Baby Talk
While I was at the Labour Party conference last week, I listened to Maya Ellis MP talk about why it was important to establish an APPG for Babies (Pregnancy to…
LEYF News and CEO Blog
Read the latest news and updates from our CEO and the wider LEYF team.
Talking Early Years: In conversation with Peter Moss
The Early Years as a Political Space Early childhood education is not a neutral or technical service—it is a deeply political space and this is the focus of…
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…
Let’s stave off a tsunami of social disaster
Our 4th Annual Margaret Horn Lecture last Thursday evening went off with a bang. We were oversubscribed which raised the thorny question of health and safety and…
Colleagues, be careful what you wish for…
The Daycare Trust Conference yesterday was the site of another announcement by our new Minister Sarah Teather MP. With growing confidence and assurance, she wrapped…
Can we risk early intervention becoming a cliché ?
Global Entrepreneurship Week kicks off on Monday. Who cares you say? Well, we do – particularly since every year we hold our Annual Margaret Horn Lecture on…
Trust and leadership
It’s a shocking thing to discover that a woman once trusted as a reliable and caring nursery officer could be so influenced by her Svengali-like boyfriend, that she would exploit…