TUESDAY: The working week begins amid all the outrage that MPs have been milking their expenses and blaming a faulty system. I decide to build in a review of all our policies into this year's business plan. The expenses policy will be the quickest to do - bus fares and coffee, but not a duck pond in sight.
WEDNESDAY: Off to an early years conference, which provides a chance to take the temperature of the sector.
The "free" places for all three- and four-year-old children continues to be a sore point. The funding for a place in a nursery is not equitable with schools and is causing great consternation, not least because many of us do not think children should go to school aged four - a sentiment shared by most of the world and now also supported by the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee.
I have a small group of staff with me at the conference. It's actually a great opportunity to spend some quality time with them, and it turns out that one of them is celebrating a year with the organisation. Take her out to dinner and remind her this date is serendipity rather than policy.
THURSDAY: Preparing for a mock Ofsted inspection. From 2010, Ofsted will inspect children's centres and we've agreed to be part of a pilot to help them develop the inspection framework. It's a useful position but I can't convince my staff that an inspection is a learning experience. The very term Ofsted instils feelings of anxiety - according to them nothing about Ofsted is mock.
FRIDAY: Work on ways to refine future policy, especially our passion to make children's centres the hub for intergenerational work; young and old learning together and developing relationships that will help achieve community cohesion. As Peter Drucker, that father of modern management, said: we have no choice but to anticipate the future.
- June O'Sullivan is chief executive of Westminster Children's Society
