Magic Breakfast is a charity with a simple but powerful mission: to ensure that no child in the UK starts the day too hungry to learn. With around 100 dedicated staff, they know that looking after the wellbeing and engagement of their people is just as important as the children and schools they serve.

When they decided to set up a new Staff Forum, they had a clear goal to create a space for employee voice that lives up to their values and with the aim of providing an enabled voice.

The Challenge

Magic Breakfast’s Forum had a strong start with an experienced Director and Chair and a motivated group of six representatives, clear Terms of Reference and genuine enthusiasm. What they didn’t have was a way to make sure their good intentions translated into clear roles, practical skills and confident ways of working from day one.

In order to thrive, Magic Breakfast identified that its members needed the tools and confidence to:

• Engage effectively with their teams.
• Gather balanced, representative feedback; not just the loudest voices.
• Maintain healthy boundaries between personal views and the wider staff perspective.
• Communicate well and handle challenging conversations constructively.

They wanted the session to be practical, values-driven and shaped around the real questions and scenarios their team faced.

Why Crisp Professional Development?

We have a wealth of experience helping charities and values-led organisations build effective staff forums. We’ve helped forums turn good intentions into clear roles, confident representatives and constructive, productive conversations.

They also valued our collaborative approach: rather than a generic training session, we co-created a programme that reflected the reality of their organisation and aligned with their vision for a safe, accessible and genuinely representative Forum.

Our Focus and Expertise

We know that for a Staff Forum to succeed, it needs more than goodwill and enthusiasm; it needs clarity, confidence and practical tools that work in the real world. That’s exactly what we brought to Magic Breakfast: a tailored, interactive session designed to strengthen their understanding of their purpose, build trust in their ways of working, and equip every representative with the confidence to handle their role well.

Our experienced facilitator ensured that the session was grounded in the realities of Magic Breakfast’s culture and values. Together, the group explored how to represent colleagues fairly, communicate openly and maintain clear boundaries; all while staying true to the charity’s commitment to giving everyone a voice in a way that’s brave, compassionate, and constructive.

With space to reflect, practise, and plan, the team left the day with a shared sense of direction and practical next steps to keep the Forum inclusive, relevant, trusted, and accessible for everyone at Magic Breakfast.

The Impact

“As a brand-new Staff Forum, this training session was crucial in setting up our ways of working and ensuring we were all clear on our individual and collective roles and responsibilities. We really valued the opportunity to co-create our session with Jo – this enabled us to effectively address key questions, and areas of knowledge where we felt less confident as a group. Everyone that attended would recommend the session to others.” – Claire Foster, Chair

By the end of the session, Magic Breakfast’s Staff Forum left with a clear, shared understanding of their purpose and responsibilities, grounded in what the role of a representative really means day to day. They developed practical skills and greater confidence to listen actively, ask the right questions, give constructive feedback, and handle challenges with empathy and professionalism.

Additionally, they agreed ways of working that reflect and amplify the charity’s core values, ensuring the Forum stays focused, accessible and inclusive for everyone. Importantly, they also took away simple tools to measure their impact and plan for ongoing success as they grow into this vital role for their colleagues.

“It was nice to go back to basics about what the purpose of a Forum is, and what the role of a rep should be. Jo made sure everyone contributed, the day was well-paced, engaging and full of practical ideas we could take forward straight away.” – Magic Breakfast Rep, 2025 Staff Forum Development

What’s Next?

For Magic Breakfast, this session laid a strong foundation for an effective, values-led Staff Forum that gives every employee a meaningful voice.

At Crisp Professional Development, we know that when forums work well, they help organisations build trust, boost engagement and bring people together to shape positive change; no matter their size or sector.

If you’d like to explore how we can help you build or strengthen your own employee forum, get in touch for a complimentary learning consultation.