Social impact
High quality Early Years education and care makes a significant difference to children’s educational success and future attainment.
Transforming early childhood
The first five years profoundly shape a child’s future life outcomes. The Early Years are a critical time for children’s learning and development, and investment has significant savings in later interventions.
Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are being left behind by the Early Years system in the UK. While one in 10 children in the most affluent areas of London can access an Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ nursery, only one in 30 children in the most deprived areas can access provision of a similar standard. That means the children who most need high quality education and care are least likely to access it.
LEYF wants to transform early childhood and tackle the educational inequalities which prevent all children from having an equal opportunity to succeed.
The children who most need high quality education and care are least likely to access it.
Our strategy
To transform early childhood, we have developed a strategy with three key elements:
- Expand to more nurseries: Scale access to high quality, affordable nurseries to support 10,000 children, with growth strategically focused in areas to maximise our social impact
- Innovate and improve: Enhance the social enterprise model by enriching children’s experiences through innovative services and initiatives, and increasing the support for low-income families
- Amplify and advocate: Catalyse systemic change through expansion of learning and development offering, and use LEYF’s model to sustainably influence policy and funding in the long term
Help change a child's life: Yvonne's story
Our strategic ambition is to transform Early Years education and care in the UK, so that all children have an equal opportunity to succeed.
Our strategic ambition is to transform Early Years education and care in the UK, so that all children have an equal opportunity to succeed.
Our sustainable social enterprise
LEYF gives London’s children – especially those most in need – the best start in life by providing access to high quality, affordable Early Years education and care.
We sustainably support these children and families through our social enterprise model, whereby we use surplus generated from a few nurseries in the more affluent areas to cross-subsidise operations in the more deprived areas of London. This means we can afford to operate in areas which would not be financially attractive to for-profit nurseries.
From the surplus-generating nurseries, we are also able to provide ‘funded-only’ places across the rest of our portfolio and offer differentiated fees, so that our pricing is lower, or free, in areas of deprivation.
