A former early years locality lead for Manchester City Council, Martina Street has recently been seconded to Manchester Metropolitan University to take up the role of senior research associate. Building on her previous work of co-ordinating services to support ‘better outcomes’ for young children, particularly those living in areas often characterised as disadvantaged, she will be supporting the development of a cross-institutional interdisciplinary programme of research on early childhood education and care. This research will focus on the ‘school readiness’ agenda in Greater Manchester. She is also an EdD candidate at the University of Manchester, researching young children’s wellbeing in low-income areas in England. She can be contacted at martina.street@manchester.gov.uk or on Twitter @MargoLescargot.