ABSTRACT
The New Labour Government came to power in 1997, through the initiatives of Early Excellence, Sure Start, Neighbourhood Nurseries and eventually Sure Start Children's Centres, the early years received a long-overdue injection of funding, which was sustained through 2010. The Pen Green Centre for Children and Families and Pen Green Research, Training and Development Base and Leadership Centre in Corby Northamptonshire was in the avant-garde of those educational and training efforts. The National Professional Qualification for Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL) programme was designed to address the complexity and turbulence that the leaders and staff of integrated Children's Centres face and to encourage them to be ever mindful of issues of sustainability. Andragogy is an approach to learning that places the needs, feelings, thoughts and experiences of participants at the heart of any educational programme. Finally, this chapter also provides an overview of this book.
