Essential Parent – Our Vision

Essential Parent is proud to have won…

Effective healthcare intervention begins with the sharing of appropriate information and guidance – giving people the information they need, at the right time, to make the best decisions for themselves and their families.

It is essential that this material comes from trusted sources and is consistent. It helps the healthcare professional if it is easy to find, up to date, approved by clinicians and simple to deliver to service users.

This is why we exist – by facilitating the management of content, we can help healthcare professionals work more effectively and efficiently in meeting the needs of women and children.

Meet the Team

Dr Rebecca Chicot and Diana Hill – Founders

Essential Parent was founded by Dr Rebecca Chicot, a Cambridge PhD in Child Development and Parenting, and Diana Hill, an award-winning BBC science documentary film-maker in 2011.

As parents, they saw a real need for evidence-based, expertly presented digital baby care content and decided to use their skills to create it in a market where there was limited quality expert content available.

Rebecca Chicot – LinkedIn Profile

Diana Hill – LinkedIn Profile

Adrian Downing – Chairman

Twenty-five years’ commercial experience gained in healthcare, management consulting and financial services sectors. Expertise in strategy development and operational implementation combined with experience of Executive and Non-Executive Board roles. Adrian has strong relationship skills to help manage complex change with a focus on improving operational delivery. He has a postgraduate degree in healthcare outcomes and systems. Adrian provides mentoring and advisory support on a number of healthcare initiatives including the NHS Innovation Accelerator programme.

Adrian Downing – LinkedIn Profile

Martin Thomas – Head of Marketing

Martin is a marketing consultant and business author. He has worked in all areas of the marketing communications industry and has been involved in planning highly successful campaigns for clients such as Xerox, Sony-Ericson, Roche, LEGO, Colgate-Palmolive, Norwich Union, Coca-Cola, Citibank, Kraft, Absolut, Bacardi and Royal Mail.

Much of his work is focused on helping organisations respond to the opportunities and challenges posed by digital media. He has written three books on this topic, including The Financial Times Guide to Social Media Strategy.

Martin Thomas – LinkedIn Profile

Sarah Gagin – Operations Manager

Sarah has been working with Essential Parent for 8 years and has a great understanding of their Operations. She progressed her career through marketing, sales support, customer service and moved into a management role and then later qualified as a PIIA Internal Auditor. This gives her a great overview of various departments and has lead to a diverse skill range.

Our IT Team

eCare is created by the great team at Intelliapps in Banbury, Oxfordshire, UK.

Sarah Tantin – Data Protection Officer

Sarah is part of the legal team that supports Essential Parent.

Sandy Kwan – Digital Project Manager

With over 12 years of experience, Sandy is a customer-centric product manager with a strong background in both CX, project and product development. Sandy has successfully delivered large-scale tech projects and has led multidisciplinary teams in both fast-growing startups and companies.
Sandy started in telecommunications working for 3 Mobile, Vodafone, and EE. More recently, she has been supporting startups and scale-ups as a product and digital consultant, helping them build digital experiences for websites and mobile apps across various sectors.

Aileen Keigher – Library Content Management

Before joining Bancroft’s School as a School Nurse in September 2018, Aileen worked as a midwife for 23 years at The Whittington Hospital in North London. Aileen was heavily involved with initial focus groups carried out at the Whittington to guide the development of the Essential Parent app – and she now works with the EP team to keep the content regularly updated against all the relevant guidelines.