London Early Years
LEYF is London's largest childcare charity and social enterprise. LEYF's 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. Established in 1903, LEYF now employ over 200 staff across 19 community nurseries and Children’s Centres in three key London boroughs.
Social / environmental aims
LEYF offer one of the best childcare services available to local parents, built on the solid foundations of a socially inclusive yet sustainable fee structure. LEYF's ultimate ambition is to build a better future for London’s children by helping them find their own way and value in the modern world; fostering relationships that knit together every generation to create fully integrated and so truly connected, supportive communities. LEYF continue to actively facilitate local intergenerational activities that support this goal, that have so far included a range of cross-cultural workshops, a 1940s film remake, a scoping research project and recent seminar to develop future links and explore similar projects. In addition to undertaking and sharing action research, a core part of LEYF's business concentrates on delivering a number of work-based training programmes. This provides both LEYF staff and external students with increasingly important qualifications, which in turn leads to greater career opportunities, earning potential and ability to give something back to their own community and society as a whole.
