Award winner Charlie fires up her mission to ensure parent carers feel valued in the workplace

A special education needs campaigner has taken a giant leap forward by quitting her teaching job to concentrate full time on supporting families.

Charlie has found immediate success with an award for outstanding thought leadership with parent carers and companies.

Charlie Beswick founded Our Altered Life six years ago and has supported hundreds of parent carers across the UK.

Born out of Charlie’s own struggles as a parent carer, Our Altered Life has a two-pronged approach; to support carers through group activities, talks and mentoring, and to work with companies to ensure they can support them in the workplace to be happy, healthy, and productive employees who contribute to the success of a company. 

Charlie’s work with companies gained major recognition in July when Charlie was named as one of the top 30 HR Most Influential Thinkers of 2024 by HR Magazine.

The magazine publishes two lists each year showcasing 30 HR professionals and 30 HR ‘thinkers’. Charlie appears on the ‘thinkers’ list.

Charlie has been a teacher for 16 years but founded Our Altered Life after going through her own mental wellbeing battles following the birth of her twin sons Oliver and Harry.

Harry has Goldenhar syndrome, and was born missing an eye, eye-socket, nostril, and ear from one side of his face. He was later diagnosed with autism. 

The family are from Biddulph, Staffordshire. 

“I am thrilled to have been recognised by HR magazine,” said Charlie. “I’m not an HR professional but I work with HR professionals to support organisations needing to find a better way of working with employees who are carers.

“The award is especially satisfying as it is created using nominations from HR practitioners, thought leaders and influencers across the public, private and third sectors.  My inclusion on the thought leadership list came as a complete surprise.”

Outlining the extent of the task ahead, Charlie said: “According to the 2021 Census, there are 2.5 million unpaid carers in employment (excluding full-time students) in England and Wales.

“We have a recruitment and retention crisis in the UK, yet Carers UK say 600 people a day leave work to care.

“Therefore, it is easy to see that better strategies at work to ensure carers are both happy and productive to their employers is a real necessity.”

Alongside consultancy work with companies, Charlie runs advice sessions in schools and both online and face to face workshops and mentoring sessions.

Her SEND Gin and Cheese support group, set up in 2022, has proved extremely popular and has grown to a community of over 3,400 people.

SEND stands for Special Educational Needs & Disability. 

Charlie’s personal story offers real hope for all parents feeling overwhelmed.

She said: “I had no idea about Harry’s condition as I was carrying my boys, and I didn’t cope very well right at the beginning.

“Suddenly, I was plunged into a world which had more questions than answers. I got on with life as best I could by painting a smile on my face and ‘pushing through’ but I was imploding. Eventually, post-natal depression caught up with me and I reluctantly sought the help I needed by which time my boys were five years old and my marriage had broken down.

“Having a child with a SEND diagnosis is isolating for parents and affects the whole family. Harry is a twin, and his brother Oliver is so supportive, however, SEND support for siblings is scarce.”

To find out more about Our Altered Life, please go online to www.ouralteredlife.com.

ENDS

For media enquiries contact Nigel Howle. Telephone 0776 2043436, email [email protected].