MATRI and VCCP Win Best Targeted Mental Wellbeing Campaign at This Can Happen Awards Global 2026

An incredibly proud moment for MATRI Coaching, celebrating a partnership that began with an idea and has gone on to make a real difference to working parents. 

Well, this is rather wonderful news to be sharing! 

On 15 October 2026, MATRI Coaching and our founding client, VCCP, won Best Targeted Mental Wellbeing Campaign at the This Can Happen Awards Global 2026. 

And I have to say, I'm still feeling a little overwhelmed by it all! 

I've been lucky enough to attend quite a few awards ceremonies during my years in advertising, but there's something very different about seeing your own business recognised, particularly alongside the organisation where the whole idea began. 

And judging by the photographs, I don't think we did a particularly good job of hiding our excitement! 

What makes this award so special is that it recognises something I've believed in passionately for years: that supporting people through the transition to parenthood isn't simply a nice thing for employers to do. It can make a genuine difference to people's lives, careers and the organisations they work for.

And, importantly, we have the evidence to show it.

Why MATRI

MATRI grew out of my own experiences of navigating motherhood alongside a senior leadership career at VCCP.

As a working mother, a leader and someone training to become a coach, I became increasingly interested in how organisations support women through what is arguably one of the biggest transitions of their working lives.

Because becoming a mother changes things.

Not necessarily your ambition, your ability or how much you care about your career. But often your confidence, your priorities, your identity and how you see yourself at work.

And yet, so much of the support traditionally available during this period focuses on the practicalities. Maternity policies, leave arrangements, keeping-in-touch days and return dates.

All important, of course. But what about everything else?

What about the woman preparing to tell her manager she's pregnant, wondering how it might affect her career? Or the mother preparing to return to a workplace that has carried on without her? Or the experienced professional who suddenly finds herself questioning her confidence and abilities?

These were the conversations I wanted us to be having.

VCCP gave me the space and support to explore those questions, listen to women's experiences and develop an approach that offered something more meaningful throughout the whole parental transition.

What began as an internal coaching initiative evolved into MATRI Coaching, which became my full-time business in 2024.

The impact: maternity return rates increased from 82.5% to 93%

One of the things I'm particularly proud of about our partnership with VCCP is that we can demonstrate the impact.

Over the period of our collaboration, VCCP's maternity return rate increased from 82.5% to 93%.

That's a significant improvement, and one that matters for so many reasons.

For employers, retaining experienced employees means retaining valuable skills, knowledge and talent, while reducing the considerable costs associated with replacing people.

But behind those percentages are real parents, real careers and years of hard work and ambition.

People who have invested in their careers and deserve to feel that becoming a parent doesn't mean stepping away from everything they've worked towards.

And that's why these results mean so much to me.

We talk a great deal about the importance of supporting working parents, improving workplace wellbeing and retaining female talent. But being able to demonstrate measurable change makes those conversations so much more powerful.

While no single initiative can account for every change in an organisation, the results from our partnership with VCCP show what's possible when employers make parental transition support a genuine priority.

Click here to see the impact of MATRI's work with VCCP

Why parental transition support matters

Something I've always believed is that support for working parents shouldn't be treated as a one-off intervention.

Becoming a parent isn't something that happens neatly between a leaving date and a return date.

There are so many moments in between when people need reassurance, perspective, practical guidance or simply the opportunity to talk things through with someone who understands.

And those needs don't disappear once someone is back at their desk.

This thinking is at the heart of MATRI.

Today, we work with organisations to support mothers, fathers and working parents through pregnancy, parental leave and the return to work.

Our programmes combine one-to-one parental coaching, on-demand learning, live group coaching and community support, alongside training for managers who play such an important role in shaping the experience.

It's about giving people the right support at the right time, helping them navigate the personal and professional challenges of becoming a parent while continuing to feel confident, valued and supported at work.

And while MATRI began with a focus on motherhood, I'm incredibly proud that our work has evolved to support all parents and the people managing them.

What the judges said

One of the loveliest moments of the evening was hearing what the judges had said about our work.

They described the MATRI and VCCP initiative as:

"Excellent and much-needed initiative with a holistic approach and strong evidence on impact."

Another comment particularly resonated with me:

"Excellent and much-needed initiative addressing a significant workplace transition and an area where employees can often feel under-supported."

That second comment really gets to the heart of why MATRI exists.

The transition to parenthood is such a significant experience, both personally and professionally, and yet it's still an area where people can feel surprisingly unsupported.

To have that recognised by an independent panel of judges, alongside the evidence of the impact we've achieved, means an enormous amount.

It's also a lovely reminder of why we started this work in the first place.

A partnership worth celebrating

Winning this award alongside VCCP feels particularly meaningful because of our shared history.

I'm hugely grateful to all of our clients and everyone who has been part of that journey, particularly the women who shared their experiences, challenged our thinking and helped shape the programme into what it has become.

A huge thank you, too, to This Can Happen Global for recognising the work and impact of this partnership.

Looking ahead

For me, this award isn't just about celebrating what we've achieved so far.

It's also about continuing the conversation around what meaningful support for working parents really looks like.

As organisations focus increasingly on gender equality, employee wellbeing and retaining experienced female talent, I believe parental transition support has a really important role to play.

My hope is that the work we've done encourages more employers to look beyond policies alone and think about how they can genuinely support their people through the experience of becoming a parent.

Because when we get this right, the benefits are felt by individuals, families, teams and organisations alike.

And that feels like something worth celebrating.