AboutDane Hardie, FIC
25 years across early years, children's services, SaaS and PE-backed operations.
The career has covered every angle: running multi-site nursery groups at scale (100+ settings, P&Ls above £90m), building the technology platforms operators use, and advising investors on the operational reality behind the numbers.
Advisory in this sector tends to come from one direction. The value of having operated, invested, built technology and worked with regulators is that each perspective informs the others in ways that change what you notice and what you recommend. The operational insight shapes the investment view. The technology experience shapes the operational advice.
Co-owner of an Ofsted Outstanding nursery for over 20 years. Chair of Finance, Governance and Safeguarding at a SEND charity. Speaker and writer on funded hour economics, cost per place, and the relationship between operational practice and financial performance in early years.
Fellow of the Institute of Consulting (IC), part of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). Speaker and writer on funded hour economics, cost per place, and the relationship between operational practice and financial performance in early years.
The Litus Network
Litus operates through a managed network of senior specialists, each with deep experience in a specific discipline within the early years sector. The network extends Dane’s operational and commercial expertise into regulatory compliance, safeguarding, SEND, quality, estates, workforce development, technology, and international markets. Every engagement is led by Dane and staffed with the disciplines it requires.
Why Litus
Five perspectives on every deal. Operator, investor, management team, regulator, technology provider. Dane has sat in every one of these seats and brings that breadth to every CDD engagement. The team behind each engagement is drawn from ten specialist disciplines covering operations, finance, regulation, safeguarding, estates, quality, technology, workforce, and international markets. You get the depth of a sector-specialist firm with the precision of operator-led advisory.
Operator
Investor
Management team
Regulator
Technology provider
Five Perspectives. One Diagnostic.
Most advisory in the early years sector comes from one perspective. An accountant looks at the numbers. A regulator looks at compliance. An operator looks at the settings. Litus brings all five perspectives to every engagement because the margin issues that matter are the ones that sit between them.
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Operator
How the business runs day to day across every setting, every ratio, every session. The perspective that knows what 7am on a Monday looks like in a nursery that is understaffed and over-ratio.
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Investor
How the business looks from the other side of the table. EBITDA, multiples, value creation levers, and the gap between what the management accounts show and what the operations deliver.
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Management Team
How the leadership team is structured, where capability sits, and whether the management infrastructure can sustain performance at the scale the business is heading towards.
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Regulator
How the business performs against the regulatory framework it operates within. Ofsted, safeguarding, SEND, data protection, and the governance that holds it together under scrutiny.
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Technology Provider
How the systems architecture supports or constrains the business. Nursery management systems, safeguarding platforms, workforce tools, and the integrations between them.
One perspective short isn’t enough.
How We Work
01
Discovery
A focused conversation about where you are, what you are trying to achieve, and where you think the margin opportunity sits. No commitment, no pitch. If the diagnostic is the right next step, we scope it together. If it isn’t, we tell you.
02
Diagnostic
A structured examination of the P&L across five areas: funded hour economics, fee architecture, occupancy and ratios, workforce cost, and central overhead. Two to four weeks depending on group size. The output is a board-ready report with sized opportunities and a sequenced plan for capturing them.
03
Implementation
Working alongside the management team to execute the plan. This is not a report that sits on a shelf. It is a retained engagement where we stay close to the numbers, solve the problems that surface during implementation, and adjust the approach as the business responds.
04
Sustained Performance
Periodic review and recalibration once the initial value creation programme is complete. Margin performance is not a one-off project. The economics of funded hours change every year. Fee architecture needs revisiting. Workforce cost shifts with the labour market. We stay available for the long term.
Start With the Diagnostic
Every engagement starts with clarity about where the margin sits and where it leaks. The Margin Diagnostic is a fixed-price, productised engagement that walks the P&L across all five areas, identifies the EBITDA opportunity, and produces a board-ready report with a sequenced plan for capturing it. It is the foundation for everything that follows.