Research clearly shows that high quality care and education makes a huge difference to the long term success of all children, especially those from more vulnerable backgrounds or in poverty. By investing in a child's learning from the start, we not only reap great benefits as a society but also enable children and their families to contribute directly back into their own communities.

As London's largest childcare charity and social enterprise, this fundamental belief drives everything we do, giving us a real responsibility to create genuine community nurseries with the ambition needed to help children and parents together lead the next generation.

Established in 1903 and with over 230 staff across 19 nurseries and Children’s Centres in three key London boroughs, our core purpose is to build a better future for London's children, families and local communities through a commitment to excellence in Early Years education, training and research.

Through our Accredited NVQ Assessment Centre, we have supported the professional development of more than 250 students since 1997, including many local parents. Additionally, we are now poised to help 60 otherwise hard to reach apprentices each year access and successfully complete award levels 2 and 3 in childcare and education.

Thanks to our socially inclusive fee structure and approach, each year we are able to help more than 1100 children make a great start in life, developing a passion for learning, regardless of their parents’ own socio-economic, cultural or educational background.

As a social enterprise, we make a difference by focusing on quality and innovation – not only in our holistic and research-based approach to childcare, but also in the range of additional community and sector-based projects we support. For example, we are currently developing the National Standards for Early Years Chefs - a specific and professional level 3 vocational qualification designed to bridge a gap in healthy eating for under 5s – whilst at the same time promoting the development of intergenerational projects in South Westminster.

One of our parents, Rebecca, is typical of many working parents living in both Central and Greater London. As much as she loved being a mum to her five month old daughter Zyra, she really needed to return to work after time off to have her child. After looking into various options on offer, she put her name down at one of our local community nurseries. She soon discovered that Zyra would also reap rewards, sometimes even money can’t measure.

“Zyra got a place right on time and the staff were brilliant; they really made my daughter feel at home. At first I was paying full price, but then I was given one of LEYF’s Assisted Nursery Places which really helped, as nurseries can be quite expensive,” said Rebecca.

“Even then, when it later became hard for me to pay for Zyra’s place, the nursery manager was fantastic – she applied for a grant from LEYF’s Charlotte Grobien Fund on my behalf to pay off the arrears. I was then able to pay back the nursery in an affordable way.

“This year, Zyra’s gone to ‘big school’, happy and full of confidence after her time at the nursery.”

For more information on how you can help us help more children and their parents like Zyra and Rebecca, please click onto our website or email Elaine using the links above.