National Day Nurseries Association will be celebrating the fantastic work of early years staff and nurseries as well as unveiling its plans for the future at a special parliamentary reception – Celebrating the early years community.
Speaking before the event on Tuesday, March 18, NDNA Chief Executive Purnima Tanuku OBE, said: "NDNA has a big vision for the future of childcare and we wanted to do something special to highlight the extraordinary contribution of early years providers, and their workforce, in delivering high quality care and providing better outcomes for children."
Already the leading voice of the sector, NDNA currently supports thousands of early years workers directly across the UK. Its online training site now has more than 7,000 registered learners and 19,000 early years providers took part in NDNA training in 2012/13.
Leading from this demand, the charity has an ambitious three year strategic plan to reach a wider audience, offering support to all early years practitioners in the UK and beyond.
"We will be creating a global online early years community,” said Ms Tanuku. “The community will give everyone involved in the sector a platform to discuss issues, access training, share best practice and support each other."
Nurseries in Dubai, India and Africa are also accessing NDNA resources which they are using to implement best practice in their settings. This interest from overseas has led to the first stage of NDNA's vision, which will be revealed at the event - the official international website.
"We are very excited about the new international site which is just the start of our highly ambitious journey to provide as much high quality support and training to practitioners across the globe," said Ms Tanuku.
The keynote speaker at NDNA's Parliamentary Reception – celebrating the early years community will be Childcare Minister Elizabeth Truss.
The event has been hosted by Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman, former chairman of the parliamentary Education Committee.
"NDNA has a fantastic track record of providing support to people working in early years care, which is an incredibly important sector. NDNA already supports thousands of childcare workers in many different countries, and I have every hope and expectation that their global vision will become a reality."
Special guest Priti Rao, Managing Director of Pumpkin Patch Nursery, India will provide background to the nursery sector in India, and Hazel Moody, Managing Director of Advantage Day Nursery will talk about improving quality through Maths Champions.