- Kids Planet Day Nurseries
Plans are afoot to more than double in size the Kids Planet Day Nurseries chain over the next three years, starting with the opening of a fifth nursery in November. The group was established by Clare Roberts in 2008, with the financial backing of her father, who used to co-own nine nurseries.
She began by taking over two established settings, and has since opened two nurseries a year in north-west England. 'In the current economic climate people expect childcare numbers to drop, but that has not been our experience. If anything, it has meant that both parents have had to return to work because there is a worry that if one of them were to lose their job they would be in financial difficulty. It is felt that two incomes brings more security,' explains Ms Roberts (seen far right in the photograph).
'We opened two nurseries last September and the under-twos rooms are now full. The children will filter through, so both will be full throughout in just a couple of years.'
When looking for childcare for her daughter, Ms Roberts realised there were few nurseries in her area that had opening times to accommodate working parents. Two of her settings now open from 7am to 7pm and provide ad hoc 'early bird' and 'late bird' sessions for parents to book if they have meetings.
An errand service, provided by Pink Spaghetti, is also available for busy parents who do not have time to organise a children's party, drop off dry cleaning or get milk. Ms Roberts' own child attends the Lymm nursery, where the head office is based, so she can see provision from a parent's point of view as well as an owner's.
All the nurseries are within a 10-mile radius of the head office, allowing Ms Roberts to visit each setting two or three times a week. 'If nurseries are not visited often, things can slip and change,' she says. 'It is really important to keep ensuring that the quality is great. I also visit to support my managers, because childcare is a very stressful job. They need to know that they can come to me for anything.'
Leading by example, Ms Roberts gained Early Years Professional Status - 'I put myself through it and I expect others to do it too. No-one has an excuse!' She is now doing a Masters in early years. 'I am a real advocate for professional development. I take staff on as apprentices and put them on level three straight away.
'It is important that employees feel valued and respected, and when they have got qualifications they then recognise what they can do,' she adds.
- Chestnut Nursery Schools
With seven nursery schools in Newham, east London, Chestnut is the largest provider of childcare in the borough. The chain also provides out-of-school clubs and operates creches and a catering company.
Chestnut was established in 2002 by David Saunders and Steven Davies at a time when Newham did not have much childcare provision. The borough was just starting to develop children's centres, and Chetnut's first nursery was opened in one of these. Now five of its settings are based in children's centres.
The chain aims to create a secure and welcoming environment that celebrates the wide cultural diversity of the local community. Food is provided by the chain's resident catering firm, which aims to offer healthy, well-balanced meals and take dietary and cultural needs into consideration.
The company remains unscathed by Government and local authority cuts, but Chestnut's quality and training executive Karen Broughton says they are concerned about how revenue might be affected. 'We meet regularly with the children's centres and local authority, but until April next year it's all up in the air,' she says. 'We do have concerns over what the fallout will be for children's centres.'
Yet the recession has brought positive benefits for the chain, with its holiday and after-school clubs taking record numbers of children as more parents are returning to work. There is still a high demand for childcare in Newham, with occupancy at 90 per cent across all seven of Chestnut's settings, compared to a national average of 75 per cent.
'At three of the centres we have 100 per cent occupancy and long waiting lists, because there is such a big demand for childcare,' says Ms Broughton. 'So we are considering opening more nurseries and will probably do a conversion in the near future in the area. We know Newham, work well with the local authority and have a good reputation, so we think it is good to stick with what you know.'
- Yellow Dot nursery
Yellow Dot is truly an 'outstanding' nursery chain, with each of its six Hampshire-based settings rated so by Ofsted.
Owner Jane Dyke attributes the group's success to its staff. 'The secret is our team,' she explains. 'I have always said that qualifications and expertise is important, but more important is to be a nice person. Enthusiasm and commitment is essential, as is the love of children and to enjoy smiling. If they have got all that, then we can teach and train the rest. If they are lovely people, children will enjoy being with them and will respond to the activities, and then there are outstanding outcomes. It is all down to the relationship between staff and children.'
The chain launched in September 1997 when Ms Dyke, who was a teacher, followed her dream to open an educationally focused kindergarten. But why is it called Yellow Dot? Eleven years earlier, her husband had given her a pack of yellow dots with the instruction to stick them around their home as constant reminders of her ambition to open a nursery.
The kindergarten was so well received that Ms Dyke opened a day nursery for working parents in the area, followed by a pre-school - 'The settings are in walking distance of each other, so we offer the community every type of childcare,' she says.
The chain has since continued to grow organically. Ms Dyke ensures that information is regularly shared across the nurseries. 'If Ofsted inspect one nursery, the manager passes on the recommendations and comments to the other nurseries so that they can all improve,' she says. The chain's group manager, support manager and advisory teacher attend each nursery weekly to support, observe and monitor to ensure consistency across the board.
A five-year plan was drawn up for Yellow Dot 18 months ago that states its aim to have 10 settings. The seventh is now being built and is due for completion in March 2011, and two more are in the pipeline. But Ms Dyke stresses that steady expansion is her aim. She believes in opening a new nursery only if it will benefit the whole company and does not adversely affect any of the existing settings.
'The most important thing to us is to provide outstanding childcare and education,' she says. 'As long as we are managing that then we'll keep going with expansion, and I feel we can go for 10 nurseries. At 10, we need to have a rethink and look at whether we can continue doing what we do and remain outstanding.'
- Kid Ease
Kid Ease aims to provide a strong brand to ensure consistency of approach while promoting each of its six nurseries' individuality.
Managing director Ian Atkey explains that this is done by devolving the day-to-day nursery operations to each local nursery management team. With four nurseries in Kent and one in both Norfolk and Essex, each setting may have to meet widely differing needs among local families.
'Nursery managers confidently manage their settings on a daily basis, supported centrally by head office functions and regional head of childcare,' says Mr Atkey. 'This allows each setting to meet the individual needs of each child and family accessing the provisions. Nursery managers maintain overall responsibility for staffing, training and curriculum development to ensure the nursery runs efficiently.
'We also have simple and effective administration processes in place, which allow nursery staff to focus on their core activity of looking after the children in their care.'
The chain, which launched in 2001, undertook a strategic review of catering last year and decided that it needed to have more control over the quality of meals, the sourcing of ingredients and food miles. As a result, catering was brought in-house earlier this year, resulting in a considerable financial saving across the Kent nurseries, in addition to significantly improved meals. Kid Ease is now expanding catering to other settings in the county.
There are plans to open two more Kid Ease nurseries in the next 24 months, but quick growth has been ruled out. 'When we first started, we aimed to open a couple of nurseries a year, but we soon realised that was not possible and that we were being over-ambitious. We have a small head-office team partly to keep costs down for parents and also to maintain efficiency so that we are not top-heavy on non-core activities,' Mr Atkey explains.
'The quickest way to achieve volume would be to acquire nurseries, but this brings a whole range of additional issues, such as TUPE, the integration of different cultures and incompatible operational systems.
'It can be a time-consuming and costly exercise. We did take over one brand-new nursery when the owners pulled out before it opened. Around 10 staff had already been recruited and within a year only one remained with us. This was because they were unwilling to embrace our philosophy or meet our exacting standards and, one by one, they left.
'We want to expand but not do it too quickly, so that we can remain focused on the established business. Growing organically is the best way we will develop.'
- Rainbow Nursery
Brothers Craig and Ian Skinner are new to the nursery industry after purchasing Scotland's Rainbow Nursery in July for an undisclosed sum, off a guide price of £2.2 million. The group of three nurseries is the largest provider of childcare in Fife.
Both brothers have previous business experience in other areas but wanted a fresh challenge. Craig Skinner says, 'The nursery industry stood out for us because we both have two children and understand the principles of childcare and education in the early years.
'We are very excited and positive about not only taking over the company but improving and developing it in the future. We both see this as a long-term plan and hope to be in this business sector for the foreseeable future. During the takeover it was all numbers and plans, but once you get there and see all the children it's then that the responsibility hits you.'
It took about 18 months to source the right business. With Rainbow Nursery, they identified an opportunity to raise profitability quite quickly. The nurseries are currently 65 to 70 per cent full, which Craig Skinner attributes to the previous owner having lost the motivation to promote the business. 'The reputation for the nurseries is there across Fife, and the people who have recently placed children with us have all had the nurseries recommended,' he says. 'We are now looking at improving numbers by advertising, leaflet distribution and designing a new website.'
Previously, the nurseries operated separately but Mr Skinner says they want the managers to support and learn from each other. To this end, they have introduced regular meetings. 'One of the nurseries had an excellent inspection in July and we want to make sure that we implement that good practice in the other two nurseries,' he adds.
The brothers have plans to develop the chain, perhaps by building a nursery in about three years' time, but they are waiting until they have gained more experience. 'The staff need time to adjust to us as new owners and we need to control our enthusiasm,' says Mr Skinner. 'But myself and my brother are flying with it - it's a great sector.'
