The Pre-school Learning Alliance has announced a series of membership changes set to take place in early 2019, including a new name for the charity.
The Alliance has confirmed that it is currently reviewing its membership strategy in response to member feedback and that, as part of this process, it will be changing its name from the Pre-school Learning Alliance to the Early Years Alliance.
Other changes will include investment into new membership systems to provide more tailored support to members of all types, and a review of all existing membership benefits and packages to ensure that providers are getting the support they need.
The Alliance announced the plans in an email to members and supporters on Monday 29 October, and is asking all members and supporters to help feed into the future direction of the charity by responding to a short survey, available at www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/AllianceMembers2018.
Commenting, Alliance chief executive Neil Leitch said:
“We know that these are incredibly challenging times for the early years sector. That’s why we’ve been working hard to find out from our members what more we can do to support them, and provide the advice, guidance and resources they need to deliver quality, sustainable care and education.
“We’re incredibly excited about the planned changes to our membership offers, and the improved support that these will give to providers in the long term, and encourage all members and supporters of the Alliance to take the opportunity to feedback their views on our next steps and long-term future direction.”
Commenting on the plans to change the Alliance’s name, he said:
“The Alliance has long been proud to represent providers from across the early years sector, and the move to becoming the Early Years Alliance simply ensures that our name accurately reflects this.
“We of course remain fully committed to supporting our pre-school members, alongside those from nurseries, childminders and other institutions and individuals such as local authorities and students. These changes to our name and logo will form just one part of the important changes we are making to ensure that the sector has a strong, unwavering united voice at a time of ever-increasing pressure on the sector.”
ENDS
ABOUT THE ALLIANCE
- The Pre-school Learning Alliance is the largest and most representative early years membership organisation in England. A registered educational charity, it also provides high-quality affordable childcare and education to support children and families in areas of deprivation throughout the country.
- The Alliance represents 14,000 member settings and supports them to deliver care and learning to more than 800,000 families every year. We deliver family learning projects, offer information and advice, produce specialist publications, run acclaimed training programmes and campaign to influence early years policy and practice.
- The Alliance website is www.pre-school.org.uk
- The Alliance’s Fair Future Funding campaign currently has around 5,600 practitioner supporters and over 1,100 parent supporters.