Dr Valerie Daniel is a qualified Teacher with over 40 years’ experience with the last 15 years as a Maintained Nursery School head teacher and over the last two years as an Executive headteacher over two nursery schools. Her other roles include being a trustee for the Birmingham Nursery Schools Collaboration Trust (BNSCT), Author of ‘Anti-Racist Practice in the Early Years’ and also public speaking. She is one of fifteen Birmingham Association of Maintained Nursery Schools (BAMNS) head teachers who work within a contractual collaboration. Valerie has a deep interest in the dynamics of the current Early Years Sector and received her Doctorate in Education from the University of Birmingham on her thesis titled ‘The Perceptions of a Leadership Crisis in the Early Years Sector (EYS)’. She is also a trained Systems Leader and Leadership Mentor for other head teachers and leaders in the Early Years Sector.