out of the house together. Having a structured schedule helps me stay organised, reduces stress and ensures I can provide engaging and enriching experiences for my child. Planning our days and incorporating regular outings can create a balanced environment supporting my well-being and my child's development.
“[A bad day is when] we've got a whole day and I have no plans. So like, the house gets a complete mess. And then when I make them food and they don't want it, and then I make them more food and they still don't like it. So then I make them something else. And then it's stressful. And everything's a mess. And they fight and they’re tired and just screaming. Yeah…that's a bad day. And when we don't go out, we don't go out at all. That's a really bad day.”
Single mum, 24 years old
Infographic comparing parental routine-building behaviours
Parents who are living challenging lives due to poverty and/or intergenerational trauma and disadvantage can find it challenging to embed regular, high-quality, playful interactions with their children into their daily routines – such as those offered by the NSPCC’s Look Say Sing Play (LSSP) initiative. As mentioned earlier in this blog, for those who have little in the tank and doing the best they can in challenging circumstances means meaningful high-quality shared experiences can be more scarce.
Our work with the City of York Council explored how to integrate LSSP tips into daily life and identified that getting out of the house was a key concern for parents. In response, we co-developed a prototype called Our Weekly Adventures. This digital tool was co-designed with parents as an experimental concept to help them set the intention and plan to get out of the house while embedding LSSP tips for parent and child interactions. Although still in the prototype stage, the tool allows parents to view free or low-cost local activities, upload photos and journal their adventures, and track their weekly or monthly ‘streaks’ of getting out.
We are committed to evolving, reinforcing, validating and expanding our dynamic personas as we move forward. This involves making these personas richer and more insightful by layering quantitative data and further verification and refinement through on-the-ground research and delivery. By continuously updating and enhancing these personas, we can ensure they accurately reflect our priority families' diverse needs and behaviours.
Internally and externally, our team and partners can use these dynamic personas in various aspects of their work. For example, they can assess the effectiveness of new or existing evidence-based interventions, ensuring they are tailored to the goals and needs of people they serve. Combining these personas with techniques like empathy mapping will allow teams to develop and test hypotheses, ultimately leading to more widely used and impactful solutions.
We encourage everyone to contribute feedback, share their learning, and collaborate on these personas. Adding personal findings and experiences will enrich the personas further and ensure they remain relevant and comprehensive. You can download a copy of the personas below to use in your work.
