The pillars of sustainability

Tanya Petherick is a former Play England trustee, joint-CEO of BeMore and CEO of Club Central, which supports out-of-school sector professionals. She shares her tips on how to deliver sustainable success when it comes to children’s play

Is exceptional quality provision enough to guarantee ongoing sustainability? I’d love to say yes; make your provision great and everything else will follow. Sadly, experience has shown me it’s just not true. Sustainability is built on four interconnected pillars: quality of provision, great leadership, effective marketing, and strong financial management. Master these, and your provision won’t just survive, it will thrive.

Quality of provision: the heart of sustainable success

At its core, our work is creating incredible play opportunities for children. It’s the foundation on which everything else is built. When children are engaged, supported, and challenged in their play, the benefits ripple outward. Children want to return, they tell friends, parents notice, word spreads, and demand grows.

Are you giving every single child the best possible experience? The outgoing child. The sporty child. The introvert. The neurodivergent child. The child who is never normally noticed. Making your provision truly exceptional is the starting point.

There’s no one-size fits all way to make your provision incredible for children; follow these tips for a solid foundation

Ask the children. Hear their voice; not just what they say, but what they do, what they use and how they interact.

Use the Playwork Principles. This is the framework for great play provision. Don’t know them? Stop reading and search for them now!

Reflect deeply. Reflection is the art of contemplating, reviewing and refining your practice. Reflect regularly and you will see the positive impact of regular, small changes.

Leading with vision: achieving the dream

If quality keeps children coming back, leadership is the glue that makes it happen. Leadership is the art of sharing your vision to motivate and inspire others. When you lead with vision you embed positive values and behaviour and create a place where people want to be.

Without strong leadership, practice can slip, bad habits multiply and attendance drops. Often no one knows why. The gradual decline doesn’t result in complaints. Provision that was once incredible is less good. The compelling reason to return is gone.

Use these tips to inspire and motivate your team to achieve great things:

Clarify your purpose. Why do you do what you do? Why does your setting exist? Capture your purpose in a sentence that inspires.

Share your purpose with everyone. Consistently. A mission is much more than words on a website; it should be lived every single day.

Live your values. Encourage others to do the same. In meetings, ask, “How have you lived our values today or this week?” Use values to inform decision-making.

Marketing: making your value visible

This might sound stark but if no one knows about your incredible service, it might as well not exist. Marketing is the third pillar of sustainability; sharing messages so people choose your provision. Providers can lack confidence, or believe marketing isn’t necessary. Wouldn’t it make our lives easier if great provision spoke for itself?

We know children love a story. So do adults and marketing is storytelling. It’s not creating the best brochure or website. It’s communicating your values, your approach, and the unique experience you offer.

These tips will help your brilliance to shine.

Share your story with pride. Don’t just tell people what you do, tell people why.

Highlight what makes your offer unique. Really unique. “We provide a safe place for children to thrive” isn’t memorable or unique. It could be anyone. Use your story and words that spread your passion.

Communicate with heart. When you communicate with heart, your message sounds more authentic and resonates more deeply.

People

Leadership is the art of sharing your vision to motivate and inspire others

Financial management: the numbers that matter

Numbers matter. Even the most inspiring provision can falter without solid financial management. Decisions need to be made. Fees charged. Wages paid. Resources purchased. Without a strong grasp of finances, it’s impossible to make the right decisions.

Use these tips to better manage your finances:

Review income and expenditure. Analyse last year’s spending. Find one cost to reduce without compromising quality.

Review fees. Fees should be set above break-even. If you don’t break-even you will run out of money.

Make difficult decisions. A small fee increase today could ensure generations of children can access your service. Closed provision is used by no one.

Bringing the pillars together

How do you bring these pillars together? High-quality provision gives you a compelling story; brilliant leadership makes it happen, effective marketing ensures parents know it; and robust financial management keeps the doors open. If you take one thing from this article, remember, sustainability requires attention to all four pillars. Quality, leadership, marketing, and financial management are not separate; they are interdependent, each strengthening the others.

Tanya Petherick is a director of BeMore, a training, mentoring and consultancy firm specialising inspiring childcare providers to implement exceptional delivery and business practices.