Central Office and support roles

Finance

The Finance team is responsible for all financial reporting, planning and analysis, and audit and controls.

The financial reporting function includes the day-to-day record keeping and reporting, including payroll, accounts payable and receivable, and cash management. The team prepare monthly management accounts, which are used to monitor the financial performance of LEYF and provide EMT and the Children’s Services team KPIs to make informed business decisions to support the delivery of LEYF’s strategy.

It is the Finance team’s responsibility to ensure compliance with Companies House and the Charities Commission by the production and submission of annual Statutory Accounts and the Annual Report. It also manages and enforces all financial policies and controls to ensure the safeguarding of charitable funds.

Working together with the other Central Support teams, the Finance team is also responsible for financial planning and analysis. This involves budgeting and forecasting ahead to ensure financial sustainability within our existing settings and also to support growth with analysis of potential acquisitions and opportunities.

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Information and systems

The Information and Systems team is responsible for ensuring that technology enables LEYF to operate as effectively and securely as possible. The team provides Systems Support for existing systems and also for the development and implementation of new digital ways of working, for example service desk portals and the CRM system.

The IT Helpdesk ensures that the hardware and services are always running smoothly for the nurseries and COT. The team troubleshoots any technology issues that staff or customers raise within agreed service levels, they also provide business data and analysis by extracting information from across LEYF systems, developing insightful reporting tools such as the LEYF Steering Wheel of Measurables.

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Operations

The Operations team is responsible for operationally delivering the LEYF strategies in nurseries – ensuring the nurseries deliver their commercial, pedagogical and social impact goals. The Area Management team work alongside central support functions to support nursery teams in driving operational rigour. They oversee our Performance Management process to ensure we identify and develop excellence in our nursery staff; that our staff planning and deployment allows for well-resourced and motivated nurseries; our occupancy delivers income to allow our social and pedagogical goals to receive sufficient resources to change children’s lives; and our children flourish in environments where they are both educated and safeguarded.

The Parent Services team are responsible as the primary contact for new and existing parents, for all services outside of the delivery of childcare, including billing, extra sessions, starters/leavers while ensuring booking patterns maximise occupancy. Alongside these support teams the Facilities function re-invests much of the surplus created by nurseries in maintaining and refurbishing settings to help deliver improved experiences which are both safe and stimulating. The new Sustainability Manager supports LEYF overall in creating a business which delivers a sustainable business through minimising environmental impact, supporting social goals and enhancing economic results, through initiatives such as Green LEYF, Planet Mark and ISO14001.

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People and performance

The People team provides direction, support and services in key four areas:

Recruitment – the team makes sure that we hire the best talents in the Market. The team works with Marketing on attraction, value proposition and employer brand

Compliance and audit – the team ensures that requirements are met from a contractual, legal and regulatory perspective

Human Resources – the team works to enable the best possible employee experience, from administration of the legal/contractual aspects to employee engagement and satisfaction

Pedagogy (learning and development) – the team makes sure that our pedagogy is embedded into practices; it also enables people development and progression, from apprenticeship to degree level.

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Marketing

The Marketing team work very closely with other COT teams to support the nurseries. The team’s day-to-day focus is occupancy and recruitment with a strong emphasis on digital marketing and social media. The team work alongside their colleagues in Parent Services, to deliver data-driven marketing that builds a strong pipeline of new parents wanting to place their child at a LEYF nursery.

We also work closely with the Recruitment team, supporting them with digital marketing and materials for events. The Marketing team are integral to building the Global Academy, including promoting awareness of Green LEYF and the CACHE accredited Sustainability in Early Years course, and our EY Chef Academy and courses for external chefs. Marketing also supports internal communications and work with the nurseries and provide brand materials.

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Strategy and business development

The Strategy and Business Development team is responsible for designing, planning and delivering LEYF’s long-term ambition to scale our social impact and influence positive change across the Early Years sector. This includes anything that will result in either more children (especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds) being able to access high-quality and affordable LEYF nurseries, or initiatives that will enrich the daily experience that each of our children has within our nurseries. For example, this could mean finding a new nursery to bring into the LEYF family and then supporting the team to ensure the transition is harmonious. Or this could be developing a partnership that offers a new service (like a clothing bank) to our LEYF parents and carers.

Last, but not least, this also includes pursuing new business opportunities like the LEYF Global Academy, which would offer all the amazing training and quality support that our L&D team offers to LEYF nurseries to others outside of LEYF. The ultimate aim of the team is that the right support is in place for each and every one our nurseries, to make sure that we are prepared for sustainable growth that leads to better outcomes for our children and more opportunities for our team.

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Learning and development

The Learning and Development team’s role is to support the professional development of our teams by giving them the knowledge and skills to take on leadership roles within our new and existing nurseries. We operate on the 70%– 20%–10% principle of learning: 70% of learning happens through workplace experiences and problem-solving, 20% of learning happens through constructive feedback, observation and self-reflection, and 10% of learning happens through formal learning and development in the classroom and self-study.

Classroom-based training is supplemented by on-site support, with the L&D team working on the floor alongside nursery teachers, coaching, mentoring and role-modelling outstanding practice. This ensures all training has a direct impact on the children and families at LEYF, and helps embed new skills and knowledge within nursery teams.

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