Helen Penn

Helen Penn trained as an infant teacher and worked for several years in schools in London and Kent in the UK. She became Assistant Director of Education in Strathclyde Region in Scotland, where she ran the first integrated care and education service in the UK, subsequently a model for development for the Labour Government. She held a budget of £18 million and was responsible for the administration of 500 nursery schools and other early childhood settings.

She entered academia when she left Strathclyde, and for many years was based in the Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, London University. She obtained a PhD and undertook a range of research projects including work on the integration of care and education services. She undertook work for the EU Childcare Network and drafted the first set of Quality Targets in 1996, which in turn became a benchmark for the OECD. She has been rapporteur for the Starting Strong Reviews in Flanders and Canada, and contributed to the overall reports.

She has published many academic books and articles, and is also a columnist for the practitioner magazine Nursery World.