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2025 Findings.
Key findings from Family Futures Summit 2025.
A stage for change.
The first Family Futures Summit brought together over 70 parents working across the screen sector in Wales, alongside employers, unions, and industry partners.
Over the course of the day, parents shared their experiences, tested ideas, and identified the priorities that matter most.
The message was clear: the challenge is not a lack of ideas, but the need for visibility, connection, and momentum.
Parents are calling for practical support around childcare, flexible working patterns, and cultural change.
Partners across the industry are already leading promising initiatives but operating in isolation makes it hard to scale, sustain, and gain traction.
The role of the Summit is to strengthen the ecosystem: convening parents and partners, amplifying what works, and creating collective momentum that no one organisation could achieve alone.
"It was an incredible day. Some very powerful stories were shared with lots of lightbulb moments"
Mum of one.
What parents told us they need.
Parents were open and honest about the barriers they face:
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Childcare: Affordable, flexible, reliable options, including onset childcare, year-round support, and summer cover.
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Culture: Tackling presenteeism, taboo, and the attitude of “I did it, so you should too.” Parents want openness from managers, and protocols for raising issues safely.
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Working patterns: Production hours that are incompatible with parenting, with calls for shorter office days, occasional home working, and flexible scheduling.
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Access and opportunity: More decentralised opportunities across Wales, and better use of remote working.
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Finances: A narrative shift away from “working at a loss” when returning to work after children.
"It was refreshing to finally be able to talk about this openly."
Dad of 2.
What's already being tried.
Parents and organisations are not standing still. We heard about:
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The Reset: Creating vital reflective space and peer connection.
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Job shares: Emerging experiments, with real appetite but barriers around income, structure, and resourcing.
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Flexible roles: Carving out office-based roles and testing transferable skills.
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Peer support: Informal networks, openness about “mum guilt,” and relief from shared experience.
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Mentoring: Building confidence and connection.
These initiatives prove what’s possible but they need support to scale and stick.
"It can feel so lonely, and today made it clear that there is so much that we all share."
Father of one.
Where parents see opportunity.
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Community: Informal networking, playgroups, breakfast clubs, and online support.
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Knowledge: A clear, central hub for funding, schemes, and opportunities.
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Employer support: Training for HODs, protocols for managers, and guidance on creating a flexible culture.
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System change: Equal parental leave, inclusion of microbusinesses, and stronger collaboration across the UK.
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Job shares: The most consistently raised solution and they need structure, trust, and training to succeed.
"And the book at the end? That nearly tipped me over the edge!"
Mum of 2.
How we'll take it forward.
Parents have set the agenda. Solutions already exist, in the work of unions, training providers, childcare campaigners, and employers testing new approaches.
The challenge is not invention, but scale, visibility, and momentum.
The Family Futures Summit is one part of the solution. Its role is to strengthen what’s already happening by:
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Convening: Providing an annual space where parents and partners can come together to share learning and set priorities.
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Connecting: Through the Resource Hub and WhatsApp group, keeping people linked, reducing duplication, and supporting collaboration.
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Amplifying: Shining a light on initiatives already being led by others, helping them gain visibility and traction.
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Creating momentum: Supporting partners to carry ideas further and faster by linking them into a bigger collective story.
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Tracking and sharing: Gathering and publishing evidence alongside partners to strengthen the case for wider adoption and investment.
This is about building on what exists, not duplicating it. The Summit is designed to be a platform that helps good work go further, led by the parents and partners who are already making change happen.
"It was an incredible day. Some very powerful stories were shared with lots of lightbulb moments"
Mum of one.
In short.
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Parents shape the priorities.
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Partners lead the solutions.
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The Summit supports the ecosystem, making existing work more visible, connected and powerful.
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Together, we can reimagine a screen sector in Wales where parents are supported, families are valued, and talent is not lost.