Nursery World - Nursery Chains 2021: Overview

Some chains have carried on expanding during the pandemic, and while many owners have felt the impact of the crisis, there remains hope for the future. By Charlotte Goddard

Family First has continued expansion

The pandemic has impacted every aspect of early education, from finances, occupancy and funding to staff well-being and child development.

In some cases, Covid-19 has speeded up trends and developments that were already in progress, such as meeting an increasing demand for flexibility from parents. In others, the virus has been a catalyst for lasting change: nursery groups that have moved some training online, improved communication with parents and adopted new technology, hope these changes will continue to be effective even after restrictions have been lifted.

‘We won’t allow communication to stop just because we don’t have to do video calls any more,’ says Andy Morris, executive chairman of the Family First group. Meanwhile, Stuart Graham, operations director at Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries, says that while some face-to-face training will resume when possible, the lessons learned from online provision will feed into future training, as it is often more convenient for practitioners.

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