Career Progression for Parents

Too often parents feel they have to choose between being a good parent and a fulfilling leadership career. We exist to change this.

Leaders Plus is a social enterprise helping working parents progress in their careers while enjoying family life. We support individuals and employers to ensure those with caring responsibilities have the tools, skills, and support to thrive at work and at home.

Our Fellowships and Programmes

Our award-winning Fellowship Programmes support parents to progress in big careers whilst juggling family life. We offer a range of programmes to suit all stages of career development.

Fellows and participants come from organisations like the BBC, NHS, HSBC, Action Tutoring, RSPCA, Global Witness, Ørsted, and the Salvation Army.

Applications are welcome from all parents and carers of children aged 0–18 who face career challenges due to caring responsibilities.

Our research - Career Progression Gaps: The Next Frontier

Download the report today and join the conversation on #CareerProgressionGaps.

Access the research

Our Impact

Together with our partners and our Fellows, we are building a positive movement for change so that parents can thrive in leadership roles, therefore addressing a root cause of the gender pay gap.

We carefully measure our impact and are proud of the results. Across our programmes, we consistently see positive outcomes in career progression, wellbeing, productivity, work/life balance, confidence, and workload management.

Our most recent impact data shows on average:

  • 67% promoted or taken a significant step towards a more senior role during the programme
  • 97% taken proactive action to progress their career
  • 96% improvement in overall wellbeing
  • 89% improvement with work/life balance

Proud to have been selected by The Observer and Nesta as one of 50 New Radical organisations. Verena Hefti MBE, our Founder, won the WeAreTheCity Rising Stars award and received an MBE in 2021 for services to equality.

Leaders Plus won the NatWest SE100 Impact Management Pioneer Award and the West London Business Awards Health and Wellbeing Business of the Year in 2024.

Past recognition includes the Trailblazing Newcomer award in the NatWest SE100 (2020), celebrating outstanding new social enterprises.

We are accredited by Social Enterprise UK and have been supported by the RSA .

Gender Equality Facts

The number of FTSE 100 companies that are currently led by women executives.
9
Percentage of people who believe women are less committed at work once they have a child.
40%
A man's flexible working request is twice as likely to be rejected compared to a woman's.
2
Between age 30 and 40, the gender paygap increases by 11.3% from 5.7% to 17% (fulltime employment).
17
  

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Nesta New Radicals 2018 Award
We Are The City Rising Star Award 2018
Winners badge for NatWest SE100 social impact pioneer

Member of the Cambridge University Social Ventures Programme.

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