On 15 April, I was lucky enough to visit 4in10 member Daniel’s Den. I was welcomed to their regular Wednesday morning play group at Chalkhill Community Centre in Wembley Park, Brent.
When I arrived, the session was in full swing, in a lovely bright room, full of mums, dads and their small children playing happily. I met new mums with very small babies being warmly welcomed to their first session alongside mums who told me that they had come to Daniel’s Den with older siblings and couldn’t wait to return with new additions to their families.
The session was led by the indefatigable Hermina, who effortlessly balanced registering new families, mixing playdough, and explaining to me how the group operates—all without missing a beat. She was supported by a dedicated team of volunteers, many of whom had attended the group themselves when their children were younger, and who now offer invaluable peer support to those attending.
Many families at Daniel’s Den have direct experience of child poverty. Some are single-parent families; others are migrants with no recourse to public funds. Some are young mothers, some are living in temporary accommodation, and others have experienced domestic violence. Whatever their circumstances, the atmosphere in the room was one of safety, warmth and mutual support, a place where families could spend relaxed, fun time with their children, fostering learning, play and connection. After a healthy snack for the children and tea and coffee for the adults, the session ended with a singing, watching the children bounce along to “Sleeping Bunnies” was undoubtedly a highlight of my visit.
After the session I had the chance to catch up with Jo Gordon, CEO and founder of Daniel’s Den. She told me about how she set up Daniel’s Den over thirty years ago when she had her own son, and how it has grown from that one initial weekly group to tweleve groups running each week across eleven venues. On top of this Jo also now coordinates a network of Parent and Toddler Groups across London and has recently been working in partnership with Brent Council on the ‘Brent Babies’ project to make sure that the services being offered to families through the new Family Well-being Centres are made accessible to all families in the borough, including those supported by Daniel’s Den.
Services such as those offered by Daniel’s Den and other voluntary and community sector groups are the absolute bedrock of the early years eco-system in our city. I often sit in rooms with policy makers and professionals who grapple with the question of how to how to better engage families in early years provision and family support. The answers I believe, lie firmly in spaces such as those created by Daniel’s Den, where staff, volunteers and fellow parents and carers are able to build trust and relationships that can act as a bridge into other parts of the eco-system, where families may initially be more hesitant to go.
The problem is not everyone in our city has access to these amazing groups – one mum had walked over an hour across the borough to come to the session I attended, as she could not afford the bus fare. And many of the groups that do exist are already beyond stretched. They could offer twice as many places, if they had more funding, and would still have to turn people away. It is not possible to expect the jam to be spread ever thinner and for those who run these organisations to give their time and knowledge to help develop services such as the new Family Hubs, without recognising their invaluable contributions and supporting it with long-term sustainable funding.
The Opportunities Mission which is led by the Greater London Authority and London Councils supported by key partners including the VCSE (which I help to represent on the board) aims to ensure all children in London begin year 1 at primary school ready to learn and thrive – aligning with the Government’s own Opportunity Mission and Best Start in Life Strategy. The Mission represents a chance for us to make the case for groups such as Daniel’s Den and put them at the heart of delivering the mission.
There is a sort of magic taking place at Daniel’s Den, not a flashy, whizzy type of magic but the more everyday kind that is created in communities, when people come together in tough times to support one another without judgement and with love and care. And it is the people, Jo and her team that make it happen – we need to get behind them (and all the others I know doing similar work in local organisations across the 4in10 Network) if we are to truly improve the lives of the 800,000 children living in poverty in London.
Katherine visited Daniel’s Den on 15 April 2026.