Jigsaw Performing Arts Schools revealed as a Winner in the National mumandworking awards 2018 as hosted by NatWest

The UK’s flexible working ‘trailblazers’ announced in national awards celebrating family-friendly, agile employment

The winners and highly commended finalists in the prestigious 2018 ‘mumandworking awards’ were recently revealed in an inspiring, high profile ceremony, hosted by NatWest, and Jigsaw Performing Arts was amongst them.

These pioneering awards were launched over 8 years ago to celebrate the UK’s leading lights in the world of flexible working – those amazing and inspiring individuals, businesses, charities and networks demonstrating and showcasing how working practice and family life can go hand in hand with huge potential benefits for all involved.

Never has the importance of flexible working been so documented. ‘Mumpreneurs’ continue to generate billions for the UK economy, supporting in excess of 200,000 jobs and while we have witnessed significant positive changes in government policy towards flexible working in recent years, there’s still a long way to go. Research in 2016 suggested improvements in flexible working opportunities for Mums would enable and empower huge numbers to return to the workplace with the potential to generate a massive £60+ billion boost to the UK economy.

Organisers were delighted therefore at the wealth and standard of the submissions for this year’s awards which were run with media partner Key Women in Business. Hundreds of nominees entered, across 14 exciting categories ranging from ‘Flexible Business of the Year’, to ‘Inspiring Business Parent’ with special categories for bloggers, team members, franchisors and technology and innovation. 2018 saw the highest number of finalists ever plus a record number of votes from throughout the UK.

Jigsaw Performing Arts Schools was revealed as a winner in the best use of technology or innovation within a family-friendly business category, sponsored by babyballet.

Awards were either judged by a panel of leading business women, very familiar with the challenges juggling a family and a career can bring or, decided by public vote! Judges included Susannah Schofield OBE, Ali Golds – recently named as one the Independent’s 20 Extraordinary Women of 2017 and Julie Baker, Head of Financial Inclusion and Enterprise, NatWest to name a few (see https://www.mumandworking.co.uk/awards/judges-and-speakers for more).

Nicola and the team at Jigsaw are absolutely thrilled to have received this recognition and are incredibly excited for the year ahead.

The awards took place alongside the 2nd National mumandworking business Academy as hosted by NatWest and featured a wealth of inspiring speakers to encourage, advise, support and motivate all those business parents in attendance with top tips, strategies and the latest information on a range of topics.

Nick Howe, Enterprise Manager for NatWest Business Banking in London & South East added:

‘At NatWest we are keen to support growing businesses – the lifeblood of the UK economy – by being more than just a provider of financial services and we were delighted therefore to be the official hosts for the 2018 National mumandworking Awards and the National mumandworking Academy. We know the standard of the awards’ entries was extremely high this year and we congratulate all those businesses and individuals involved’.

Suzanne Borrell, Events Director for mumandworking.co.uk concluded:

‘The wealth of nominations, the thousands of votes, our esteemed VIP judging panel and the range of nominees reflects the significant and growing support for the promotion of flexible working. The really exciting news is that so many finalists seem to have used the event as a springboard – they made amazing connections, were inspired to tackle something new or take on a challenge or just dared to dream bigger. So this isn’t just about one day – but what happens next – and we are privileged to be involved. Huge congratulations to all our finalists on their success!

To see details of all the finalists visit www.mumandworking.co.uk/awards