Virginia Beardshaw

"When I completed the report of the King’s Fund’s first Commission on the future of health services in London I was drained."

"It was an immensely complex and politically sensitive piece of work. I definitely wanted to do something different. I also had the pious notion that I ought to pitch in and try to make some of the necessary changes happen"

"In our former business model we had 90+ partnerships with Local Authorities running different I CAN programmes, which we were immensely proud of."

"But as austerity bit we could see the writing on the wall: Local Authorities were being hollowed out and budgets were being devolved to schools and early years settings. We had to make a shift which we termed ‘moving from wholesale to retail’."

"We were immensely lucky to have a great deal of help from our friends at The Makaton Charity, since – with their full permission and active aid – we copied their business model and applied it to I CAN Programmes."

"t’s wonderful to have incredible support from Openreach who sponsor us to help give children the ability to communicate."

"Children up and down the country can take part and improve their own skills while helping thousands of others who are not at their level. We called for this national year of communication back in 2007, and truly believe this is the spotlight we need to raise the roof, and sing the loudest to make the difference that is so badly needed"