Our leadership team is responsible for setting our strategic direction and the day-to-day running of Gingerbread. They make sure we do the best work possible to support single parent families.
Abigail Wood will be joining Gingerbread from 4 November 2025. She comes to Gingerbread from Age UK London, where she has served as CEO for five years. Her background is in policy and campaigns, with previous roles in public affairs at NCT, Save the Children and Girlguiding.
Vaila oversees Gingerbread’s communications, policy, campaigns and fundraising. Since joining the organisation in 2021, she has helped strengthen the charity’s profile and impact, from delivering a refreshed and rebranded website to driving campaigns that put single parents’ voices at the heart of change.
She began her career as a secondary school science teacher before moving into the charity sector, where she has built over 14 years’ experience across communications, digital and strategy.
As a bereaved single parent, Vaila knows first-hand the the challenges of parenting alone and the importance of single parents being able to get the support and advice they need, when they need it.
Ella joined Gingerbread in August 2019 as a Programme Administrator and has since developed her role to lead on key operational areas. As People, Culture and Governance Manager, she oversees Gingerbread’s HR, Finance, IT, volunteer offer and governance functions, all of which ensures the organisation runs smoothly and strategically.
Ella also serves as Gingerbread’s Company Secretary, supporting strong governance and compliance across the charity.
An Associate Member of the CIPD, Ella brings a people-focused approach to her work, championing inclusive culture, staff wellbeing and organisational development.
Our board of trustees is responsible for making sure that we fulfil our charitable purposes and legal requirements, as well as shaping our long-term strategy. They bring a range of skills and experience from different fields and give their time freely to support single parent families. Many of our current trustees have experience of being a single parent or growing up in a single parent family.
Having gone to my local grammar school in West Yorkshire, I graduated from Cambridge University with a history degree and somehow found my way onto a graduate scheme in financial services. 18 years later, I’m still with Lloyds Banking Group where I am the Organisation and Capabilities Director as part of the HR team. My job is all about how we equip Lloyds colleagues to have the skills and capabilities they need to do their roles and to progress their careers in whatever direction they want to take it.
I always say I used to have hobbies and interests before I had children. When I do have a free moment between work and family, I like nothing better than getting the cookbooks out and having a bash at a recipe that is always beyond my capabilities! I love to travel with my family, as well as making the most of living in central London with the theatres, galleries and concerts on my doorstep as well as sticking my head in a book for a few minutes whenever I can.
I also love nothing more than reading with my girls, Agata (4) and Ylva (8), seeing them open up to the magic of stories and starting what will hopefully be a lifelong love of reading is a real privilege. That sadly hasn’t yet translated into a shared love of homework but we will keep going! Cooking and then eating together whenever we can and talking about their day, their thoughts and their feelings are some of the most special times for me. Both of my girls love performing and creating things and I’m constantly amazed at their creativity and boundless energy.
As my daughters grow up, I want them to appreciate what they have but also be aware that families are not all the same and other children are being brought up in more challenging circumstances than their own.
I am fortunate enough to share life’s challenges with my wife Fiona but, were that not to be the case, I know that being able to draw on the support of a charity like Gingerbread would make a real difference.
I have the greatest of respect and admiration for anyone bringing up children by themselves. Being a parent is hard enough when doing it with someone else, but to do that on your own is a huge undertaking and at times must feel overwhelming. Connecting with other single parents is one of the most beneficial things Gingerbread does.
The stories told by single parent families about the difference Gingerbread has made to their lives are hugely compelling and the impact the charity has had over so many years is truly humbling. I am grateful of the opportunity to play my part in helping Gingerbread to thrive and continue to make a difference now and for many years to come.
My motivation for joining Gingerbread’s board derives from my personal experience of single parenting, both as a child raised by a single parent, and as a single parent myself. I was raised by a single working mum in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her resilience, hard work and sense of humour were key to shaping the person I am today. It is only as parent (and then single parent) that I came to recognise just how resilient, hard-working (and funny) she was, and how hard she had to battle to help her boys.
I loved education and never left. I was the first in my family to go to university and I stayed, doing and BA and a PhD. I then had the chance to study and then work in China and Japan for several years. I’ve worked in universities for most of my career, initially in teaching and research roles, and more recently in senior leadership. I’m a Senior Independent Director of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, and Vice Chair of Independent Higher Education, the UK representative body for independent providers of higher education, professional training and pathways.
I believe there’s no one defining challenge of being a single parent. Every one of us has a unique situation and unique skills. I became a single parent to three children (aged 2, 5 and 8) in 2011, whom I have had the privilege of raising single-handedly for over a decade. They are ‘big’ now, but there is no ‘completion date’ for being a single parent.
As a family we have always enjoyed talking – debating, discussing arguing about everything from politics to football to fashion. I like spending my free time with my feet up in front of the TV or with a book, and I’m a season ticket holder at Fulham FC.
This is my first Trustee role and I am pleased to have taken it with Gingerbread. Growing up there were many single parents within my family and some within my friend group. My partner was also raised in a single parent household. They all did an amazing job raising their children yet I can’t help but think that the support network Gingerbread provides might have been welcome. Now as an adult, some of my friends are single parents and I see the additional pressures they face.
I experienced domestic abuse in my twenties, which can obviously contribute to the creation of single parent households. The biggest challenge of my life was to extract myself from that situation and I can only imagine how much harder it would have been if I had had to take children with me.
I have a BA Hons in History and went on to do a Masters in Human Rights and International Development. It was at university that I discovered my love of campaigning which led me to a career in the charity sector. I started fundraising with the British Red Cross in 2014 and stayed in the third sector, predominantly in international development but most recently in the health sector for Air Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex and now at King’s College Hospital Charity.
When searching for a Trustee role, I wanted to find a cause I cared about which incorporated my passion for human rights and campaigning. I am excited to have the opportunity to play my part at Gingerbread in providing single parents with the support and resources they need.
It is upsetting that stigma still impacts single parents when 1 in 4 families in the UK are single parent households. Single parents face enough with financial worries and isolation, without the additional burden of people’s judgement.
I’m a finance professional in the charity sector and a graduate of Mathematics. I hold an Executive MBA from Cranfield University and am an Associate Chartered Accountant of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. When I started out as an auditor at PwC, I never thought I’d get to use my spreadsheet skills for good, but now I’m in my third amazing role within the sector. After working at Save the Children and the British Red Cross, I now lead Shelter’s finance team in our fight for home.
In my personal life, I’m lucky to have a wonderful wife and a beautiful spaniel named Lizzie. When I’m not trying to DIY my way to a house with impact drivers, we like to spend our free time getting back out into the landscapes we grew up in: cycling, walking, and making sure Lizzie doesn’t roll in anything too disgusting.
Growing up I loved family holidays, going to Bramall Lane with my extended family and watching Formula 1 with my dad. From the age of seven, I lived in a single-parent household. Although my mum had a strong support network and I maintained a great relationship with my dad, I saw how hard it was for her to balance work, raise two energetic boys and enjoy her life.
I can only imagine how much harder it must be for single parents without that support. The biggest challenge they face is shielding their children from the heartbreak of a relationship breakdown, divorce, or bereavement – it’s an impossible task. Anything that can be done to support single parents in managing their wellbeing and that of their children during these tough times is invaluable. Gingerbread has been the voice of single parents for over 100 years, and I am so excited to have the opportunity to be part of their campaign for change and their support for single parents.
My father left my mum when I was a baby. As a single parent my mum benefitted from the support and guidance of Gingerbread, where she met my lovely dad. The charity has always had a very special place in my heart. The chance to bring my professional knowledge and experience of governance and boards to a charity I love so much is just such a privilege.
I think stigma is the biggest challenge faced by single parents. Even in 2025, it is still very real and upsetting. On top of this, single parents face significant financial challenges, which have been exacerbated by COVID.
My first job was with the BBC, and I have worked in corporate communications ever since, including two charities, a PLC and the NHS, all at Director level. I went to university in my 30s and gained a post-graduate qualification in management. I am also a chartered practitioner of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
I am an experienced chair and Non-Executive Director. I was recently Chair of the Taylor Bennett Foundation, and have served on the boards of the largest primary school in Bristol, chaired the remuneration committee for the Senedd, been a trustee of Send a Cow, a NED for the HSE and I am currently Vice Chair of Manx Care.
I am a single mum to my 10-year-old daughter. We love cooking and have recently perfected our Sunday roast. We are Strictly Come Dancing mega fans and she is inheriting my love of the theatre; we have become real fans of The Globe Theatre in London.
I have always been interested in people, places and politics. I graduated with a Geography BA in 1998 before working in fundraising and marketing across a range of charities for 25 years.
I started out at Tommy’s, the pregnancy and baby charity, before moving to The Children’s Society, Crisis and ActionAid UK. I’m currently at The MS Society. I have also been a trustee for the youth homelessness charity, DePaul UK.
As a child, I loved long family meals, holidays, playing and watching football, and now that my children are teenagers, I have a little more free time to spend cooking, swimming, walking, watching TV and listening to podcasts (politics & history mostly). I’m also a perennially disappointed Spurs fan.
Single parents come from all walks of life so their challenges will be varied and personal. Financial insecurity, isolation, and lack of support will impact many in different ways but stigma, society’s expectations, and having to fit into a world that is built and designed for couples is a near universal experience.
JK Rowling has supported Gingerbread since 2000, when she became our first ambassador. She has challenged assumptions about one parent families, offering millions of people new ideas about who single parents are, and how they came to be parenting alone. She has also generated a sense of pride among single parents. This has helped us bring about a real change in public attitudes.
