Dear University of Cambridge,

I am writing to make an open government request for all the information to which I am entitled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. My request is regarding your widening participation and outreach activities, specifically those related to working with and engaging parents. I am asking for this information to support a research project into parental engagement in higher education.

Please send me a list of any outreach programmes or activities currently delivered by the university or by partners of the university in which the programme directly with parents. Please provide this information as an Excel or CSV file, using one activity/programme per row, with columns for:

1. The name of the activity
2. Which external partner, if any, you worked with to deliver the activity
3. The aims of the activity
4. The key features of the activity e.g. delivery methods, format of sessions, partners
5. The duration of the activity
6. The number of parents reached through the activity in the last 12 months
7. Methods used to recruit parents to the programme
8. Whether particular groups of parents were targeted (e.g. by ethnic group, socio-economic status, level of education)
9. Any evidence of the programme’s success, including how success was defined and measured

I would like the above information to be provided to me in electronic format, as an Excel or CSV file.
If this request is too wide or unclear, I would be grateful if you could contact me ([email address]). I understand that you are required to respond to my request within the 20 working days after you receive this request. I would be grateful if you could confirm by email that you have received this request.

I look forward to receiving your response.
Kind Regards,
Ellie Mulcahy
Senior Research Associate
LKMco

[email address]

Dear James,

Thank you for replying to our FOI. I have sent an email to Dr Kirsty Allen as it seemed she was the best person to contact directly but I also wanted to let you know what that email said and perhaps you can help too. We are interested in activities that work with/include parents (often alongside students or potential students) rather than those that work 'exclusively' with parents, as I imagine that would be rare across all universities. My apologies if this was not clear in the FOI wording. Therefore, the programmes and activities you mentioned briefly in your response sound very relevant and I'm hoping you will be able to said over the requested information relating to those programmes (and any others that include parents).
If you want to chat further about this I'm happy for you to email me at [email address].

Thank you in advance for your help.
Kind Regards,
Ellie Mulcahy

Yours sincerely,

Ellie Mulcahy