LEAP is one of five local partnerships which make up A Better Start, a national ten-year (2015-2025) test and learn programme funded by the National Lottery Community Fund that aims to improve the life chances of babies, very young children, and families.
Our mission is to:
LEAP has delivered services in parts of Lambeth (‘the LEAP area’) where young children experience greater inequalities than children in the rest of the borough. We have worked to improve children’s life chances through investing in early years provision and connecting local services together under one partnership.
The earliest years of a child’s life are an especially vital time, when brains develop rapidly and foundations are laid for the future. To learn about which types of early years services work best, LEAP has worked exclusively with pregnant people and children aged 0-3 years and their families.
Where we work was selected based on local need, drawing on a range of evidence that illustrated greater inequalities for young children in the LEAP area compared with the rest of Lambeth. Broadly, the area where we work stretches from Stockwell to Myatt’s Field, down through North Brixton to the top of Tulse Hill.
LEAP has funded, continuously improved, and evaluated over 20 services. These fall into two groups:
LEAP is a ‘collective impact initiative’, which means that all our services and activities link together and work towards shared goals around improving children’s outcomes.
We share our learning and evidence with a wide range of early years experts and policymakers. This is so our learnings and findings can be incorporated into their work, to make an impact beyond Lambeth. Some of our learning reports are now available on The Story of LEAP website.
LEAP services have supported families at every step through pregnancy and the early stages of a child’s life.
Given that many different aspects of children’s development are related, we work across three strands encompassing children’s:
Supporting development in all areas is important because they are interrelated and impact on each other (for instance, a child’s poor emotional well-being could impact on their language and communication). Working simultaneously across all three strands has given us a greater chance of making a positive and lasting impact on children and families.
Each of LEAPs services has fitted within one of these three strands. However, they have also contributed to broader goals that cut across the strands.
The conditions in which people are born, grow up and live are not the same for everyone.
We know that some children in Lambeth experience different outcomes because of unequal social conditions - and that this isn’t fair.
LEAP is committed to ensuring that Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) run through every element of the programme. Learn how we are determined to make a difference through our values and accountabilities. Read our EDI report.
LEAP received £38 million from the National Lottery Community Fund as part of the national A Better Start programme. Under the agreement, the National Children’s Bureau became the accountable body for this funding and the host for the LEAP Partnership.
LEAP is governed through a Partnership Board comprised of parents, senior members of the LEAP core team, and representatives from local agencies and organisations.
The Partnership Board is jointly chaired by the Chief Executive of the National Children’s Bureau, Anna Feuchtwang, and Lambeth Council’s Strategic Director of Children’s Services.
Each board meeting starts with a report from the LEAP Director Laura McFarlane and LEAP’s Parent Representatives who represent the community.
Overall, LEAP’s evaluation is focused on understanding our impact and understanding how, why, for whom, and under what circumstances this impact has taken place.
The aims of the evaluation are:
Often at LEAP services and events you may be asked to provide information or complete a survey. This is vital to help us get a better view of the needs of the area and the effects of our work. Some of our learning reports are now available on The Story of LEAP website, others will be published later in 2024.
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