Hannah Broughton

Hannah Broughton has been nominated by Caspian Jamie of Therapeutic Forest. Caspian says “Hannah is a social entrepreneur who has co-founded and runs two social enterprises in the North West. Her approach to not only keeping them running, but increasing output and turnover during this time, has been remarkable.

Twinkleboost CIC equips new parents with the skills they need to support their child’s communication development, so they can have better outcomes in life, through fun multisensory classes, led by Speech and Language Therapy Assistants for parents and babies aged 0-4 years. Its vision is for early preventative Speech and Language support to be available in every town across the UK.

Therapeutic Forest is a team of therapists and outdoor leaders, using the outdoors to improve the mental health and wellbeing of disadvantaged groups. Based in Lancashire, it has licensees across the UK and the world, despite being less than 3 years old.”

Our 2020 Igniting Inspiration Campaign is proudly sponsored by

Who has she helped/who will she help?

“During the pandemic, Hannah led both organisations to deliver a strong response, creating eight new innovative programmes to meet the changing and increased demand, supporting 2680 individuals from March to September 2020.

Even whilst leading both organisations in the midst of the crisis, Hannah took time to share her experience and learnings to help other third sector organisations so that others could adapt quickly to support their beneficiaries, by sharing her knowledge through a workbook, and a Masterclass at the School for Social Entrepreneurs. She also delivered a series of free webinars to over 180 Early Years Professionals during the closure of early years sectors in lockdown.

More than 60% of Twinkleboosts’s classes are free and delivered to families living in the most deprived 5% of the UK or families of children with SEND. During the pandemic, Twinkleboost ensured continued support for more than 300 families through online classes, including free classes for 137 families living poverty, and a summer programme for children with SEND support for 128 families of children with SEND during the lockdown. Free equipment was sent home to the families to help them participate.”

What’s worked?

“Hannah delivered recovery sessions to new parents across Greater Manchester to help new parents to deal with the Mental Health toll of giving birth and looking after a new baby during a pandemic. Recovery sessions for children with SEND were disproportionately affected by the pandemic through vital support being cancelled, so Twinkleboost offered free sessions for families living in the most 5% deprived parts of the UK and for families of children with SEND.

The Therapeutic Forest supports various groups including Families of children with Complex needs and Young Carers. In addition, a domestic support group has been piloted and further recovery session for adults with mental health difficulties and children and adults with SEND are about to begin.

During the pandemic, Hannah ensured continued support for families and individuals we support, by quickly implementing new programmes, such as Woodcraft for Wellbeing Online programme, accessed by 710 adults during lockdown, and weekly virtual events for families of children with SEND in Rossendale.

Since restrictions have been reduced, we’ve delivered ‘Woodcraft for Wellbeing’ in person for Frontline Workers in Rossendale, using the outdoors, bushcraft and a specialist therapeutic team to support the Mental Health of healthcare workers and other key workers who are at higher risk of developing Mental Health difficulties as a result of the pandemic. These sessions were led by a Specialist team including a Trauma Specialist Clinical Psychologist.”

What have you learned? Any challenges?

“80% of Therapeutic Forests income comes from traded income sources. We deliver our ‘Certificate in Therapeutic Skills for Outdoor Leaders’ course, the only one of its kind, to Outdoor Leaders around the world. We use the profits from this course to deliver free sessions to those who require support in Rossendale, alongside small amounts of grant funding for new pilot projects.

In the first two weeks of lockdown, we cancelled and refunded one course, and cancelled a further two planned courses, which resulted in a £26,400 reduction in turnover from cancelled courses during the first two weeks of lockdown. Within eight weeks, Hannah had got our turnover back on track, through switching to online delivery methods and increasing our membership programme.

The biggest challenges with Twinkleboost CIC, were ensuring continued support, adapting our programme to ensure that families will less access to toys and resources could also take part and managing our potential franchisees.

It was just about to begin social franchising before Covid started, so Hannah very carefully managed her relationship with franchisees, talking honestly about the challenges yet filling them in on achievements and letting them know about new support and services created in response to Covid 19.

As a result, our franchise slots have been oversubscribed, and five new franchisees are beginning in February 2021, despite the crisis. We feel that this is a remarkable achievement and shows how well Twinkleboost has continued to serve the community during this crisis.”

What’s next?

“The Therapeutic Forest is creating a second course ‘Advanced Certificate in Supporting Adult Mental Health’ which delivers extensive training from our team of therapists in supporting Adult Mental Health in the outdoors. Every participant will also be given a manual and training to deliver our ‘Woodcraft for Wellbeing’ programe, spreading our work across the UK.”

What advice, contacts, or resources would help you?

“Twinkleboost is continuing to scale, through the first cohort of franchisees completing their training in February 2021, taking Twinkleboost a step closer to their vision of having early support across the UK. Hannah is also working on a third Social Enterprise ‘Climbing Calm’ the pilot of which was delayed due to lockdown and is due to have her third child in Spring 2021.”

Why we’re sharing these stories

Each year, an individual or organisation from each of our five categories plus one exceptional judges’ choice individual is recognised at our annual Igniting Inspiration celebration event.

We publish each and every nomination to raise awareness of all the positive work that goes on in the North. While, this year, our physical event had to be deferred, our campaign to spread stories of positive social impact continues – good news is needed!