IWD 2021: Carole Ward - Empowering Women in Innovation

As part of International Women’s Day, we interview Carole Ward on her role at Famiio, her views on women in business and what a more gender-balanced world-view means to her.

Tell us about your role.  

My role is Chief Policy Officer and Founder of Famiio - a Govtech startup company who recently won InnovateUK funding of £50K and extended funding of £25K to provide a post Covid-19 solution - a Childcare Resilience Platform. 

I was extremely fortunate to have worked with a very innovative team within the Department of Education, at a time when they were supporting the Government to formulate Section 12 of the Childcare Act 2004 and introduce the local authority duty to provide Childcare, Advice and Assistance for Parents via a specialist service. 

I have never seen (or yet to see) another piece of Government legislation that is written in such plain English or so focused on the needs of the everyday family - it really is transparent!

My role within our company is to digest and remain abreast of legislation surrounding Family Information, much of which steps outside of Childcare i.e., Equality Act, SEND regulations, Social Care Act etc.  

I then communicate with the design/tech team on the requirements and necessary processes so that we may collectively explore and develop our tech solution to meet the needs of the local authority, service providers and parents / carers.  

This means removing complexities and parental perceived barriers to child services through innovative digital tools that act in the same way, using ‘plain English’ and making them available to many. 

As William Pollard once said, “information is a source of learning, but unless it is organised, processed and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden not a benefit.”

What do you enjoy most about your job?  

Having the opportunity to work with others who also want to make a difference to the important social impact role local authorities play. The team and I hold joint commitments, visions, values and principles around ‘good tech’, best value and empowering parents / carers to have easy access to useful information, which brings tech to life and is motivating. 

As much as I enjoy joining all the dots of legislation & regulation together, it is working with the team to undertake a ‘system thinking’ approach to those findings in order to bring about new innovative technology that is designed to remove the burden and continual strain on the local authority.

This motivates me and I realise this has been engendered through the variety of roles I held within local authorities, the opportunities I was given to work alongside visionaries, and the knowledge I gained coupled with experiences I had. 

And what are the most challenging aspects?

Our focus is social impact and whilst this agenda is coming more to the fore, actual funding is remarkably slow in coming to fruition, despite our business having clear measures of success.  In addition, investment processes are new to both founders and as such require time and effort to understand and apply - distracting our attention away from the very essence of the business. 

Local authorities have received significant reductions to their budgets, one lost up to 60% over the past 7 -10 years, so trying to open the door for them to have a conversation and consider an additional spend at this particular time is extremely difficult. 

Not even the current noise around Childcare, which makes it a high-profile topic as being essential to enabling parents / carers back to work and stimulating the economy – has opened investment to the market.  

It takes resolve to continually read, digest, translate and visualise with the team the required local authority processes, particularly when there is no central Government recognition to the needs, despite a number of relevant research outcomes.  

Currently, each piece of legislation is disparately delivered and often not connected by central government – there is no family information strategy. 

What 3 things do you think you need to progress as a woman in business?

When working with a breadth of professionals and staff, it is vital to have a broader understanding of emotional intelligence and the benefits it brings to your role, personality and to others. It is certainly an aid to collaboration, which in itself brings efficiencies, shared knowledge & skills. 

The ability to quickly learn resilience, to have the capacity to recover from the number of barriers, knock backs and obstacles faced, many of which will be unknown at the beginning of the business. 

To hold a passion and desire for what you do, coupled with belief and determination based on sound knowledge – this helps to overcome the setbacks encountered in a positive manner.  

What are the biggest challenges the future generation of women in business face?

The world of business changes rapidly and nothing appears to be constant, which means future generations will need to be incredibly adaptable. They will need to have the ability to see and understand the constants so they can build upon them, yet have the vision to the scarcity within a market in order to rejoice and develop it. Lastly, have fun, build and make better use of female networks for shared learning, experiences and support. 

What can the next generation bring to business that previous generations may not have?

The next generation have grown up in a technological age, which removes any fear and potentially brings an open mind and desire to be inquisitive. This potentially can result in new assistances and explorations not yet even considered.   

They are, unfortunately, used to working under pressure which makes them naturally adaptable to the needs of multi-tasking and have the confidence to shape their own path by deciding what’s right for them. When given the right opportunities, they understand and enjoy ‘life-long learning’ and how to go about it.  

What does a more gender-balanced world-view mean for you?

It feels sad to me we even need to ask this question.  In an inclusive world it would not be necessary and that should continue to be our aim.  In business our focus should be on the skills and experience the person brings and the value added.  I feel strongly that there should be general recognition to the responsibilities parents / carers have to the development of our young children. They should not be penalized for taking time-out and acknowledging the responsibility seriously.  Increased life expectancy has brought about no right time just the right person for the right job.   

How can we enable more women to take a place at the board-room table?

Women are being encouraged to understand this can be a normal pathway within their career and as more women take up this challenge and share their experiences it brings understanding and normalisation to the situation, which in turn begins to break down perceived barriers.  

Our educators themselves are continuing to understand what that career pathway looks like, and the qualities needed by female and male board members, but there is more to do. Ensuring easy access to information, case studies and those willing to personally share their journey will assist them to do this, it needs to be securely embedded into education.  

How can businesses evolve to be more gender-balanced?

By focusing on the person abilities and qualities to do the job in hand.  Company policy should bring about a culture where gender and diversity are only considered within the terms of ensuring the right environment and support is made available to all personnel. 

What advice would you give to young women and men starting out in business today in context of promoting a more diverse world-view?

In a world in which our young people are constantly advised to strive for themselves and be confident, I would advise them not to forget to be respectful of each other and have humility and an open mind. 

What women inspire you and why?

All women who have overcome adversity, followed their heart or intuition and taken the challenge, overcome the obstacles and been willing to share that experience and articulate their learning.