Leadership Development Programme
Supporting childcare leaders to develop the confidence, capability and influence to lead high-quality, sustainable provision.
Helping childcare leaders move from firefighting to confident, purposeful leadership.
Who is this programme for?
Owners, managers, deputies and aspiring leaders across childcare provision, including nurseries, pre-schools, school age childcare, breakfast and after-school clubs, and holiday provision.
It is designed both for established leaders and for people stepping into leadership. Participants may work in early years or school age childcare and may be employed managers, owner-managers, deputies or future leaders.
Why we built it
Playwork and early years qualifications prepare people brilliantly for working with children. They do not always prepare them for leading a team or running a setting.
Many childcare leaders have progressed because they are excellent practitioners. Leadership, however, requires a different set of skills: stepping back from day-to-day delivery, making difficult decisions, developing other people and creating the conditions in which high-quality provision can thrive.
We built this programme around what we wish we had had, and what we did to develop leaders within our own childcare organisation.
Why it works
Childcare provision rarely struggles because people do not care. It struggles when expectations are unclear, practice is inconsistent, and leaders have not had the time, space or support to step back and lead.
This is not a series of standalone workshops. The programme is designed to be revisited and embedded over time. Leaders put their learning into practice between sessions, return to reflect on what happened, and work through real challenges with others who understand their world.
The journey through the six workshops develops ownership progressively: ownership of their role, decisions, people and culture, quality, sustainability and future.
In childcare, one person often has to be both the leader and the manager. That is why every workshop pairs leadership and management lenses.
Leadership lens – vision, purpose and role modelling: What are we trying to achieve, and why? with a Management lens – planning, budgeting and organising: How do we make it happen?
Participants identify which side comes more naturally to them and where they need to develop, without losing sight of their existing strengths.
There is no vision without a plan, and no plan without a purpose.
Workshop Content
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Your Role
Knowing yourself, understanding your role, and making the shift from doing to leading.
Participants reflect on the leader they want to be, examine how they currently spend their time and identify what they need to stop, delegate or redesign.
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Your Decisions
Making courageous, values-led decisions and following them through.
Participants explore difficult conversations, accountability, stakeholder needs and the leadership actions they may have been avoiding.
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Your People & Culture
Creating the culture you want and developing the people who will help deliver it.
Participants explore empowerment, accountability, coaching, supervision, delegation and the development of future leaders.
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Your Quality
Moving beyond compliance to create consistent quality and improve outcomes.
Participants consider how leaders build reflective practice, involve the whole team in quality improvement and keep the experiences of individual children at the centre of their decisions.
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Your Sustainablity
Building provision that can adapt, develop and last.
Participants develop their confidence in financial leadership, marketing and occupancy, workforce sustainability, succession planning and balancing the needs of different stakeholders.
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Your Future
Creating a clear vision and continuing to learn, develop and lead beyond the programme.
Participants explore mission, vision and values, strategic planning and practical action planning for the future.
How it works
Six live online workshops. Each workshop lasts 2.5 hours and is led by experienced facilitators. Daytime and evening delivery options make the programme more accessible to leaders working across different types of childcare provision.
The workshops combine leadership development with practical application. Participants leave each session with a clear action to test or put into practice within their setting.
Six Communities of Practice. Each workshop is followed by a Community of Practice where leaders reflect on what they tried, what happened and what they will do next.
Participants bring real leadership challenges from their settings and progressively develop the skills to support and challenge one another. Across the programme, they learn to ask better questions, use the TGROW coaching model, listen more deeply and coach one another in small groups.
The aim is to move leaders from immediately telling people what to do towards helping them think, reflect and take ownership.
By the end of the programme, the skills needed to sustain the network sit within the group itself. Participants leave able to coach, not simply having been coached, so local peer networks can continue after the facilitated programme ends.
Impact You Can Measure
Each leader completes a leadership self-assessment at the beginning, middle and end of the programme. This helps participants reflect on their development and provides Local Authorities with evidence of progress across the programme.
Evaluation is integrated into the learning rather than added at the end. Participants identify practical actions, revisit their commitments and reflect on what changed, what worked and what got in the way.
What Leaders Take Away
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A clearer understanding of their leadership role, with more time spent leading rather than firefighting
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Enhanced confidence to make the right decisions, hold difficult conversations and follow actions through
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Practical tools for building consistent practice and shared accountability across their team
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Coaching and listening skills they can use with their staff immediately
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A stronger understanding of the financial, workforce and operational factors that support sustainable provision
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A peer network of childcare leaders who understand the unique challenges, frustrations and moments of joy in the sector
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Clear evidence of their development across the programme
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A practical plan for continuing their leadership development after the programme ends
Costs
Commission a Cohort
Up to 30 leaders from your area
Dates agreed with you
Your providers build a local peer network
Optional in-person Communities of Practice in your area (price on request)
Save 19% per participant (for a full cohort)
Around £383 per leader for a full cohort of 30
Book places on an open cohort: £475 + VAT per person
Minimum of 5 places per Local Authority
Runs once at least three Local Authorities have booked
Leaders join colleagues from other areas
Places are transferable within your Local Authority
Questions?
Leaders from any childcare setting, booked through their Local Authority. Each Local Authority books a minimum of five places.
Who can join an open cohort?
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Open cohorts run once at least three Local Authorities have booked places. We’ll confirm dates as soon as that point is reached, and you won’t be invoiced before then.
What happens if the open cohort doesn’t fill?
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Places can’t be refunded, but they can be transferred to another leader in the same Local Authority.
What if one of our leaders can no longer attend?
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Can the Communities of Practice be in person?
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Yes, for commissioned cohorts. Talk to us about costs, which depend on location.
When does the next cohort start?
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Get in touch and we’ll share dates for the open cohort, or agree dates for your own.
Yes. Neighbouring Local Authorities can come together to form their own open cohort. Each Local Authority books a minimum of five places at the open cohort rate and is invoiced separately. As with any open cohort, it runs once at least three Local Authorities have booked and you agree the dates with us together. Your leaders build a peer network across the wider area.