
Talking Early Years with June O'Sullivan
An inspiring, outspoken speaker, author, podcaster and regular media commentator, June O'Sullivan OBE is Chief Executive of the London Early Years Foundation (LEYF), one of London’s largest and most successful charitable social enterprises, operating 40+ award-winning nurseries in some of London’s most disadvantaged areas. Her monthly ‘real talk’ and no-holds-barred podcasts dive into the questions, topics and debates on all things Early Years, Parenting and Social Business – plus much, much more.
Talking Early Years with June O'Sullivan
Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Eunice Lumsden
There is a lot of concern about recently qualified staff who appear to find adjusting to the workplace a challenge and seem to have emerged with degrees which are low quality. As an employer of nearly 1000 staff, that is an issue, because my job isn’t simply to recruit staff but to succession plan ( and I don’t mean that in a Brian Cox sort of way!).
Therefore, these concerns which I am hearing about from many quarters are of concern. But are these facts or rumours and setting out self -fulfilling prophesies? Is it just university ranking snobbery?
So, I asked Professor Eunice Lumsden, from the University of Northampton who heads up the Childhood Youth and Families Department and is responsible for a whole suite of degrees from undergraduate to postgraduate, that cover a raft of subjects including early childhood studies, education, social work to working with children.
Listen to find out what this means for us as employers and university and college teachers!