In loving memory of Laura McFarlane 1960 - 2025.
A cherished colleague, devoted mother, and tireless advocate for children, families and community, Laura McFarlane created a legacy of inspiration and innovation.
The news of Laura's untimely death, just months after her retirement as the Director of the Lambeth Early Action Partnership (LEAP), comes as a profound shock to all who had the pleasure to know and to work alongside her.
Her vision, compassion and commitment to building better childhoods fuelled and guided LEAP to improve early childhood development, address health inequalities and support families with empathy and excellence.
Laura’s ability to unite teams, build trust, and champion early intervention made LEAP a model not just for Lambeth, but for communities across the country.
Her career in community service began at just 16, when she first stepped into community work at the Caribou Centre. Even then, her passion for supporting young people was unmistakable, and she took this work forward working with NSPCC.
Her love for the Lambeth community only deepened as she raised her family on the Tulse Hill Estate. When she returned to work in Lambeth in the early 2000s it marked the beginning of a transformative chapter. Through her leadership of the Sure Start programme in Larkhall, she not only shaped services but redefined what community support could look like. As Head of Family Support, she revitalised Lambeth’s One O’clock Clubs and helped establish children’s centres that became lifelines for countless families.
But Laura was never content to lead from behind a desk. She was a constant presence in the community—face-painting at the Lambeth Country Show, forging partnerships, and always listening, always caring.
In 2012, she became one of the Heads of Service for Lambeth’s multi-agency teams and then in 2013, she began what would become the defining chapter of her career: the development of the LEAP programme, which she led from the moment it received funding from The National Lottery Community Fund until its planned closure in March 2025.
One example of Laura’s lasting impact is how the ethos of early years services being embedded in the local communities they serve, which LEAP championed, has been echoed in the roll-out of Best Start Family Hubs across the country, targeting support at the most disadvantaged.
But Laura’s legacy is not only in the programmes she built or the policies she helped to shape—it lives on in the children who now have brighter futures, in the families who found support when they needed it most, and in the colleagues who were inspired by her strength, warmth, and unwavering belief in the power of community.
We will all miss Laura terribly; she has left a huge and lasting legacy in Lambeth and at NCB over a career that spanned over 40 years and saw her change and improve on the lives of so many families and support and inspire her many colleagues. She was an amazing woman and I know she appreciated receiving so much love and so many messages of support from so many people during her final weeks. In this incredibly painful time, our love thoughts are with her beloved daughter and grandchildren and all who knew and loved her.
Anna Feuchtwang
CEO, National Children's Bureau
