Are Babies Too Young for Policy-Driven Childcare?
The Margaret Horn Debate is our annual opportunity to stop, think, and ask what, in the name of children’s education and care, are we really doing? I love this event…
LEYF News and CEO Blog
Read the latest news and updates from our CEO and the wider LEYF team.
Why Nature Must Matter for Children and Early Years Education
Take a look around– concrete high-rises dominate our skylines, and even the courtyards of upscale developments are often little more than hard brick and stone. Where, then, are children expected…
Social franchising and the LEYF Experience
For those wonderfully supportive people who follow this blog, you may have noticed a gap in production; this is because I have been staying in the Shropshire…
EYFS: the real values behind our ‘nappy curriculum’
This week we received the official recommendations from the Review of the Early Years Foundation Stage led by Dame Clare Tickell. It’s quite a…
No half measures when it comes to social impact
There is much talk at the moment about the importance of measurement, including a reference to it in many of the speeches I listened to during the…
Big society grants: plus ça change…
I have learned that if I am to truly avoid all contact with the world of work, then I need to go abroad without a phone or internet access. To…
Down on the farm, cultivating an organic approach to Big Society
Alongside the delight of being Chief Executive of LEYF, I am also chair of Paddington Farm Trust. Established as a charity 20 years ago…
Ready to grasp the nettle of our ‘hands-free’ future?
What would Lord Shaftsbury, Mary Carpenter or Dr Barnardo make of the ongoing political battle of what to cut and what to save? …
Children’s Centres: A Way Forward
This has been an interesting week or so for the sector… Firstly, Graham Allen MP (who spoke with such conviction about Early Intervention at our annual…
A Call to Arms: Save Our Children’s Centres
We are already halfway through January, having returned from a long break to the order and pattern that work gives us. We have cheerily greeted everyone with a Happy New…
Sing a song of sixpence
The year is once again fast drawing to a close. Each one seems to go by faster and faster; and this one especially was twelve months at quick march time.
The Social Enterprise Tea Party
This week I overheard a member of staff commenting on my blog. She had just begun to read it and was surprised at just how much it told her about…
Ideas to make your head spin in Bethnal Green
I have had the most interesting week. Despite the weather and incompetent overground trains trying to keep me at home, the 209…
Sense of humour goes a long way
There was a book reviewed in Charity Times recently called The Art of Raising Money by Ian Bruce which caught my eye, as I had…