Nursery Management Today, January-February 2025

Inside this issue...

In this leadership series we hear from Michele Davison, co-director and manager of Angels on the Park

Arun Kanwar and Madeline Alcock of Cairneagle discuss key issues for operators in 2025 and beyond

Gary Harrison, senior commercial manager at Morton Michel, unlocks the secrets of cyber safeguarding

Nick Brown of Christie & Co shares an analysis of the UK children’s day nursery market in 2024 and his expectations for the coming year

Hugh McEwen of Office S&M Architects gives tips on how to deliver a wellbeing-focused early years setting

How flexible working could solve the recruitment crisis

Lisa Nichols, early years quality manager for Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries, explains why a robust audit process is essential

Leena Birdi, partner at law firm Birdi & Co, assesses the impact of changes to National Insurance contributions

Justin Deaville on how nurseries can create an online presence that informs, reassures and inspires

Ella Halliday sets out the employment law changes providers need to be aware of in 2025

Charlotte Goddard visits Treehouse Nurseries’ The Grove Montessori Nursery

How Fennies aims to boost retention with a deep dive into its core values

A nursery manager and consultant share tips on promoting a culture of positive wellbeing

Sinead McMahon on how the NDNA’s new Institute of Education aims to support the sector

Insights and information from some of the expert speakers at our recent Nursery Management Show

Charlotte Goddard speaks to Debs Parfitt, manager at Shelford Day Nursery in Cambridge

We round up the top news about nursery managers across the country

The first in a two-part round-up celebrating the inspirational winners of the NMT National Nursery Awards

2025 Education Events

NMT Owners Club Midlands

29 January 2025 | The Belfry, Sutton Coldfield

NMT Owners Club South West

19 March 2025 | Celtic Manor, Newport

Education Property Forum Midlands

1 May 2025 | The Belfry, Sutton Coldfield

NMT Owners Club Midlands

1 May 2025 | The Belfry, Sutton Coldfield

Education Property Awards

20 May 2025 | Marriott, Leeds

EducationInvestor Awards

17 June 2025 | Marriott Grosvenor Square, London

Nursery Management Show

27–28 June 2025 | NEC, Birmingham

NMT Owners Club London

9 July 2025 | IET: Savoy Place, London

NMT Owners Club South West

17 September 2025 | Celtic Manor, Newport

Education Property Forum London

8 October 2025 | IET: Savoy Place, London

ISM Forum London

8 October 2025 | IET: Savoy Place, London

Education Summit

17 October 2025 | Business Design Centre, London

NMT Owners Club South East

6 November 2025 | Marriott, Lingfield

Nursery Management Show

28–29 November 2025 | ExCeL, London

National Nursery Awards

29 November 2025 | ExCeL, London

Chief executive officer

Alex Dampier

Chief operating officer

Sarah Hyman

Chief marketing officer

Julia Payne

Head of content

David Farbrother

Advertising & event sales director

Caroline Bowern 0797 4643292

caroline.bowern@nexusgroup.co.uk

Editor Charlotte Goddard

Subeditor Charles Wheeldon

Publisher Harry Hyman

Investor Publishing Limited

Registered in England & Wales No. 05001896

Registered office 3rd Floor, 10 Rose and Crown Yard, King Street, London, SW1Y 6RE

VAT number: 629547604

Tel: 020 7104 2000

Website: nmt-magazine.co.uk

New Year, new outlook

As we welcome in a new year, it’s also time for a new editor to seize the reins of Nursery Management Today. I’m delighted to take over where our fantastic former editor Briony Richter left off, and hope to continue the great work she has done in representing and reflecting the sector.

Early years is particularly dear to my heart because in the early 1980s my mum managed what would now probably be called a preschool, but was then a playgroup, on the grounds of the local further education college. Our oven was often full of homemade rusks of an evening, and we got through masses of flour and salt in pursuit of the perfect playdough. It was a particularly fun day when the new climbing frame got delivered to our house first, so my sisters and I got to try it out in advance.

A lot has changed since then, but I know that like mum in the 1980s, nursery owners and managers today are still delivering high quality childcare and early education, keeping the economy going by allowing parents to access work and training while providing children with the best start in life.

The coming year is going to be full of challenges, but also opportunities. Finances loom large, as the sector continues to fight for exclusion from the increased employer National Insurance contributions announced in the last Budget. For settings already struggling with high business rates and salary rises, these additional costs are very worrying.

In our Property Spotlight, starting on p16, Christie & Co’s head of brokerage – childcare & education,

Nick Brown predicts greater financial sustainability challenges for some settings. However, he also believes that the market will remain healthy, with high demand for quality leasehold and freehold opportunities across the UK, and further consolidation from large- and medium-sized groups seeking acquisition opportunities.

Here at NMT we are also looking forward to a new year full of opportunities, with a raft of events taking place across the country from our NMT Owners Clubs to the Nursery Management Show in Birmingham and London. All our events give nursery owners, leaders and managers the opportunity to network but also to attend workshops and sessions from industry experts covering everything from recruitment to marketing, from acquisitions to apprenticeships. I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at these events, and please don’t hesitate to get in touch on the email below.

Charlotte Goddard Editor, Nursery Management Today charlotte.goddard@nexusgroup.co.uk

nmtnews News in brief

POLITICS & POLICY

The government announced an increase in funding rates which will rise to an average of £11.54 for under twos; £8.53 for two-year-olds; and £6.12 for three- and four-year olds. Hourly funding rates vary across local authorities, reflecting local circumstances. However, the sector said the increases would not cover “crippling” and “catastrophic” rises in wages and National Insurance contributions.

The government also unveiled a £75 million expansion grant, to support the sector to deliver the 35,000 additional staff and 70,000 places required for the roll-out of funded places this September, and the largest ever uplift to the early years pupil premium (EYPP), increasing rates by over 45% to up to £570 per eligible child per year.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer committed to increasing the proportion of five-year-olds reaching a good level of development at the end of Reception year to 75% by 2028, in his “plan for change”

speech. This is an increase from 67.7% currently, and would mean an additional 40,000 to 45,000 children a year hitting developmental goals.

Average childcare fees for undertwos increased by 9.1% between 2023 and 2024 in England, according to the Department for Education (DfE). Average hourly parent-paid fees increased from £6.05 to £6.60 for under-twos. Fees for two-year-olds increased from £6.07 to £6.56 (an 8.1% increase) and for threeand four-year-olds increased from £5.90 to £6.30 (a 6.8% increase).

The number of nurseries and childcare places in England increased in the last year, according to the latest Ofsted figures. However, analysis from the Early Years Alliance found that while there was an overall rise, 65 local authorities reported a fall in childcare places in the period between March and August 2024.

The Welsh government has committed to review the hourly rate paid to childcare providers annually instead of every three years, following lobbying from the sector. It has also made relief from small business rates permanent for the childcare sector. Day nurseries have not paid business rates in Wales since 2019, due to the small business rates relief scheme. The move is estimated to save the sector £3.4 million annually.

Dawn Bowden, Minister for Children and Social Care, said: “Making business

Sir Keir Starmer

Dawn Bowden

rates relief for registered childcare premises permanent will be a huge boost to the sector, providing stability and helping providers reinvest savings back into their business to continue delivering high quality, and affordable childcare.”

More than £2m in government funding earmarked to help nurseries recruit staff will no longer be paid out. The Early Years Financial Incentive Pilot scheme aimed to fund a “golden hello” of £1,000 for early years settings to offer to new starters. The 20 local authorities taking part received a share of around £2,470,000 in March 2024, but only Blackpool and Salford received a second payment.

The government’s plan to use spare capacity in primary schools to meet the demand for childcare is unlikely to work because spare places are unevenly distributed, according to new research.

The government estimates the expansion of the funded early education entitlement will require almost 78,000 new nursery places by September 2025, while total pupil numbers in England are projected to fall by just over 200,000 between September 2022 and 2027, freeing up capacity in schools.

However the research from Frontier Economics found plans to convert spare primary school capacity in England into more than 3,000 30-place nurseries are unrealistic because the number of spare places varies geographically, with only 15% of local authorities able to meet demand through spare reception places.

PEOPLE NEWS

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2025 New Year Honours List. “I am genuinely humbled and honoured to receive the CBE in this year’s Honours list. It came as a total surprise and it still hasn’t sunk in yet,” said Tanuku, who has been chief executive at NDNA for 20 years.

London-based investment management firm Downing has appointed Chris Jessop as chair and Sinead Johnson as chief executive of Chalk Nursery Group,

which Downing established earlier this year. Jessop is an experienced healthcare chief executive and chair who has held previous board roles as chair of ABL Health, The Vet and Optima Health and was a non-executive director at Ascenti. Johnson has experience of early years education and worked in senior leadership roles in several nursery groups, including Kidsunlimited and Asquith Nurseries, and spent three years in the leisure sector at David Lloyd Clubs. Most recently, she worked at All About Children, where she led the company’s 2022 sale to the Dutch private equity-backed childcare group Partou.

NURSERY NEWS

Kindred Nurseries plans to expand its network to 100 settings with investment from mid-market private equity firm Livingbridge and existing partner Unigestion, which is renewing

its investment through the Unigestion Direct III Fund. Kindred has already expanded from four to 48 nurseries in Southern England and the Midlands since 2017.

ibeca21 Management GmbH, owned by the founders of nursery group KMK kinderzimmer, has acquired British subsidiary kinderzimmer UK. Kinderzimmer UK, which launched its first nursery in 2023, will operate as an independent entity under Tibeca21’s majority ownership. Kinderzimmer UK will continue its expansion, with a focus on providing high quality early years education throughout London and the Home Counties. It currently runs 10 settings, with nurseries in locations including Muswell Hill, South Kensington, Walthamstow, White City, and Walton on Thames.

Bright Horizons has partnered with Nottingham Trent University

Purnima Tanuku

(NTU) to enable staff to complete a Level 5 Early Years Lead Practitioner Apprenticeship. The programme, which launched in January 2025, will cover topics including child development, educational psychology, and inclusive practices.

Busy Bees is working with software platform Famly to develop a Busy Bees app which will roll out across its 351 UK settings. The software is currently being trialled in Busy Bees sites in Scotland and will be rolled out in England and Wales in 2025. The new app aims to support parents and educators to work together to support children’s education. It will allow parents to maintain regular communications, find ideas for activities to try at home, access invoices and book extra sessions.

Hillingdon Council has appointed charitable childcare social enterprise London Early Years Foundation (LEYF) to deliver childcare and early education at its three early years centres. The council has granted LEYF 15-year leases on the three settings: Nestles Avenue Early Years Centre in Hayes, South Ruislip Early Years Centre and Uxbridge Early Years Centre.

SECTOR SUPPORT

Childcare Works has developed a range of government-funded resources to help providers and schools deliver the

extended early years entitlement, available though an online hub (childcareworks. org.uk/hub-resources). The free resources include videos, tools, documents, links, helpful suggestions, and training.

The Cumberland Building Society has expanded its commercial offering to cater to nurseries across the north of England and Scotland. With its Head Office in Carlisle, The Cumberland Building Society will provide services including mortgages, current accounts, and business savings accounts to these sectors.

Haarlem, Netherlands-based early years software company KidsKonnect has acquired Blackpool-headquartered childcare sector training provider NoodleNow. NoodleNow stated that tens of thousands of practitioners use the company as part of their nursery staff’s

continued professional development. The businesses will continue to operate separately and independently.

KidsKonnect acquired nursery management software provider Blossom in 2023. KidsKonnect’s chief executive Peter Baars said: “Following on from our acquisition of Blossom in 2023, we are excited that NoodleNow have joined the KidsKonnect family. As we continue to grow in the UK, this expansion into the training and CPD space means we continue to deliver on our desire to improve nursery management for everyone in the sector”

Nappy provider and waste management service Green Bottoms has donated 14,000 nappies and 22,000 wipes to stock nappy banks at seven London Early Years Foundation (LEYF) nurseries.

LEYF Nurseries Nappy Banks offer vital supplies to support families with the cost of living. Green Bottoms is also sponsoring and supplying nappies and wipes for two of LEYF’s nurseries for an entire year.

LEYF has partnered with Green Bottoms since 2012 to manage waste from its 40 nurseries. This partnership converts waste collected from LEYF nurseries to Energy-from-Waste (EfW), the most eco-friendly method currently available for processing nappy and sanitary waste.

Over 45 tonnes of waste have been diverted from landfills in the past year with Green Bottoms’ support. LEYF has avoided using 43,008 single-use plastic wipes and reduced its carbon.■

Bright Horizons

Green Bottoms

From manager to owner

Michele Davison talks to NMT editor Charlotte Goddard about her journey from nursery manager to nursery owner, and offers insights for aspiring nursery entrepreneurs

Michele Davison always knew that when she opened a nursery it would be between London Fields and Victoria Park in the London borough of Hackney. She knows the area well, from visiting her grandmother who lived just around the corner from where she established Angels on the Park in 2019.

“When I was growing up this space was a Turkish garment factory, so I have memories of the ladies sitting outside and having their lunch,” she says.

Davison gained her National Nursery Examination Board (NNEB) qualification in the 1990s, going on to obtain a degree in English literature. She worked in schools and children’s centres before becoming manager of a private nursery in Hoxton.

The demographics of the Hoxton nursery were very similar to those of Angels on the Park, she explains. “On one side of the road were houses selling for a million pounds, and on the other side was a council estate,” she says. “I wanted to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and to narrow the attainment gap, but I knew nothing about management and had to learn very quickly.”

Davison took the nursery from “below zero - it was a terrible nursery” to Outstanding-rated. But when the nursery owner decided to focus on more affluent

“I wanted to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and to narrow the attainment gap, but I knew nothing about management and had to learn very quickly.”

families, reducing the number of funded places available and increasing fees, she started to think about opening her own setting, which she did six months before the pandemic hit.

“I always felt there was a gap in this area, there are some other nurseries here now but there were none at the time,” she says. “It was in an area where the demographic meant we could pay the bills but at the same time I could have spots for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.”

In the same way that she had taught herself management skills, Davison now had to get up to speed on business and finance. “It was so difficult, as there was nobody in my position I could talk to. I have no formal training in terms of setting up a business, so I did a lot of reading and research,” she says. “I was trying to write my business plan, listening to lectures and reading biographies of business people, alongside my day job. It was a difficult time but I learned so much.”

Her family clubbed together to help her buy the space but could not raise enough funding as the building needed to be converted. “I tried crowdfunding, which did nothing, and then I found some angel investors,” she explains. “One my exhusband worked with, and the other two I found on an angel investing website.”

She feels the location of the nursery and its 5,500sqf area is its main selling point. The large hall in the middle of the space is used for activities, with climbing and soft play equipment.

Angels on the Park has full occupancy with around 108 children on register, and 72 at any one time. Davison does not operate a waiting list. “We don’t have a waiting list because it’s stressful for parents - they could have their child’s name on the waiting lists of five nurseries and not get a place in any of them,” she explains. “We advertise any vacancies we have coming up on social media and on

our website so they’re filled pretty quickly and being able to book a space that’s secure gives parents certainty.”

The setting runs parent workshops at the weekends, which plays a role in marketing the nursery. “Also when we take the children out in their high-vis jackets, to the Tower of London, or to the farm, they have always a bit of advertising on the back!”

Recruitment is one of the biggest challenges facing nursery owners, says Davison. “I would like the government to look at the staffing crisis and really tackle it head on. We pay 20% more than the average, we offer a good amount of holiday, bespoke training plans, and we are still trying to recruit for two practitioner roles.” The nursery provides an employee assistance scheme and is just about to provide a private healthcare scheme.

Despite taking part in what seems like a cascade of consultations, Davison does not feel her voice is being heard. “The big chains have a massive voice, but small providers do not, and the day-to-day problems we have are not the same, so I find it really frustrating.”

As with much of the sector, finances are tough. Davison says she was already struggling with business rates, even before the rises in National Insurance contributions and the minimum wage.

Michele Davison

“I would like the government to look at the staffing crisis and really tackle it head on. We pay 20% more than the average, we offer a good amount of holiday, bespoke training plans, and we are still trying to recruit for two practitioner roles.”

“Our business rates are £75,000 a year because our space is so huge and that stops us investing in our provision,” she says. “The government seems to think

that throwing the extended funding at us somehow mitigates what they are taking away from us in terms of business rates, and NI contributions.”

Lack of prompt payments from the local authority is also a thorn in Davison’s side. “It is now 9 January, and we have not been given our January allocation yet,” she says. “We are even still waiting for some of the money we are owed for December.”

Davison is currently undertaking a Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development Level 5 qualification in people management, and believes her leadership style is all about empathy and nurture. “I like the staff to feel valued and heard,” she says. “Once they have finished their probation we talk about what speciality they would like to have, then we upskill them as much as possible

in that speciality and then they train us. It helps them understand their contribution is important to us.”

Angels on the Park is due an Ofsted inspection in 2026, and Davison’s current focus is on improving the setting’s current Good rating to Outstanding. “At that point I may think about stepping back a bit and thinking about the management structure in the nursery and how it can work without me,” she says.

Her advice to others opening a nursery is to be realistic about the work it will take. “Are you willing to work up to 80 hours a week, at weekends, because that is what you will have to do?” she says. “Are you realistic about the finances? The most important things are drive, determination and passion, if you have those you are halfway there.”■

NurseryCare

A rollercoaster ride

As we find ourselves in the middle one of the most significant changes to the UK nursery sector since 2017, Cairneagle’s managing partner Arun Kanwar and manager Madeline Alcock discuss the demand outlook and key issues facing operators in 2025 and beyond.

Fifteen hours of free childcare have now been rolled out to children aged nine months and up, subject to eligibility requirements, with the full 30 hours set to roll out as planned in September 2025.

A spot survey we conducted in September 2024 during a speech at the NMT Owners Club indicated a yearon-year uptick in enrolment for most providers. While a large part of this improvement would be driven by the extended funding offer, it will also have been because of general improvements, including continued recovery from Covid and the cost-of-living crisis, as well as a slightly improved staffing situation.

Demand did not improve uniformly across the board. Catchments with higher earners have benefited less because of the £100k individual earning limit on accessing funding (which has never been adjusted for inflation). Some of the uptake of funded hours has been substitutional rather than stimulating new demand.

Looking ahead, we expect 2025 to be the first year that enrolment will exceed 2019 levels, with significant growth projected through to 2030, even after accounting for declining numbers of nought- to four-year-olds and staffing constraints. In our May 2024 survey

“In our May 2024 survey of operators, respondents expected an overall 14% increase in occupancy by September 2025.”

of operators, respondents expected an overall 14% increase in occupancy by September 2025.

Key issues

Despite unprecedented growth in demand, several persistent issues could impact demand or profitability and impact the sector’s outlook.

Schoolification

The government plans to meet new demand by building capacity for 100,000 children in 3,300 state schools (though the budget conversion cost of £40,000-£50,000 per nursery is likely to be insufficient). These schools are increasingly looking to play a role in nurseries as their rolls decline due to demographics.

Additionally, independent school providers are extending down or creating nursery strategies, putting pressure on the premium segment of the market. Part of their rationale is to diversify revenue on account of VAT changes on private school fees.

Historically, school nurseries – state or independent – haven’t supported younger children or offered full-day/

all-year-round childcare as well as private nurseries, but this is changing. The extent to which this will be disruptive will depend on local dynamics, with some focus on “childcare deserts” and potential impacts in London due to higher demographic declines in schoolage children.

Demographics and supply imbalances

In some regions, increased demand from the funded offer will not offset a declining population of nought- to four-year-olds. We were recently discussing a specific London borough with a nursery group, where the number of nursery-aged children has declined by around 40%.

In October last year, the government published its view of childcare “oases” and “deserts”, which indicates areas of “high supply” or “over-supply” and “undersupply”. Many of the childcare oases are in London and the Southeast.

Staff recruitment and retention

While our work in the sector and operator interviews point to staffing improvements, major challenges remain. The Department for Education’s view is that 40,000 new staff need to be recruited by September 2025, but the majority of operators we

have spoken with feel that recruitment improvements will be insufficient.

Margins

The sector has faced a number of challenging years on both revenue and cost fronts, including changes to the demand profile post-Covid, enrolment held back by staffing constraints, inflation and the cost-of-living crisis, the cost of agency staff, and living wage increases.

Funding rates haven’t kept up with nursery-specific inflation, driving operators to charge above-inflationary fee increases. Margins have been improving due to increasing demand, a better staffing environment, and favourable funding rates for under-threes. However, last October’s budget is likely to offset much of that on account of continued significant increases in the living wage and employers’ National Insurance contributions.

The government has now published its 25/26 funded rates – an average 3.4% increase for under-twos, 3.3% for two-year olds, and 4.1% for three and four-year-olds, alongside an increase in the pupil premium. These increases fall below the cost inflation facing nurseries, and they will need to consider making up the difference through occupancy gains, fee increases, cost control and extras charges. However the government is simultaneously making noises on cracking down on charging extras, which doesn’t help in the context of these pressures.

Looking forward

Given the market’s tailwinds, operators’ top priorities are related to growing enrolment, either organically or through expansion, to capitalise on the funding rollout. After a slowdown of M&A activity, there has been some resurgence in deals. Data from Grant Thornton, which

tracks deals of three or more nurseries, shows an increase in deal activity in the third quarter of this year, although this may be partly due to the desire to get deals completed before budgetary capital gains tax changes.

Notable transactions last year include Downing’s investment in Chalk Nursery Group, the acquisition of Children 1st by Storal, the acquisition of Red Bus, Livingbridge’s investment in Kindred, and continued consolidation by Kids Planet and Bright Stars. Reduced interest rates have been helpful, and the speed at which they continue to decline will influence how quickly the M&A market picks up.

Strategies for growth

To navigate these changes discussed and to capitalise on opportunities, operators should consider the following strategies:

• Target parents: Are middle-market parents more attractive with the extended funded offer, or is premium still the right strategy? Is there an opportunity to play in both markets? For independent schools pursuing a nursery strategy, how should they

balance nursery performance versus feed for their school?

• Location: Which geographies align with your strategy for the extended funded offer or premium?

• Age-group mix: What is the optimal mix of ages for a setting?

• Pricing: What are sustainable options to defend and improve margins, mitigate cost inflation, and make up potential shortfalls in funding?

• Your proposition: How do you win in local markets? What advantages and constraints does your proposition or offering have (space requirements, local industry connections)?

• Avenues for growth: What efforts should be weighted between capacity expansion, new build, and M&A?

Operating in the nursery sector continues to be a rollercoaster ride, with lows and highs - after a sustained tough environment and then an improvement, government policy has now turned the screws on the sector again. Nevertheless, it remains one of the most attractive and investable sectors in UK education.■

Helping You Grow: Profitable Nurseries, Tailored Support

At Owen Froebel, we’re passionate about helping nursery owners buy and sell nurseries with ease. Combining extensive industry knowledge with a tailored approach, we’re here to support your unique journey every step of the way.

With a proven history of successful sales across the UK we deliver results you can trust. We work with buyers and sellers nationwide, helping their plans to bloom.

Whether you’re looking to sell now or planning for the future, our expert team ensures the entire process is smooth and hassle-free, from your first consultation to the final agreement.

www.owenfroebel.co.uk

Safer environments

Gary Harrison, senior commercial manager at Morton Michel, unlocks

Imagine it’s a typical morning at your nursery. You’re logging into your computer to check the daily schedule when an alarming message pops up: “Your data has been encrypted. Pay £10,000 within 72 hours to regain access.” In an instant, you’ve lost access to your records—emergency contact details, care plans, everything you rely on to ensure the children in your care are safe and well. It’s a scenario no one wants to face, but for many businesses, this kind of cyber-attack is a real and growing risk.

When you thinking about safeguarding, you’re probably thinking physical safety - keeping the environment secure and making sure your policies are robust. But as nurseries increasingly rely on digital systems, safeguarding now extends to the digital world. Cybersecurity protects not just data but also ensures the continuity of care and the trust parents place in you.

Why cybersecurity matters

In the childcare sector, you handle sensitive information daily: children’s medical histories, dietary needs, and parent contact details. That’s valuable information, and it makes nurseries an attractive target for cybercriminals.

You might think, “Why would anyone target us?” But the reality is that cybercriminals often go after businesses where they assume resources are limited, and defences might be weaker. In 2024, almost 40% of small businesses in the UK reported a cyber incident, according to the government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2024.

With so much to juggle, it’s easy to see how some things (like updating systems or recognising phishing emails) can slip through the cracks. But it’s these small oversights that criminals exploit.

The role of third-party software

Many nurseries rely on third-party platforms to manage their daily operations, but safeguarding data remains your

responsibility. A breach in these systems can still leave you accountable.

While third-party software providers often invest heavily in their own security, the overall responsibility for protecting your nursery from the financial and emotional impacts of a cyber incident ultimately lies with you. A breach could mean facing ransom demands, reputational damage, or even panic from parents.

This isn’t about scaremongering - it’s a reminder to take proactive steps to secure your systems and processes.

Common routes of cyber attacks

Understanding how these attacks happen is half the battle. Some of the most common threats include:

Phishing emails - Appear legitimate but clicking on a link or downloading an attachment can give criminals access to your systems.

Ransomware - This type of attack locks your data until you pay a ransom – leaving you without critical information.

Outdated software - Not keeping your systems updated can create vulnerabilities that are easily exploited.

Weak passwords - Simple or reused passwords makes it easier for criminals to break in.

Cyber attacks often stem from human error. A single click or a malicious link can cause panic - not just for you, but for your staff and the families you support.

Supporting your team in a digital world

Digital security is about more than protecting data - it’s about empowering your staff. Providing the right tools, guidance, and support reduces the likelihood of errors and builds confidence. Cyber security training doesn’t have to be lengthy, but it should be regular. Integrating short, practical sessions as part of annual CPD programmes can help your team stay informed and alert to threats. Ensure everyone knows the steps to take

the secrets of cyber safeguarding

if something does go wrong. Having clear processes prevents issues from escalating. If mistakes happen, stay calm. Focus on learning and improving processes, so your team feel supported and not overwhelmed.

Tools to simplify cybersecurity

Cybersecurity can feel daunting, but tools like vulnerability scanners (think a digital MOT for nurseries) identify system weaknesses and provide clear guidance on how to fix them.

Additional steps to strengthen your nursery’s digital defences include regular data backups and layered security such as firewalls, antivirus software, and multifactor authentication.

Unsure where to start? Your insurance provider is a great place to turn. Many offer access to resources or assessments to help you understand your risks and strengthen your defences.

A digital safety net

Protecting your nursery’s digital environment isn’t just about compliance, it’s about creating a safer environment where children can thrive.

Take time to review your cybersecurity measures, ask for help if needed, and rest assured you are safeguarding the future of your nursery. After all, keeping children safe - online and off - is what it’s all about. ■

Gary Harrison

Business Outlook 2024: The year to come

Following the launch of Christie & Co’s Business Outlook 2025 report, Nick Brown, head of brokerage – childcare & education at Christie & Co, shares a deep-dive analysis of the UK children’s day nursery market in 2024 and his expectations for the market this year.

Market overview

2024 was a really active year for children’s day nursery transactions across the UK, with major deals including the sale of Pippa Pop-ins Nursery Schools in London, Kingfisher Day Nurseries in Derbyshire, Muddy Boots Childcare in Devon, Tiptoes Nursery Group in East Yorkshire, and the largest independently owned nursery group of 24 settings, Children 1st Day Nurseries.

We saw an increase in appetite from medium groups: this buyer category acquired 5% of all day nursery transactions in 2023, which rose to 19% in 2024. Conversely, compared with the prior year, 2024 saw a decrease in appetite from smaller groups, single settings and first-time buyers, with these buyers acquiring just 15% of assets in 2024 compared with 33% in 2023.

Buyers remained keen to acquire both leasehold and freehold opportunities, although there remains a lean towards leasehold sales, with 61% of day nurseries sold in 2024 being leasehold compared with 57% in 2023 and 59% in 2022.

There are several factors driving this trend. Leasehold provides a lower entry point for buyers as there is no real estate to pay for, so it is often seen as a more affordable option. Meanwhile, many

owners see the advantage of holding onto their properties and creating a lease with a rent which provides an excellent return on investment as well as the flexibility to sell the property later.

Additionally, some of the larger acquirers in the market have been just as happy to buy without the backstop of an asset as long as the lease on offer is commercial and secure and of a decent length to provide them with the security of tenure.

Corporate and large groups acquired smaller settings last year, with the average having 86 places compared with 92 places in 2023. Smaller groups acquired larger settings, with the average changing from a 62-place nursery to a 67-place nursery, while there was little change in the settings acquired by independents and first-time buyers.

There was positive news on the cost of borrowing front last year, with inflation beginning to settle close to the Bank of England’s target of 2%, and interest rates have been falling in line with this. The cost of borrowing has a direct effect on the affordability for buyers looking to consolidate and expand.

A shift in geographies

Where previously there was a notable

concentration of buyers seeking settings in London and the Southeast, activity in 2024 stretched across all areas of the UK. Given the high levels of competitive tension, buyers began to seek nurseries in alternative areas, looking for value for money. These other areas offered the opportunity to acquire nurseries that would generate a similar amount of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) but sometimes with lower overheads and the potential for any

Nick Brown

property deal to be more balanced in terms of value against prices than those which were being seen, for example, in London.

Once deals were completed in other major cities across the county, more and more buyers became aware that this was a good route to explore. We are now seeing activity right across the UK and buyers are increasingly looking for the next location to invest in. As Covid-19 changed the demographic in terms of commuting parents and childcare requirements, more rural nurseries are beginning to really flourish and see occupancy growth.

Most active buyers who are keen to acquire a foothold in a certain area need some form of scale to be able to enter a new territory. Buying a small group is an ideal solution to this and provides a platform for further expansion. Alternatively, if the provision in a specific area is fragmented then buyers may also consider buying the best nursery in that location, with a plan already in place to acquire other settings in a short space of time building this into a cluster. This is one of the ways we have seen operators continue to consolidate and expand into new territories.

Investor appetite

From an investment perspective, interest in the UK day nursery market in 2024 was fuelled not only by the extended early years entitlement and increased governmentbacked income in the sector, but also by a shift in investors focusing on social impact investment opportunities, ethical investing, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations. The past 12 months saw a notable increase in medium-sized groups making selective acquisitions to expand their regional footprints. There was also no shortage in demand from investors and buyers seeking platform acquisitions and opportunities to consolidate via the

acquisition of high-quality, larger capacity settings within the UK’s children’s day nursery sector.

Challenges

Despite a buoyant marketplace, the sector continues to face challenges that impact day nursery owners and their decisions to sell or acquire.

In summer 2024, having won the general election, the Labour government began implementing some of the pledges in its manifesto. For childcare, this meant creating 3,000 new nursery classes across England, with a pilot scheme initially launched for 300 state nurseries to be operational by September 2025.

Ahead of the autumn budget, October proved to be an unprecedented month for completions at Christie & Co, as owners progressed sales processes endeavouring to close deals ahead of the announced policy and tax changes. This led to a surge in business owners deciding to sell. The budget announcement that followed saw rises in Capital Gains Tax (CGT), National Insurance Contributions (NICs) and National Living Wage (NLW) which will, no doubt, impact day nursery owners across the country.

Pricing

The average price of day nurseries we sold in 2024 increased by 7.7% compared with 2023.

The quality of provision transacted in 2024 was notably stronger than in 2023, with high volumes of investment-grade transactions completed. The average price of medium group portfolio sales increased by over 10%, while small group, single settings sales were flatter in pricing terms reflecting a tone in the order of one per cent pricing increase.

The comparative premiums paid for

portfolios, linked to the configuration, quality and nature of assets, alongside the type of buyer and their desires to acquire multiple nurseries in a single transaction, may influence this increase in medium group prices. However single asset settings remain in high demand and exceptional prices have continued to be achieved for those of high-quality in desirable locations.

Market sentiment

As part of our annual sentiment survey, we asked childcare and education professionals across the country for their views on the year ahead. When questioned about their sentiment in 2025, 29% said they feel positive, and 31% feel negative, while the majority (40%) remain neutral, which illustrates the uncertainty in the sector. When asked about their sale and acquisition plans, 62% stated that they are looking to buy and/or sell this year.

Predictions for 2025

In the day nursery market in 2025, we expect to see:

• Continued interest in platform acquisitions, expansion and growth opportunities from entrants, established and new

• High demand for quality leasehold and freehold opportunities across the UK

• Further consolidation from large- and medium-sized groups seeking acquisition opportunities

• Buyers will increasingly scrutinise parental demographics when considering acquisitions and undertaking due diligence

• With the 2025-26 Early Years Pupil Premium funding rates not factoring in NIC increases, some settings will face greater financial sustainability challenges.■

property spotlight

Child-centric design

Hugh McEwen, a founder at Office S&M Architects, gives pointers on how to deliver a wellbeing-focused early years setting.

We know that children’s wellbeing can be supported through a nursery’s curriculum, resources, and operation, but wellbeing can also be delivered through the design of a setting’s spaces.

Buildings should be designed to make people healthy and happy, and this is why considering wellbeing is so important from a child-centric approach. Though careful design we can improve health and wellbeing by positively affecting everything from sleeping and eating, through to movement and breathing.

Lighting, heating, and ventilation have significant physiological effects on our bodies, and the regulation of these is key, particularly for children whose bodies are learning to self-regulate.

Office S&M recently completed the interior design for MEplace’s first city centre nursery, MEplace KX, delivering the childcare brand’s desire for a joyful but minimal space. MEplace began life when founder Vlada Bell became a new mum and decided to create her own nursery with a focus on mental and physical

health, where every child is valued and feels confident to share their feelings, interests and ideas, and where parents feel fully involved. The group now has three nurseries in Kings Cross, Islington and Hackney Wick.

What were the challenges and how did you overcome them?

When we began collaborating with MEplace, it was already a flourishing brand with two established sites. However, the group had faced challenges with the durability of previous designs, and had concerns that some of the spaces in the settings failed to fully align with its brand identity of joyful minimalism. Through close collaboration, MEplace and Office S&M created a new space that functions beautifully but also perfectly embodies the MEplace brand.

What was the thinking behind the design?

Office S&M worked closely with MEplace throughout the design and construction of the purpose-built nursery. The MEplace team was supported by Office S&M’s architects and interior designers from the initial feasibility study through to construction. Regular workshops with the MEplace education team ensured that the spaces were carefully planned to encompass learning zones and furniture to support the bespoke pedagogy of the

nursery.

By utilising 3D models and collaborative schedules using Google Documents, the interior design and furniture were arranged to support the nursery’s teaching methodology, while enabling future flexibility. The environment not only meets, but exceeds, the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory Framework requirements, and each wing of the nursery offers direct access to storage, toilets, and open space.

What did the nursery want to achieve?

MEplace is committed to the holistic education and wellbeing of children. Central to this mission is the creation of spaces that encourage independent exploration and development. This is reflected in every detail of the new MEplace nursery, from a colour scheme and visuals that help children build a sense of self and community, to carefully-scaled fittings that empower their independence.

“Since our beginnings, we’ve been committed to delivering exceptional education and care focused on mental and physical health in the early years,” says Bell. “Our aim has always been to uphold the highest quality standards, prioritising the wellbeing of our children and families rather than pursuing growth for its own sake. We strive for expansion with integrity, continuing to make a positive

impact in the thriving communities we’re part of. MEplace KX is a continuation of that promise.”

How important is sustainability?

A dedication to sustainability is evident throughout the nursery. The fit-out uses natural materials, from the timber structure to wooden furniture. Low Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) paints are designed to create good air quality and not give off fumes, while filtered ventilation also delivers excellent air quality for little lungs.

Water is also filtered, and children are provided with a plant-based menu of nutritious food. Each room is comfortcontrolled to warm or cool the space as needed, since children will go from being active to sleeping, requiring different temperatures in each case.

Finally, the design prioritises ample natural light, with blinds to adjust the light throughout the day. Additional artificial light can be “tuned” to create cooler and warmer atmospheres, which helps with the circadian rhythm (sleep cycle). For example, cooler light makes us feel more awake during the day because it stimulates the production of cortisol, and warmer light helps us feel sleepy because it reduces cortisol production.

Each of these features contributes to the children’s wellbeing and was integrated right from the project’s beginnings by drawing on Office S&M’s expertise in human-centric design. “Sustainability is a guiding principle in the MEplace approach, both as a curriculum topic and embedded in our operations,” explains Bell. “Every choice throughout this project reflects our commitment to environmental sustainability and wholelife carbon considerations. We want our actions to reflect our company values, inspiring a sense of stewardship among

our children and team. We hold a sense of responsibility, not only to those we serve now, but also to future generations who will inherit the world we shape.”

What was innovative about the design?

Office S&M’s approach was inspired by teachings from Maria Montessori, who described a child’s environment as their “third teacher”. With this in mind, Office S&M designed the new space as a learning tool — an idea developed through a series of in-depth workshops with the MEplace educational team. The design invites children to explore and develop their “self-concept” - the perception that we have of ourselves, which includes knowing about one’s own tendencies, thoughts, preferences and habits, hobbies, skills, and areas of weakness.

Each age group has a distinct colour scheme, delivered through pops of colour at child height, which encourages children to identify their own space and connect with peers. Meanwhile, the MEplace logo’s signature red is used for interactive elements, from hooks to handles, fostering children’s independence. By using neutral colours throughout the interiors, brighter colours are then employed to guide children.

The brand’s strong online graphic identity has been brought to life in the physical space with functional elements that directly benefit children. This is delivered through Office S&M’s “functional colour” approach, which uses colour theory to change the scale and improve the function of spaces. There are studies of human vision that show if we paint a wall in a contrasting colour then it will feel closer to us. In this way, we can make rooms feel more akin to the scale of children by having higher contrast between the walls and ceiling which

makes the ceiling feel lower.

How does it foster children’s development?

The new nursery spaces have been designed with a calming colour scheme to make the interiors seem homely. A dado painted at child height makes the 3.7m tall rooms feel more intimate and comfortable for children. Each sink is ergonomically raised to the correct height for the specific age group it is serving, to promote independence.

Controls and security features have been positioned above children’s eyeline and reach. Cross-laminated timber ceilings and columns, paired with cork protectors, provide an abundance of natural materials. Each of these choices makes the space both comfortable and empowering for the children it is designed for.

“Balancing this dedication to sustainability with considerations of operational efficiency was a key part of our work with Office S&M, and our collaboration has allowed us to see our ambitions fully realised,” concludes Bell. “The design perfectly embodies our vision of providing holistic care in a purposeful, inviting space which is true to our values. MEplace KX is more than a building; it’s an embodiment of our enduring commitment to quality and community. We’ve loved welcoming our children into the space, and we’re excited to carry on our partnership with Office S&M as MEplace continues to grow.”■

Embrace flexible working

Social enterprise Timewise has been working with nursery groups to support their personnel needs. Charlotte Goddard finds out how a flexible approach could help solve the early years recruitment crisis.

The early years workforce needs to expand by 35,000 staff by next autumn, from its baseline in December 2023, to meet demand for places driven by the expansion of the funded entitlement. This is against a backdrop of continued challenges around recruitment, with the National Day Nurseries Association’s last workforce survey showing 90% of settings find recruiting Level 3 staff “difficult” or “very difficult”.

Social enterprise Timewise thinks it might have the answer. Its recent analysis found that levels of part-time work in private, voluntary and independent nurseries fell from 31% in 2018 to 28% in 2021. Just returning to 2018 levels could fill 17,850 of the 35,000 vacancies, it says.

“There is a recruitment and retention crisis in the childcare sector,” says Nicola Pease, lead principal consultant at Timewise. “It has higher attrition rates than many other sectors coupled with an inability to recruit people into roles.”

Low staffing levels combined with longer opening hours have led to settings tending to recruit for full-time positions rather than part-time in order to plug gaps, she says. However, this quick-fix approach excludes a pool of potential

“Low staffing levels combined with longer opening hours have led to settings tending to recruit for full-time positions rather than part-time in order to plug gaps.”

childcare workers who could fill more gaps given the chance.

Timewise worked with the Early Years Alliance and London Early Years Foundation on a two-year project exploring the role that more positive flexible working cultures could play in improving staff wellbeing and attracting a more diverse pool of candidates, including older workers and those with caring responsibilities. The organisation had already successfully promoted flexible working in a number of other sectors, including healthcare and construction, and was able to draw on some of its findings, while also looking at some of the unique challenges of the early years sector.

When other sectors, such as retail, offer opportunities for flexible working that the early education sector lacks, it’s bad news for childcare recruitment and retention. “The workforce is around 97% female, with the majority aged between 25 and 39, so they are going to need their own flexibility whether they are caring for their own children, caring for elderly parents, or have their own health conditions,” says Pease.

Challenges

Childcare is particularly challenging when it comes to flexible working, given the need to meet statutory ratios of adults to children and ensure that practitioners are covering the same hours that their key children are attending the setting. Matching the flexible working hours requested by staff with the flexible placement hours parents increasingly demand can be a massive headache for nursery managers.

“The need to ensure the correct staffing ratios is perceived as a barrier to flexibility,” says Pease. “However, with careful planning of schedules it

is possible to offer staff more flexible options. For example, consider whether a full shift could be covered by two similarly qualified practitioners or whether children could have a principal and secondary key worker to enable both members of staff to have flexibility, while maintaining consistency for the child and parents.”

Timewise encourages providers to look at the workforce as a whole when considering what flexibility they can offer, rather than dealing with individual requests as and when they come in. “A lot of the work we did with the providers was around mindset change and thinking differently,” says Pease. “We encourage managers to have open proactive conversations with all staff, rather than responding to individual requests as they come along. If you take a holistic approach, looking at all of the rooms, and all of the individual requirements, you can find ways to balance the service design with what team members want. Otherwise you find that you already have two people in that room working parttime, so you can’t have anybody else, and it restricts the levels of flexibility that people can have.”

Technology

Timewise also found that technology is not being used to its full extent in the early years sector, compared to, say, the healthcare sector. “Rotas are done on a piece of paper and a spreadsheet,” says Pease. “We have seen technology used in the NHS which gives workers more control over their working patterns. I don’t know that you would go as far as self-rostering in the early years sector, but there’s room for more input from practitioners into their own shift patterns.”

Managers in the project often

expressed a concern that giving practitioners opportunities to work flexibly had the opposite effect on their own workload. “Responsibilities and the burden of covering rooms often just roll upwards,” says Pease. “Where we found examples of good practice was either where managers were able to job share, or where there was a really strong deputy who allows the manager to have some flexibility in their own work by stepping up and covering for them when needed, rather than being used as cover in the rooms.”

The Employment Rights Bill, going

• Think differently Flexible working doesn’t just mean part-time working, it can also include compressed hours, staggered start and finish times, job share arrangements or flexitime where working times are varied around a set of core hours.

• Equip managers and room leaders Managers’ attitude and approach to flexibility is a critical success factor. Assess levels of support with Timewise’s Flexiblity Maturity Curve, available on the Timewise Early Years Roadmap, ranging from ‘1 – Tolerate when requested’ to ‘5

– Encourage and celebrate’. Support managers to understand what flexible working can look like in the early years and discuss with peers

through Parliament at the time of writing, is set to give workers more rights around flexible working. “It puts the onus on the employer to explore all of the possibilities before a request to work flexibly is rejected, whereas previously the onus was very much on the individual to prove why it could work,” says Pease. Employees will be able to make two requests for flexible working over a 12-month period instead of one. Some of the nurseries in the project changed their approach to recruitment, matching shift times with periods of high demand during the day and stating

from other settings or across the provider group what has been tried successfully

• Find space and time for flexible working Review regular or predictable activities such as handovers, reports and rostering, and consider how they can be done more flexibly – for example, can handovers be shared between two key workers? Consider how technology could free up time, for example in admin tasks.

• Open up the conversation Move away from just thinking about flexibility in response to an individual employee’s request and towards a more proactive, wholesetting, team-based approach to flexibility. Some examples are

this clearly on the job ads. One provider, for example, placed advertisements for part-time shift patterns of 15 hours a week, term-time only, aligning with the government-funded early education provision of 15 hours a week for children over nine months old.

Storkway Nursery, an Early Years Alliance setting, has successfully introduced flexible working, offering compressed hours so practitioners work 40 hours across four days instead of five. Assistant manager Luke, for example, found working 40 hours a day across five full days to be challenging when he

agreements on shift-swaps or providing cover support for different rooms to enable a member of staff to come in later one day a week.

• Test and measure Don’t be afraid to try out new working patterns, new ways of rostering or new recruitment campaigns. Before trying anything out consider your measures of success – how will you know if this achieves what you want it to? For example, if this is about recruiting more qualified staff through offering an alternative shift pattern, such as 10am to 2pm, you will want to measure how many applications you receive versus previous advertisements for roles at the same level.

Helping your Human Resources to Blossom

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nmtrecruitment

“If we can find a working pattern that suits our needs, we’re more likely to want to stay in our setting which in the long run is really beneficial for the children.”

needed eye surgery.

“Often, I was using up half a day of annual leave each time I had a hospital appointment, and I started thinking

Kids Planet Day Nurseries

“At Kids Planet, we are very aware that accepting a flexible working request is an opportunity to retain a valued employee and will do our best to accommodate their needs,” says Nicky Richiusa, people director at Kids Planet Day Nurseries. “Although there are formalities to follow, this is about having an open and honest conversation about what could work for the individual and for the nursery.”

The group needs to consider issues such as occupancy, key person requirements, team shift patterns and other colleagues’ previous requests when considering a request. “Giving consideration to various options is

‘is this really the best way?’” he says. “It prompted a conversation with my manager who, at the time, was also looking for someone to cover longer hours. We chatted and began to explore other working pattern options. We arrived at a trial of compressed hours – whereby I’d still do my 40 hours (getting my usual pay), but I’d spread it across four longer days (ten hours a day), leaving me with a full day to myself each week.”

Offering flexible working opportunities can be a successful tool when it comes to retention. “It’s not a well-paid job. That’s not why people do it,” says Luke. “You’ve got to want to do it and we don’t get loads of thanks so to

important as well as understanding the reasons for the request and taking a compassionate approach,” says Richiusa.

Adaptations that can be made include investigating whether other team members can be flexible with their working pattern, asking supply team members if they can swap to fixed hours, a transfer to another nursery, temporary arrangements, or being flexible on an ad-hoc basis.

“If we unfortunately cannot accommodate the request then it will always be reconsidered as circumstances evolve and some may opt for a supply contract to enable more flexibility,” explains Richiusa.

be offered this kind of flexibility feels very rewarding, like a little something in return.” The longer shift is also beneficial for parents and children, he says. “Me being there from start to finish means children are getting good continuity of care, I’m able to observe them in their learning environment throughout the day and I’m able to build stronger bonds with parents.”

Nursery worker Ellie also took up the compressed hours offer. “The way I see it, it’s positive all round,” she concludes. “If we can find a working pattern that suits our needs, we’re more likely to want to stay in our setting which in the long run is really beneficial for the children.” ■

Kids Planet also takes a flexible approach to working hours through the whole recruitment process. “We do not advertise working hours on vacancy adverts and candidates state their availability and preference during the selection stage,” says Richiusa.

“The focus is on recruiting the right candidate and then the manager will work out how they can accommodate them. We don’t tend to lose good candidates on the basis of availability as they will also be shared across our other nurseries in the area, offered a temporary shift pattern or a supply contract as an interim until their requirement can be accommodated.”

Credit: Kids Planet Day Nurseries

compliance

Raising standards

Lisa Nichols, early years quality manager for Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries, explains why a robust audit process is an essential part of maintaining high standards and gives her advice on how to excel in Ofsted inspections

Auditing processes play an essential part in maintaining high standards in any industry, and in early years education, they play a crucial role in ensuring children receive the best possible learning experiences. A good audit doesn’t just check for compliance – it provides actionable insights, tailored support and a roadmap for improvement.

Setting the stage for success

Our audits are designed to support our nurseries in being the best they can be, helping them comply with industry standards and confidently prepare for Ofsted inspections. At Monkey Puzzle, we don’t see audits as a box-ticking exercise; they’re an integral part of the high-quality care and education we provide to children.

So, what does the audit process look like? Typically, nurseries undergo their first Ofsted inspection between 17 and 30 months of opening, but at Monkey Puzzle, we get started much earlier. Our first audit, which essentially mimics an inspection - and then some – usually takes place 12 to 18 months after launch. This gives our early years quality team plenty of time to work closely with staff, ensuring everything is in place and ready for inspection time.

“Our audits are designed to support our nurseries in being the best they can be, helping them comply with industry standards and confidently prepare for Ofsted inspections.”

In addition to this early start, we conduct monthly visits to each setting. These visits, which can last up to six hours, are sometimes announced but may also not be, depending on circumstances. They’re a chance to address specific concerns or to get ready for a potential inspection.

Our audits align closely with Ofsted’s framework, using tools like the inspection handbook to guarantee full compliance with welfare requirements. However, we also extend our focus to include areas that may not always be emphasised during an inspection – we want to dig deeper, particularly into the data. For instance, we include detailed reviews of specific aspects, such as health and safety, safeguarding practices or dietary requirements. This creates a wellrounded approach that complements the broader goals of an Ofsted visit.

Recognising that no two nurseries are exactly alike, our audits are tailored to the individual needs of each setting. By breaking larger inspection categories into smaller, focused components, we’re able to address every detail comprehensively and effectively, leaving nothing to chance.

Turning insights into action

For us, the audit process doesn’t end when the visit is over. In fact, what happens afterwards is the most critical part of ensuring the success of the setting. It’s all well and good conducting a thorough audit, but the real value lies in how nurseries engage with the feedback provided. This stage transforms observations into improvements, helping nurseries stay at the top of their game when inspection time rolls around.

Following each audit, we provide a

Lisa Nichols

detailed and comprehensive report that outlines our findings, offering practical solutions for that setting. Our reports prioritise including actionable steps to address specific areas of improvement. This approach gives nurseries a clear path forward, helping them implement meaningful changes that elevate their standards.

We design bespoke 12-week action plans to guide nurseries through the next phase. Sometimes improvements may only be required in one age group or room, and in cases where nurseries are fully compliant with our findings, a 12-week plan might not be necessary at all. The key is consistent communication, making sure the support provided is always relevant, effective and tailored to each setting.

Regular follow-ups are central to this process. We don’t just hand over a report and step away, we’re there to track progress, provide guidance and refine approaches as needed. Whether it’s sending tools to address certain issues or offering additional advice, our ongoing support means that improvements are not only implemented but sustained. By actively engaging with our feedback and leveraging the resources we provide, our settings can confidently prepare for upcoming inspections. This collaborative approach is crucial to our auditing process – identifying areas for improvement only goes so far. It is about working together to achieve lasting excellence in the early years services we provide.

The world of early years education is constantly evolving, so being proactive is crucial. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework is regularly updated, for example, the information around dietary requirements for our children, meaning best practices are constantly shifting. At Monkey Puzzle, we take pride in our ability to adapt and guide our nurseries through these changes, ensuring they remain compliant and confident at every stage.

Our early years quality team has more than 100 years of combined experience. This expertise shapes every aspect of our process, making sure nurseries receive practical, informed guidance every step of the way. For instance, we know offering support from a distance doesn’t work. With our hands-on approach, including regular physical visits and continuous availability, whether answering a quick question or offering in-depth advice, we’re always ready to lend a helping hand. We believe this approach helps build confidence, trust and long-term success for every setting we work with.

By addressing potential challenges early, we help nurseries stay on track – think of it as prevention rather than cure. This proactive mindset, along with significant investment in our team, has contributed to our success: as of December 2024, we’ve achieved a 100% success rate in our audits leading to

nurseries rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted.

Our top tips

1. Engage with feedback – once the audit is complete, the real work begins. Embrace the feedback, use the tools and resources provided and implement the action plan. It will lead to meaningful improvements that will benefit your team and the children in your care.

2. Focus on daily compliance and quality improvement – compliance isn’t something to be left to the last minute. The more attention you give to maintaining high standards, the smoother the audit process will go. Small changes made consistently lead to big improvements over time.

3. Trust the team – It’s important to lean on expertise in our industry. After all, we have the same goals. Trust the process and don’t hesitate to reach out when you need advice or clarification.

Our auditing process is about much more than complying with guidelines and requirements. It supports our nurseries to deliver high-quality early years education. Our ultimate goal is to help every nursery achieve excellence and strive for that Outstanding rating. What really matters is that it’s our job to guide our settings through every step of their compliance journey, ensuring they have the tools and expertise to thrive – we’re all in it together.■

Staying ahead of the game

Small change, big impact

Empower your staff with high-quality and accessible CPD in 2025

Are you Ofsted ready?

There are five areas of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) that your staff must show learning and improvement in when Ofsted come knocking. While it may seem to be for the purpose of ticking a box, it’s really so the development experiences for children in your setting continually improve.

These five statutory areas cover: safeguarding, paediatric first aid, food hygiene, general childcare and induction training. That’s five areas that take money and time from you and your staff, and attention away from your children. If your staff are going to develop and provide exemplary childcare at the same time, they’re going to need accessible CPD courses to do it.

The challenge, of course, is finding the time and resources to make it happen.

In childcare, time and money is at a premium

From managing lively rooms of little learners to meeting compliance standards, it can feel like there’s never enough time for your team to focus on professional development. Meaning for many early years professionals, CPD can feel like homework.

Long training sessions, logistical headaches, and tight budgets often lead to CPD being pushed down the priority list. But low priority for you doesn’t mean low priority for Ofsted. Staying up-to-date remains crucial for the benefit of your staff and your children. As is doing it in a way that doesn’t cause your team a headache.

A small change…

Investing in your team’s CPD doesn’t have to mean hours away from your setting or additional stress. Fortunately, there are accessible solutions to balance professional development with operational efficiency. Through NoodleNow! you can avoid your team taking time for in-person training by using online-only courses. With

the most affordable CPD-certified solution in the UK, you receive unbeatable value for your team’s professional development. With its user-friendly system, bite-sized modules and vast training library, your team will be easily upskilled at a pace that suits them. Thanks to over 120 courses, your team can go well beyond their statutory requirements and learn all sorts of additional childcare skills at their leisure.

…leads to a big impact

With NoodleNow!, your team gains richer CVs and enhanced childcare skills, elevating your setting and attracting the best practitioners.

Working in tandem with NoodleNow! and nursery management software like Blossom, you can show Ofsted how you’re empowering your team to succeed. Ofsted could pick any member of the team at random, and you would be able to demonstrate every way they’ve grown: instantly.

And that’s to say nothing about how happy your parents will be when they see the improvements in their child’s key carer. Better observations, fostered development and greater support, all from an intuitive e-learning platform and your nursery management software.

Online CPD isn’t just about convenience – it’s about empowering educators to feel prepared for whatever challenges come their way.

A powerful partnership NoodleNow! recently became part of the KidsKonnect family, joining Blossom Educational in our shared mission of improving childcare and nursery management across the UK. As part of the KidsKonnect family and to celebrate the new year, we’d like to offer you our greatest deal ever.

If you’re a Blossom customer, you can now get NoodleNow! free for a year. And if you’re a NoodleNow! customer, you can get Blossom’s nursery management software free for six whole months.

The nation’s leading e-learning platform coupled with nursery management software designed by nursery owners, for nursery owners, making for an exceptional partnership.

2025 is going to be a year of change in the UK childcare industry, and Blossom and NoodleNow! are here to support and see you through all of it.■

For more information, visit blossomeducational.com/noodlenow

Financial challenges

Leena Birdi, partner at law firm Birdi & Co, assesses the impact of changes to employer contributions to National Insurance – what will this mean for smaller providers?

Nursery owners in the UK are facing one challenge after another. Rising costs, workforce shortages, and now, recent changes to National Insurance (NI) rates. For smaller, single-site nurseries, the pressure is reaching boiling point. These increases could be the tipping point for many, with some nurseries struggling to keep their heads above water. So, what does it all mean for nursery owners, and the wider sector?

Rising costs and tighter margins

Let’s face it – nurseries were already working with slim margins. Staffing costs are the biggest chunk of a nursery’s budget, and with wages rising in response to ongoing recruitment challenges, this has become an even bigger burden. Now, with the new NI rates coming into play, those costs are about to increase even more. This will put significant pressure on nurseries that are already juggling rising energy bills, insurance premiums, and general operational costs. Profit margins, already tight, are getting even tighter.

Some nurseries may look to increase fees to cover these higher costs, but there’s a catch. If fees rise too much, they risk pricing out parents, making childcare unaffordable for some families. This creates a dangerous cycle: higher fees could lead to fewer parents signing up, which only makes the financial situation worse.

A sector under strain

It’s clear that the rising costs, combined with staffing shortages and increased financial pressures, are creating a perfect storm. For many small, single-site nursery providers, the reality is that they might not be able to continue operating in this environment. The cost of running a nursery is becoming unsustainable for some owners, and we may start to see closures or insolvencies in the sector.

If nurseries close, the options for parents become more limited, further tightening

an already competitive and scarce childcare market. But these challenges are also creating ripple effects further down the line.

Consolidation: an opportunity for some, a threat to others

For larger operators or those with the financial backing to weather the storm, this period of pressure could present an opportunity. With smaller providers struggling, there’s a growing chance that they’ll look to sell their businesses. For buyers and investors with deep pockets, this could open up opportunities to acquire smaller nurseries at lower prices, and consolidate the sector even further.

In fact, this is exactly what we are starting to see – larger nursery chains are looking to snap up single-site operators in a bid to expand and strengthen their position in the market. But, as is always the case in M&A, there are risks involved. Buyers will need to carefully assess the long-term viability of the nurseries they are looking to acquire, considering factors such as the impact of increased fees on demand, potential service reductions, and the ongoing regulatory pressures that could further squeeze margins.

What this means for existing nursery owners

For existing nursery owners, the financial pressures brought on by these changes will require careful navigation. Some owners may decide that selling is the best option, particularly if they are finding it difficult to maintain profitability. Those who are thinking about selling will need to consider whether now is the right time to get out of the market, given the current climate and the impact of these NI changes.

On the flip side, for nursery owners who are planning to hold on, it’s important to take a step back and assess the longer-term outlook. What can you do to strengthen your nursery’s financial position? Can you

absorb the cost increases without passing them all onto parents? Can you find ways to increase efficiency or reduce overheads without compromising on quality?

What does the future hold?

These changes to National Insurance rates are going to have a lasting impact on the nursery sector. While it’s undoubtedly a tough time for smaller providers, it also marks a period of transition. There will likely be more opportunities for buyers, but this could also mean that some smaller businesses will need to consolidate or close.

Whether you’re a nursery owner looking to adapt to the new normal, or a potential buyer looking to seize an opportunity, understanding the shifting landscape will be key. Now more than ever, it’s important to make informed decisions. Seek out professional advice to navigate these challenges and ensure your business remains resilient in these turbulent times.

If you’re uncertain about how these changes might affect you, or you’re considering buying or selling a nursery, now is the time to get the right legal guidance. The decisions you make today could shape the future of your business for years to come.■

Leena Birdi

Seven proven steps to winning parents’ hearts

Justin Deaville, managing director of Receptional, on how nurseries can create an online presence that not only informs but also reassures and inspires parents

In today’s digital world, nurseries have a golden opportunity to connect with parents online. But how do you cut through the noise and show families your nursery is the perfect fit? At my marketing agency, Receptional, we asked more than 400 parents about their nursery search.

Here’s what we found:

• Trust is critical: Parents are looking for nurseries they can rely on.

• Reviews are crucial: 68% of parents say reviews influence their decision.

• Websites matter: 62% of parents use nursery web sites to find information.

• Video is powerful: 57% of parents love video tours and testimonials.

• Clear information is essential: 48% of parents want transparent pricing and service details.

• Mobile-friendly is a must: Over 80% of parents research on their phones. Based on these findings, here are seven ways to boost your online presence.

1. Create a website that builds trust

Our survey shows that 62% of parents rely on nursery websites when doing their research. So, how can you make sure your website gives a great first impression?

• Clear, friendly information about your nursery and what makes it special

• A professional look that matches your nursery’s personality

• Easy-to-use menus and pages

• Proudly displayed accreditations and awards

Here’s how to make your website shine:

1. Review your website regularly. Make sure all information is up to date.

2. Add trust signals like security badges

and transparent privacy policies.

3. Create a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section that answers common parent questions.

4. Include staff profiles with qualifications and a bit about their experience.

Remember, your website is a chance to show parents why your nursery is special. Make it informative, welcoming, and easy to use.

2. Make sure your website works well on mobile

More than 80% of parents in our survey said they use their smartphones to look up nurseries. That means your website must look great and work smoothly on mobile devices.

What makes a good mobile experience:

• Fast loading times

• Easy-to-use menus

• Text you can read without zooming

• Buttons that are easy to tap

• Forms that are simple to fill out on a phone

It sounds simple, but if these basics aren’t met, users will quickly feel frustrated and leave your website, never to return.

Here’s how to improve your mobile site:

1. Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check your website.

2. Check your website adjusts to fit different screen sizes.

3. Optimize your images and videos so they load quickly.

4. Create a simple process for booking nursery tours.

Our research shows Family First has invested in mobile optimisation and leads the pack.

A website that works well on mobile makes it easy for busy parents to find

the information they need whenever and wherever they’re looking. Often, it’s helpful to ask an independent outsider to review your site and provide feedback.

3. Use video to showcase your nursery

Parents love to see what’s happening inside a nursery. That’s why 57% of parents in our survey said video content helps them choose a nursery. Videos let you show off your space, your staff, and the daily fun children have.

However, nursery brands are failing to invest in video. Types of videos that work well:

• Virtual tours of your nursery

• A day in the life of a child at your nursery

• Interviews with your staff

• Parent testimonials

• Snippets of activities and learning moments

Videos help parents picture their child at nursery. They’re a powerful way to build trust and excitement.

4. Gather and share parent testimonials

Nothing beats a recommendation from another parent. Our survey found that 68% of parents say testimonials and reviews are the most helpful content available.

Here’s what we learned about reviews:

• 66% of women and 54% of men like to read reviews on the nursery’s website

• 45% of women and 53% of men check forums and parenting groups for opinions

How to make the most of testimonials: 1. Ask happy parents to leave reviews on your website and other platforms.

2. Create a page on your website just for testimonials.

3. Respond to all reviews, good or bad, in a friendly and professional way.

4. Use a mix of written and video testimonials.

5. Include testimonials about your staff, safety measures, or learning activities. Remember, honest reviews from real parents are marketing gold dust. Sprinkle liberally!

5. Be open and clear in your communication

Parents appreciate straightforward information. Our survey showed that 48% of parents value precise pricing details and thorough descriptions of services. What to be clear about:

• Pricing and any extra fees

• Daily routines and activities

• Health, safety, and behaviour policies

• How you communicate with parents

• How enrolment works, including waiting lists

Ways to improve your communication:

1. Have a clear, easy-to-understand pricing page on your website.

2. Use simple diagrams or pictures to show daily schedules and activities.

3. Make your policies available for parents to read or download.

4. Use blog posts or newsletters to keep parents in the loop about what’s happening at the nursery. Being open builds trust. The more

information you share, the more confident parents will feel about choosing your nursery.

6. Share your expertise

Parents are always eager to learn more about childcare and development. By sharing your knowledge, you show your expertise.

Ideas for helpful content:

• Blog posts about child development

• Guides for parents (like “Preparing Your Child for Nursery”)

• Online workshops about parenting or early education

• Podcasts featuring your staff or child experts

• Email newsletters with tips and advice

How to create great content:

1. Plan out topics that parents are interested in.

2. Get your staff involved in creating content – they’re the experts!

3. Use SEO techniques to help your content appear in Google’s search results.

4. Share your content on social media to reach more people.

5. Offer more in-depth guides in exchange for email sign-ups.

7. Build an online community for parents

Creating a community around your nursery can help build trust and loyalty. It gives parents a chance to connect with your nursery.

Ways to build community:

• Be active on social media

• Create online groups or forums for parents

• Host virtual events or workshops

• Encourage parents to share their experiences (with permission)

• Ask for feedback through polls or surveys

Tips for community building:

1. Start a private Facebook group for nursery parents.

2. Hold monthly online coffee mornings or Q&A sessions.

3. Run fun contests or challenges that parents and children can do together.

4. Share stories and photos from the nursery (always with proper permissions).

5. Listen to what parents say online about your nursery and join the conversation.

A strong community makes parents feel supported and connected to your nursery.

Bringing it all together

Our survey shows parents actively seek trustworthy, clear, and engaging information online.

By implementing these ideas, you can create an online presence that not only informs but also reassures and inspires parents. This way, you’ll become the nursery parents trust and choose for their children.■

Navigating the world of HR

Ella Halliday, founder and managing director of Childcare HR, sets out changes in employment law that could impact your business in 2025

Last year saw a big shift in employment law, with the Labour government promising huge reforms, largely in favour of the employee. Navigating the world of human resources in early years is harder than ever before.

What changes did we see in 2024?

Holiday pay

The process of calculating annual leave for part-year workers, such as practitioners working term time only, or those working different hours each week, like bank or casual workers, was simplified. Until now part-time workers were entitled to the statutory 5.6 weeks of holiday a year even if they worked for only one week in the year. Since April 2024, employers can calculate holiday based on the number of days worked in a year.

Holiday entitlement for part-time workers is now calculated as 12.07% of actual hours worked in a pay period. So if someone is paid per month and worked 68 hours, they will accrue eight hours of holiday.

This change could represent significant savings for employers who no longer have to pay 5.6 weeks of holiday for every employee. If this change in legislation affects your business, before making any changes, communicate with your employees on how this will affect them. Workplace expert Acas has some helpful guidance.

Flexible working

• Employees now have a right to request flexible working from the first day of employment and the ability to submit two requests a year, rather than one

• Employers now have two months not three to respond to a request

• The employee no longer has to identify the impact their request would have on the business

Make sure your business has an updated

flexible working policy in place and that your managers are aware of how to use it. The legal reasons for refusing a flexible working request remain unchanged.

Redundancy protections for pregnant workers

Redundancy protections, previously only given to those on maternity leave, were extended to pregnant employees and those who have returned from maternity leave, for a period of six months. This means that:

• Those eligible should be offered any reasonable alternative role automatically, ahead of those in work

• The selection scoring for redundancy, where employers score employees against a number of criteria and add up the scores to make a decision, should not be detrimental to those in this category. For example, looking at absence rates could be detrimental to a pregnant employee.

• Somone cannot be selected for redundancy because they are on maternity leave or pregnant.

Always take advice when considering redundancies. Given the early years workforce is 97% female these are important changes for nursery owners and managers to be aware of.

Carer’s leave

Brand new legislation was put in place in 2024, giving employees the right to take one week every year, unpaid, to care for a dependent who has a long-term care need. A dependent can be a child, partner or spouse, a parent, or someone who depends on them for care.

Employees are eligible from day one of employment

• Can be taken in blocks from half a day to the full week

• Can be used for any form of care, such as a hospital appointment or care for an elderly parent/relative

There is no legal requirement to have a policy on this, but your management team should be aware of carer’s leave and how it can be used, to avoid any claims of indirect discrimination.

Sexual harassment duty

The newest legislative change, which came into effect in October 2024, is a significant one. The change places the onus to the employer to prevent sexual harassment within the workplace. This prevention responsibility extends to parents, contractors or anyone your employees encounter as part of their job. Employers need to show they have been proactive in preventing any harassment within the workplace.

As a minimum, you need:

• An updated bullying and harassment policy, outlining the steps you are taking as an employer to prevent harassment and how complaints will be handled

• A risk assessment (led by your employees, not employer) to prevent harassment. You could do this in the form of a roundtable, or a tour of the setting – are there enough lights outside, for example?

• Training staff regularly on harassment at work

Ella Halliday

This duty applies to all employers, no matter your size, and the government has announced a zero-tolerance stance on employers who have not taken these steps. So, it is important to get this in place as soon as possible.

Changes in 2025

National Minimum Wage and Employer NI increase National Minimum Wage is set for another big increase this April. Employers National Insurance (NI) contributions are rising from 13.8% to 15% and the threshold for when an employer starts to pay NI is reducing significantly too.

This has a knock-on effect to your overheads and how you set your pay across all levels. If you haven’t already, start planning what you can afford and communicating with staff. Prepare for some difficult decisions and conversations as you juggle the finances with keeping your employees happy. You may also need to look at increasing your childcare rates to help cover the costs.

If you can’t increase salaries as high as expected (over NMW), can you consider other, less financially constricting perks, such as:

• additional annual leave

• increased sick pay

• a one-off, non-consolidated payment

• salary sacrifice schemes such as childcare, health, cycle to work schemes

• Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP)

• benefit schemes with discounts at high street stores, days out or holidays

• training and development

It is best to be open and transparent with employees when talking about pay, as it can be an emotive topic. Be as fair as

you can with all employees and explain your decision making for happier and more understanding relationships.

Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay)

Expected in April 2025, the new Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 will give parents up to 12 weeks paid leave if their new baby requires a stay of seven days or more in hospital, during their first 28 days of life. This leave will be in addition to their other statutory provisions.

Labour government reforms

In October 2024, the Labour government set out 28 new “reforms” under the Employment Rights Bill. Most notably, unfair dismissal claims can be brought from day one, zero-hour contracts have been tightened and flexible working will become “default” from day one.

What can we expect to change in 2025?

Most of these reforms will not start consultation until this year, so we can expect most changes to start taking effect in 2026. However, there are some things you can be doing now as an employer, to be ready.

Unfair dismissal as a day-one right Labour proposes to remove the two-year qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims, making it more difficult to dismiss an employee in the early stages of their employment. This will have consequences for nursery owners and managers, particularly when it comes to managing staff through their probationary period. Take a look at your current process and assess if you have:

• Robust onboarding and probation processes: Clearly outline performance

expectations from day one, provide detailed job descriptions and measurable key performance indicators (KPIs) and schedule regular check-ins to document performance and address issues early.

• Training for managers: Equip managers with skills in conducting fair and transparent disciplinary procedures, provide conflict management and performance improvement training.

• Policy updates: Update your probation, disciplinary and grievance policies.

• Documentation and consistency: Maintain thorough records of all employee interactions, feedback, and performance evaluations to justify decisions if challenged.

Ban on zero-hours contracts

It was rumoured that there would be a “ban” on zero-hour contracts, but in fact the government aims to ban “exploitative” contracts. This means that employees will be given the opportunity, after a set period, to request more predictable hours under a contract of employment.

• Review workforce contracts: Transition existing zero-hours contracts to part-time or minimum hours contracts. Collaborate with staff to agree on hours that balance their availability with operational needs.

• Flexibility with fixed contracts: Consider introducing “annualised hours”, where an employee works a set number of hours over the course of a year, rather than a fixed weekly or monthly schedule, or split shifts, where an employee’s day is divided into two or more parts, separated by a break of more than one hour, to maintain some flexibility while guaranteeing a minimum income for staff.

• Contingency planning: Develop a pool of relief staff on fixed-term contracts to manage short-term absences without breaching ratios. These updates are not just about compliance — they represent an opportunity. By embracing these changes, we can enhance employee satisfaction, attract top talent, and ensure a safe, supportive environment for both staff and the children in our care.■

A more detailed version of this article is available online (www.nmt-magazine.co.uk)

No Employer

NI Payments for Apprentices Under 25

Respect for rights

Charlotte Goddard visits Treehouse Nurseries’ The Grove Montessori in Wanstead, one of only four Unicef rights-respecting nurseries in the UK

In The Grove Montessori’s preschool room, a group of children are sitting around a table making “medicine” out of different ingredients. At the same time they are talking about children’s rights, as enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, specifically children’s right to the best health care possible. “They know people go to doctors, and we need medicine if we are sick, and we have the right to go to the doctors if we are sick,” says room leader Julia Gould.

The Outstanding-rated Grove holds silver accreditation as a Unicef Rights Respecting School, and is currently one of only four nurseries in the UK to gain the award. “We embarked on this journey in 2023 and within nine months we had achieved silver, because we were already promoting children’s rights and embedding that in the curriculum,” says Nazia Shabbir, chief executive of Treehouse.

As a trailblazer in this area, Treehouse is currently working with Unicef to develop a specific programme for early years, as currently the scheme is more focused on schools. In order to gain accreditation, schools and nurseries have to show how they are embedding the Convention

“We embarked on this journey in 2023 and within nine months we had achieved silver, because we were already promoting children’s rights and embedding that in the curriculum,”

throughout their policy, practice and culture. The Grove is currently working on its gold accreditation which it hopes to gain in July this year.

“We have a steering group, with a child representative, parent representative, and staff representative,” explains Shabbir. “We have a monthly meeting to talk about what we are going to do to make an impact on the community. It is important to ensure that everyone is behind our vision: we share weekly articles with parents telling them about activities in the nursery and what they can do at home, explaining for example the difference between wants and needs – you might want chips but do you need them, or do you need healthy food to nourish your body?”

Children in the setting are very knowledgeable about their rights and those of others, and are equipped with the language to discuss them. In order

to gain the silver accreditation, Unicef spoke to ten parents on a Teams call to find out what “rights respecting” meant to them. “It was interesting to hear parents saying children are going home and saying ‘I can read this book because that is my right to education’, ‘I have a right to drink clean water’, these rights are embedded in our children,” says Shabbir. The Grove recently replaced its Golden Rules with a Children’s Charter, with the emphasis on valuing children’s rights - for example the right to be safe around equipment. Everywhere you go in the nursery,, there is evidence of children’s rights. Children choose which book they want read to them by putting a stick in the relevant jar, for example. “We did a review of all the books in our nursery to see what messages they convey to the children and have established a core of ten books covering issues such as how to reduce poverty, save water, the importance of sharing and

kindness,” says Shabbir. “They all link to the Convention and the values are embedded into our curriculum.”

Out in the garden, part of the play kitchen is set up as a soup kitchen, as a way to discuss the fact that children have a right to food. Elsewhere children are making cars and houses out of loose parts. “They are learning about different types of houses, because over the world people live in different ways, and also talking about how they get to nursery, by Tube or bus or car or buggy,” says Shabbir.

The nursery emphasises the importance of recognising similarities but also embracing differences. “We have Gujarati children, children from Pakistan, France, Ghana, it is very multicultural,” says Gould. “We show them we have different cultures and religions but still we are the same, we are friends. We don’t discriminate, we look after each other, we care for each other.”

Also in the garden is an Arctic Cabin, with a firepit. Inside, cosy children are gathered around the fire making hot chocolate with Hector Zarza Martin, Spanish teacher and forest school leader. The Grove recently increased the amount of time children spend in forest school, recognising the importance of learning to respect nature and the impact it was having on their development. “By the time they got ready and travelled to the forest, children were only having an hour and a half there, so we decided to extend the hours from 9.30 to 2.30, between two and four days every week,” says Martin.

“It has gone down really well, we have noticed a huge impact on vocabulary and development, especially for children with

SEND,” says Shabbir. “Children have flourished by having more outdoor access, children who had lacked confidence in engaging with messy play for example are coming back with muddy boots, telling their friends about jumping in puddles.”

The children are learning that nature is something we are part of, not something apart from us, says Martin. “We plant seeds and see the process of growing a plant, we have strawberries, tomatoes, pepper, sunflowers,” he says. “They see how long it takes, you see the flower then it takes three weeks to get a strawberry, rather than just going to the supermarket and buying them, which encourages them not to waste food.”

The children are currently lobbying the local council for a zebra crossing, because access to the local park is dangerous. “This is our right to have a safe crossing to get in the park,” says Shabbir. “We tried it a few years ago and got declined but times have changed now, we are going to try again. We took the children to review the area and they were very aware of how quickly the buses go around the corner, and that it is not safe for children to cross.”

Evidence of The Grove’s commitment to rights is to be seen throughout the local community, not just in the nursery itself. Local shops and cafes feature posters designed by the children, with their names on, asking people to turn off taps properly and not waste water. Children have also joined with residents of the local care home picking up litter.

Coming away from The Grove, you are left with the impression that its 92 children are well set to become the community leaders of the future. As Treehouse continues to work with Unicef to develop its programme further, more children may be set to join them, which can only be good news for the planet.■

The magic of giving - How Family First Nurseries brought kindness to life

In late 2024, Family First Nurseries launched its Magic of Giving campaign, a heartwarming initiative designed to inspire acts of kindness, nurture compassion in young children, and give back to the community. We spoke to them to learn more about the impact.

With close to 100 nurseries across the UK, Family First is deeply embedded in local communities.

When launching the Magic of Giving campaign late last year, its mission was simple but powerful - to show children the joy of giving back and to unite families, teams, and communities in the spirit of generosity.

Across the country, nursery teams worked with children and families to explore the importance of kindness, highlighting ways to help others. Each nursery embraced the challenge with creativity, choosing their own unique acts of giving.

From food bank collections to heartfelt performances at care homes, the campaign sparked a wave of meaningful acts of thoughtfulness, raising thousands of pounds for charities nationwide. Highlights included children performing plays for care home residents, organising food bank donations, hosting fundraising days, selling hot chocolate, and auctioning

“We cannot believe how generous you have been. Your families have helped so many more, and it’s exactly what Christmas should be about.”

children’s artwork to contribute to charity efforts.

One food bank in Maldon, Essex, expressed its heartfelt thanks for the donation and said: “We cannot believe how generous you have been. Your families have helped so many more, and it’s exactly what Christmas should be about.”

Nursery teams also took their commitment further, with team members volunteering their time as grocery

assistants, donating Secret Santa gifts to charity appeals, and even buying presents for children who might not otherwise have received one.

To further celebrate the spirit of giving, Family First encouraged families to share their own acts of kindness during the campaign. The response was overwhelming, with families contributing stories that showcased the power of compassion.

One family shared how they had

stepped in to pay for an elderly gentleman’s shopping when it became apparent he was struggling to pay, after being inspired by Family First’s campaign.

Another family shared how they had got involved with a local hospice, following the campaign.

They said: “We made charity hampers and baked treats to raise money for a local hospice. It was a wonderful way to teach our children the value of helping others.”

Supporting families in need Family First went above and beyond for those most in need at their nurseries. Christmas dinners were donated to ensure everyone could enjoy a festive meal together, while a special fundraising day was organised to provide gifts for children.

The support team rallied together to donate winter coats and toys, delivering them to nurseries across the group. Daanya Busaidy, digital marketing executive, described her experience of delivering gifts.

She said: “Seeing the children’s faces light up as we wrapped each gift was so heartwarming. Knowing the gifts would bring joy to those who need it most made it even more magical!”

Families were equally touched by the campaign. One three-year-old shared their excitement and said: “I love the Bluey toy that I opened on Christmas morning. I play with it every day. It made me feel happy like the yellow colour monster because Bluey is my favourite!”

Remembering Ollie: A special tribute

Manor Farm Day Nursery in Bedfordshire used the campaign to honour the memory of Ollie, a brave little boy who sadly passed away in 2021 at just four years old.

Families donated pyjamas for children spending time in hospital over the winter. Hannah Buckley, nursery manager, said: “This was a wonderful opportunity to teach our children the value of kindness and bring smiles to those around us. We hope we helped children and families who need it most while keeping Ollie’s memory alive in a way that reflects his strength and love.”

Inspiring

the sector

The Magic of Giving campaign is a shining example of how nurseries can lead the way in creating meaningful connections while teaching children invaluable life lessons.

Eleni Koureas, marketing manager, who spearheaded the campaign, reflected on its success and said: “I’m overwhelmed by the incredible effort our teams and families put into this campaign. The acts of giving were so creative and heartfelt, and the impact was felt far and wide.

“Whether it was donating toys, raising funds, or simply showing kindness to a neighbour, every contribution mattered. This campaign proved that together, we can achieve something truly magical.”

Tony Page, chief executive of Family First Nurseries, expressed his thanks to everyone involved.

“We are incredibly grateful to our families, nursery teams, and communities for coming together to make this

campaign so impactful. Their generosity has touched countless lives.

“Through these acts of kindness, we not only taught children the power of compassion but also extended support to families in need, reflecting the very heart of our ‘Family First’ ethos.”

As Family First looks ahead to future initiatives, this campaign serves as a powerful reminder of the difference nurseries can make, not just in the lives of children, but in the communities they serve. ■

For more information about Family First visit https://familyfirstnurseries.co.uk/

People power

Charlotte Goddard talks to Fennies’ chief operating officer Alexia Fenn and head of people Jamie Atkins about the nursery group’s new “people promise” and how it is helping to boost recruitment and retention

January is often a time of selfreflection, and that was particularly the case for nursery group Fennies last January. Recruitment and retention has been a challenge across the sector, and Fennies wanted to improve its ability to attract and retain staff by identifying the core qualities of its own culture, and the characteristics of people who thrive there. “We wanted to create a place where people felt they belonged,” says head of people Jamie Atkins.

The company worked with consultant Amy Sawbridge at Sawbridge Consulting to bring together team members, asking them what they expected from Fennies and how they defined its values. The views of these “listening groups” fed into the development of “Fennies DNA” and the “People Promise”. This framework will now underpin everything in the organisation from career development, induction and recruitment to marketing and management.

Fennies DNA

Fennies DNA comprises eight statements under two headings, “family at our core” and “investing to be the best”.

Other statements cover building strong connections, creating opportunities for career development, and creating inspirational spaces for children. “When we asked people to describe Fennies, ‘family’ came up the most often,” says Fenn, whose father Steve Fenn is chief executive, while her brother Bradley is business development director.

The company has 20 nurseries in London, Surrey, Kent, Berkshire and Middlesex, with four more set to open this year. “Our teams were saying that we’re small enough to ensure a real sense of community where everyone knows everyone else, but we’re big enough to have a dedicated specialist support team, which is something they like,” says Atkins.

The

People Promise

The People Promise is a framework that outlines the expectations and commitments between Fennies Nurseries and its employees. “It is not just a oneway thing, ‘this is what we’ll do as a company’, but ‘this is what we also expect in return’,” says Fenn.

The promise is built on four pillars:

Be Yourself, Come Together, Be All In and Go Further. The language of the promise, which incorporates celebrating individuality, collaboration, commitment, growth and development, will be used in recruitment marketing, supervisions, training and other areas of policy and practice across the group.

The new framework was launched to managers and deputy managers in September and then introduced to the whole group during a virtual staff meeting involving every nursery in November. “People were sharing photos and videos from their settings and engaging and interacting with each other,” says Atkins.

Each nursery was provided with a branded box full of resources, including printed pocket-size versions of the People Promise. The event included a scavenger hunt, and competitions, with settings challenged to use the branded boxes in the most creative way. One nursery turned it into a time capsule and buried it under a tree in the garden.

Retention

The DNA and the Promise now form the

“We wanted to create a place where people felt they belonged.”

basis for a range of initiatives that aim to attract staff who are a good fit with the group’s values, and improve the retention of talent within the organisation. Fennies has developed a Career Pathway which shows how practitioners can move from apprentice to nursery manager, or take a side turn into a support function such as HR or admission. The diagram includes the time usually taken to progress through each stage, and the salary at each step. It has also launched a new employee benefits package, including wellness programmes in partnership with BUPA.

“We are trying to improve our recruitment process, and our ability to communicate who we are to potential candidates,” says Fenn. “Being able to

articulate how we’re structured, how we set up expectations and how we will support you in your role, has made the recruitment process better.”

“I think about our newest nursery manager who joined last week, she is really clear she wants to join this company, because it aligns with what she believes in,” says Atkins. “In the past we have had misperceptions about who we were or what an applicant wanted from a management position.”

The group sees the initiative as a way to weed out poor quality candidates, or those who just don’t fit with the company, as well as attract high quality talent. “If the language of the People Promise and the DNA doesn’t resonate with you, then maybe this isn’t the right place for you,” says Atkins. “The energy, enthusiasm and commitment it takes to bring your best self every day and be there for the families and the children, that’s really tiring. And if you’re only half committed, the knock-on impact for everybody that you work with is huge.”

Talent mapping

Identifying people with potential to progress is a key plank in Fennies’ retention strategy, allowing it to fill roles internally rather than having to recruit.

“We have been focused on growing from within, right from when they start with us as apprentices, and really supporting them on that journey to nursery manager,” says Fenn.

“The talent mapping initiative is there to identify who we think is almost ready to progress right now, and who we think has the appetite, with the right support and development, to get there,” says Atkins. “In the past there have been times when we promoted or hired someone, and it was a big leap for them. I don’t want someone to be floundering, then they leave the organisation.”

Staff can already access one-to-one coaching. Fennies is now launching a Pathway to Manager programme to give deputy managers the skills and experience they need to become managers. “We will go back and

support them every six to eight weeks and at the end of six months we would like them to come and present to a panel, to say ‘I think I am ready to be a manager now, here is the evidence I have collected over that time’,” says Atkins. The organisation is also developing a pathway programme for potential room leaders.

Embedding values

Following the company-wide launch of the Fennies DNA and People Promise, Atkins is keen to ensure it not just “some words that are put on the wall and forgotten about” but something that underpins everything the organisation does.

“Creating the assets was fun, but the hard work starts now in terms of embedding it further,” says Fenn. “For example we are looking at our different recruitment platforms like Glassdoor and Indeed - how are we using this language as an attraction tool?”

Atkins is considering launching a Fennies Club, giving certificates and vouchers for one, three, five and ten year service lengths, and distributing these at joint staff meetings that bring together all of the settings. “We can make links with the pillars in the People’s Promise, such as Go Further and Be Yourself, celebrating what you’ve done in that time,” says Atkins.

With the People Promise already developed, the next step is to develop a Parent Promise and and a Children Promise. “We wanted to start with the people because they are the business,” says Fenn. “Our reputation with parents was performing well, but we needed to attract better people to the business and retain our great talent.”

Fennies has a number of targets in place to measure the success of the DNA and the Promise, such as tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) around attrition and sickness days, and measuring

the number of internal promotions.

There are also plans to incorporate the pillars of the People Promise into the appraisal process, something which should go live in April. “When people come to their appraisals, they can evidence how they have been exemplifying “be all in” for example,” says Atkins.

In what could be a prime example of “be all in” and “go further”, Fenn, whose background is in financial consulting

and asset management, has just enrolled on her Level 3 Early Years Educator qualification to skill up. “When I visit a nursery currently I can go and look at the operational piece, but not necessarily understand the child development side of things,” she says. “Once qualified I will have a better understanding of that.” It is just one example of the collaboration, commitment, growth and development which the group hopes will take it forwards into the future.■

Building a positive culture

Working in early years can take a lot out of you. Education consultant Joanne Lo and nursery manager Adora Edwards tell us how managers can build a positive culture which supports staff and themselves.

Adora Edwards has been a teacher, special educational needs co-ordinator (Senco), deputy manager and manager across a number of nurseries. Over the years she has developed a wide range of strategies to build a culture of wellbeing in her nurseries.

Edwards recently worked with education consultant Joanne Lo to build wellbeing even further in her setting. Lo worked as a Montessori teacher in Canada, the US and the UK, before becoming head of an independent charity school drawing on Scandinavian pedagogy. She now supports nursery managers to create a culture of positive wellbeing in their settings.

“When I come into a setting to work with managers around building a positive culture, the first thing I do is take a learning walk with them,” says Lo. “When you come in to the setting you can see how inviting it feels, and how practitioners talk to one another.”

Lo offers four one-hour mentoring sessions over a month and provides resources and support bespoke to the needs of the manager. Here, Edwards and Lo offer their tips on creating a culture of wellbeing in a nursery.

“When I come into a setting to work with managers around building a positive culture, the first thing I do is take a learning walk with them.”

Create connections

Creating meaningful connections with staff is key to developing a positive culture. “When I stepped into my role the first thing I did was to have a oneto-one with each member of staff , and asked them what are your expectations for me as a manager, is there anything you feel you could be improved, is there anything you are worried about?” says Edwards. “I created a picture of each member of staff.”

Distributed leadership

Give team members authority in their own specialised areas. “When I was headteacher at the Dania School, now the London Scandinavian School, all the teachers had a speciality subject they were passionate about, and in that area they were the boss,” says Lo. “It is called distributed leadership, and everyone feels empowered.”

Transparency

Change is a constant in early years, whether that is implementing new policies or pedagogies, or a nursery

changing hands. It is vital to be open and honest with staff, says Edwards. “With change comes so many emotions. I give myself time to talk with staff and hear their concerns and queries. Because I formed that foundation at the beginning, I knew there were specific staff members I had to approach in different ways, perhaps allowing more time to chat with them, because I know they are going to have so many worries.”

Wall of wow

Lo advises creating a “wall of wow” in the staff room, to boost spirits. “Let’s look at everybody’s successes and not just focus on the negative things,” she says. “It could be a flower a child gave you, a picture someone drew you, anything to uplift the spirit, because we need those little reminders every day.”

Acknowledge expertise

“Your staff need to know you care about them,” says Edwards. “Little things like when I send the staff newsletter out at the end I put ‘well done for another amazing week guys, you did it!’”

Adora Edwards

Joanne Lo

Open door

An effective manager is present to their team, not hiding away from them in their office. However, a manager also needs time to carry out their numerous tasks. Edwards balances these demands by allocating times when she is available for discussions but ensures she is not dismissive of team members who want to talk at other times. “I tell them ‘I really want to discuss this with you, but I am just doing this meeting, if you can come back in ten minutes we will discuss your issue and we are going to find a way forward,’” she says. “They need to know the manager has their back.”

“If you have your door closed and someone has a problem, they won’t feel comfortable coming to you,” says Lo. “The message you want to give them is ‘I am here for you but I am busy right now’.” She advises managers to write out their schedule “in a fun playful manner” showing what their day looks like and when they have time to talk.

Be an advocate

The nursery manager can often find themselves acting as a middleman – or woman – between their team and senior leadership. “I know what happens in my nursery day in day out, so my voice needs to be heard, and my ideas need to be acknowledged,” says Edwards

Sometimes this means having difficult conversations with senior managers. “I understand you want to implement this new policy, and it looks great, but I think at my nursery it would work better if we do it this specific way, or if this member of staff was involved.”

Lo worked with Edwards on developing tools to help her have difficult conversations with both senior managers and members of staff. “I learned how to separate my emotional and professional self, and how to prepare myself before I addressed situations in the nursery or talked with certain members of staff,” says Edwards. “I even use this tool with family members now!”

Involving parents

Parents are part of the nursery community and play a vital role in creating a positive culture. “As a parent myself I feel it is really important for parents to know what is happening in the nursery and know what the vision is, what our curriculum is, what we are working towards,” says Edwards.

Don’t forget self-care

“You cannot pour from an empty cup,” says Edwards. “I also need support. Joanne helped me by asking “you are doing all these things for your staff but what are you doing for yourself, who is looking out for you as manager?”■

training

A community of learning

Sinead McMahon, content manager at the Institute of Early Years Education, explains how the new organisation aims to support professional development in the sector

The early education and care community is truly special, united by a shared passion for giving every child the best possible start in life. It consists of dedicated professionals who work tirelessly to create safe, stimulating environments that nurture bright young minds and open the door to infinite opportunities.

However, this remarkable community continues to face significant challenges. Feeling undervalued and unappreciated, early education and care professionals have been calling for greater support, recognition, and opportunities to thrive, professionally and personally.

In response to this call, the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) has developed The Institute of Early Years Education to support individual professionals. Launched in August 2024 the Institute is a membership community for people working in or aspiring to join the early education and care sector. It is committed to advancing the professional status of the workforce, driving quality improvements, and ultimately making a positive, lasting impact on children’s lives.

To achieve these goals, the Institute aims to build a community where individuals can connect with each other, engage in personal and professional development, and feel supported with their wellbeing.

From £5 a month, membership includes access to an exclusive digital platform

“The Institute aims to build a community where individuals can connect with each other, engage in personal and professional development.”

designed to meet the specific needs of the early childhood education and care sector. The needs of professionals are at the core of the Institute’s development, mission and continuing evolution. Anyone working in or aspiring to work in the early education and care sector is welcome to join.

It is widely recognised that continuing professional development is fundamental to the progression of ideas, values, and professionalism, which is why it stands as the golden thread connecting everything offered by the Institute. With unlimited access to a variety of evidence-informed interactive resources, curated and created by experts, our member resources offer a library of inspiring and informative material to use in your daily practice.

Combining theory and practice into practical and accessible information, members can attend bespoke webinars on topics such as exploring the attainment gap and discover a library of articles on a range of deep topics, such as children’s health and wellbeing, learning through play, and supporting parents and carers. Feeling recognised and appreciated is central to the Institute’s mission to support professionals holistically, both in and outside of work. Members are encouraged to take advantage of a wide range of healthy lifestyles resources,

including discounts and rewards, access to a 24/7 GP service and a digital gym. These offerings help members work towards a balanced and fulfilling professional and personal life while aligning with the Institute’s broader mission.

Institute member Susan Hill, owner of Wellside Kindergarten, Falkirk, says: “I love the elements that support my dayto-day work, but also the more personal resources. I’ve been actively using the gym classes which can be done from home and are excellent. I love the discounts, there are so many and benefit the whole family which is always a plus.”

She adds: “Our staff are all registered and we are actively using the CPD for group discussions and identifying how we can use our knowledge and whether we need to make changes to our practice. I like the bite-sized courses, which don’t take you off the floor for too long, and I like the option of being signposted to research and further articles to support the topic.”

Engagement with The Institute of Early Years Education membership is one way professionals can alleviate some of the challenges faced by the early education and care sector. By working together as a community, we can connect, learn and thrive collaboratively.■

nmtnursery management show

Professional development highlights

Nursery owners and managers came together at London’s Excel at the end of last year to network and take part in insightful CPD sessions. We round up some of the sessions

On the main stage, TV presenter Alex Jones interviewed Sarah Mackenzie, chief executive of nursery group Storal, about her leadership journey, while Angelica Celinska, founder of The Voice of Early Childhood podcast, led panels covering recruitment and retention and the role of the chief executive.

New additions to the show, the Nursery Management Today Owners Club and the Leadership Stage delivered packed presentations and panels, while the Knowledge Hub and Operational Excellence theatres continued to host CPD sessions. With speakers including Susie Owens, the Department for Education’s director for early years and schools; Ofsted principal officer for early education Wendy Ratcliff; Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association; and Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, delegates were able to hear from experts in the sector on a wide range of different topics.

NURSERY MANAGEMENT TODAY

OWNERS CLUB THEATRE

Update from the Department for Education

SPEAKER: Susie Owen, director for early years, childcare and families at the Department for Education

“It is a very exciting time for early years and childcare, but when things get exciting in your area they also get difficult, because there are a lot of challenges out there,” Owen said. Having rolled out the first two phases of the expanded entitlement, introducing 15 funded hours a week for working parents of eligible two-year-olds in April 2024 and 15 hours for working parents of children from the

age of nine months in September 2024 Owen said the “biggest challenge” was yet to come with the expansion to 30 hours in September 2025. “We are very focused on working with local authorities and providers to ensure you are as ready as you can be to deliver that expansion to parents,” she said.

Owen emphasised the government’s commitment to early years. “Education secretary Bridget Phillipson says that early years is her number one priority,” she said. “She is very focused on the impact on children’s outcomes. When the last government introduced the expansion of 30 hours it was about helping parents into work and making it easier for them to access childcare. The new government also wants to take a look at how the early years system is delivering the best outcomes for children, particular the most disadvantaged children.”

Speaking a month after the current government’s first budget, Owen acknowledged the concerns of the sector around increased National Insurance

contributions (NIC). “We are aware the NIC changes have a big impact on the sector, we are aware that is a significant cost to providers and we are working through to try to understand the implications for that and what you may need to help you address that,” she said. She said new funding rates reflected other changes in the budget, including increases to the National Living Wage.

While the focus of the expansion is on working parents, Owen said the department was committed to ensuring disadvantaged two-year-olds and three- and four-year-olds accessing the universal offer were not “squeezed out”. “It was great to see the take up of the disadvantaged offer was the biggest it has ever been this year at 72% and we want to make sure that continues when the working entitlement is fully rolled out,” she said.

To support recruitment, the government has launched a national campaign, and is also working with Job Centre Plus to ensure information on

Susie Owen

careers in early years is available, targeting areas that need the biggest workforce growth. Skills Bootcamps also aim to drive recruitment and the government is piloting a financial incentives scheme to boost workforce numbers. She said there would be more information available soon on a new “experienced based” route for staff without the right qualifications to be counted as Level 3 in the adult/child ratios.

“I know with the shift in how much government funding is coming into the settings, that presents challenges for you as businesses in how you adapt to that and how you make that business model work for your settings,” she said. “The

DfE has also partnered with Childcare Works to deliver practical advice and guidance; there is loads of information on the Childcare Works website to help you navigate the new landscape, including a management essentials online course to help grow a business.”

Throughout the session Owen emphasised the department’s desire for feedback and communication with the sector. “Given how diverse and enormous our sector is, it is important for us to hear from you directly about the challenges you are facing. We are trying to develop a mechanism for talking to you directly,” she said. “I find it very frustrating that I can’t press a button to get a message

to every provider in England, so we are thinking about ways we can do that, as that would be the most efficient way of us communicating with you and you having a route back to us, so we are not relying on the information that flows through local authorities.”

OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE THEATRE

Keeping up with change: New EYFS safeguarding reforms and what they mean

SPEAKER: Sue Asquith, early childhood consultant and author

The requirements that nurseries must follow around safeguarding will be updated from September 2025. Asquith talked delegates through the changes, which include amendments to promote safer recruitment, new requirements for providers to follow up if a child is absent for a prolonged period of time, and amendments to ensure providers hold additional emergency contact details. There are also new requirements to ensure safer eating, requirements for staff to undergo training every two years, details on what training should cover and amendments to ensure that children’s privacy during nappy changing and toileting is considered and balanced with safeguarding considerations.

Asquith said nurseries had been given a good amount of time to get informed about the new requirements and make

Sue Asquith

Alex Jones and Sarah MacKenzie

any changes necessary, but leaders and managers should act now rather than waiting until September. She advised checking that safeguarding training covers all of the statutory elements now. “We need to make sure when you are booking staff onto training you do your due diligence and make sure this is all covered. If you send staff on training in July, and it doesn’t cover the elements that are becoming statutory in September, that’s a waste of money,” she said.

It is vital to ensure staff are well informed about safeguarding, she said, but just possessing a certificate is not enough. “I support nurseries a lot and I don’t know if it is just nerves but when I ask a question like ‘can you tell me about county lines?’, they sometimes look blank,” she said. “They might have a certificate that they have just done Prevent training but they can’t answer questions on it, so we need to think about how we supporting staff so they apply their training, especially if it is online training. I think a lot of people might read the words but they don’t understand it or don’t know how to apply it into practice” There may be particular barriers for staff with dyslexia or English as an additional language.

Since January 2024 nursery managers have been able to count students as being qualified to the level below the qualification they are currently working for, so a student working towards a Level 3 qualification can be counted as Level 2 for the purpose of adult/child ratios, as long as the manager deems them competent. Until now, students have not needed to hold a paediatric first aid qualification to be counted in this way, but from September this will be a requirement, said Asquith. “There was quite a lot of feedback about the extra cost but they will need it once they are qualified anyway,” she said. “So when you are thinking about your budgeting

and planning for next year you need to make sure that everyone you are counting in ratios at L2 or L3 has the first aid qualification.”

Nurseries need to be much more aware of good practice around safer eating due to strengthened policies brought in following the death of Oliver Steeper, who choked on pasta at his nursery. “There will have to be a first aid trained member of staff there when children are eating,” said Owen. “Of course there needs to be a Level 3 qualified person in every room anyway so this should not be an issue, but it might be the case that you have someone like me, a bit of a dinosaur who qualified before the first aid qualification was a requirement. I don’t actually need my paediatric first aid to be a qualified practitioner, but I couldn’t be the person who is there when children are eating.”

Asquith equipped delegates with a handy to-do list to take away from the session, including updating safer recruitment policies, ensuring there are more than two emergency contacts for each child where possible, and reviewing procedures around nappy checking and toileting.

KNOWLEDGE HUB

Creating a positive culture in your EYFS provision

SPEAKER: Alison Featherbe, early years consultant

“We all have a culture in our provision, the question is, is it the type of culture we really want?” asked Featherbe, who offered delegates a series of actionable steps they could take to address the culture of their own provision.

She described a range of different cultures and invited delegates to consider which most resembled their own settings. “Star Culture is an environment where a lot of money has been invested, a private equity purse coming in with lots of money and investing in everything,” said Featherbe. “Having the best facilities can give staff a competitive edge and advantage, but there is also a lot of pressure on those people to succeed, and because you have an all-singing, all-dancing environment doesn’t mean the practice and interactions are of high quality.” Tyrannosaurus Culture is where one person makes all the decisions. “This can be a very effective way to get things done quickly, but can also lead to

problems with morale,” she said. Other examples are Bookcase Culture, often found in large chains, which rely heavily on established policies, Car Mechanic Culture, where leaders are constantly tweaking to improve innovation and productivity, and Commitment Culture, which prioritises the long-term wellbeing and development of its employees instead of focusing solely on short-term profits.

The best approach, said Featherbe, would be to blend elements of a number of cultures. She also said a nursery group could easily have different cultures in different nurseries, while a nursery can offer different cultures in different rooms.

The core characteristic of a positive culture include having a vision and a mission. “Have microgoals and bigger goals, but make sure your goals are realistic and they are small enough so people can make incremental changes over time,” she said. “Sometimes we give people actions as a result of supervision but they are too big.” Team members should have clear roles and responsibilities, and know how their role contributes to the bigger picture.

“Design the culture that you want, otherwise it will be designed for you,” Featherbe warned. “Have a staff survey, do a learning walk and see what you can see, get a sense of what the day is like at different points of the day, especially when there are ‘pain points’ around picking up and dropping off, mealtimes and snacks.”

Featherbe concluded by urging managers

building a positive culture to connect with their team, to make sure everyone contributes to the bigger vision, and vitally to look after themselves as well as their staff.

Driving improvement – positively impacting early years SEND provision

SPEAKER: Jenn Brant, learning support manager, Paragon Skills Brant drew on her extensive background in special educational needs and disabilities to give delegates a range of hints and tips on supporting children in their settings. “Your role is absolutely pivotal in terms of a child’s journey; you are right at the start of their journey in education,” she said. “Early identification of their needs can make the difference between a child enjoying school and getting the support they need, or not.”

Universal practice involves becoming more inclusive, in a way that is “essential for some but beneficial for all,” said Brant. “Perhaps I am working with a child with a hearing impairment so I need to make sure every time I am facing that child I am bringing them in close. But what child

doesn’t benefit when given instruction from you being lower down so they can see your expressions – they all benefit.”

She gave an example of Joe, a boy in a wheelchair asking a janitor to clean the snow from a ramp. “The caretaker replies ‘all these other children are waiting to use the stairs, when I am done fixing it for them, I will fix the ramp for you’. Joe says ‘but if you clear the ramp, we can all go up’. Suddenly we are inclusive, suddenly everyone has the same opportunities, they can all get in at the same time.”

Involving parents and carers was a particularly key area. “Sometimes that is the trickiest bit to get right, especially in early years,” she said. It is important to ensure parents are closely involved and that their insights inform action taken by the setting. “It isn’t easy and sometimes you may be the first person to have raised that their child has got a particular need, which can lead to distress,” she said. “Or sometimes you get the flip side, parents who have googled symptoms and have come up with their own diagnosis. It is hard sometimes, but we do have to listen and factor that into our observation, and perhaps tell them we have done some thorough observations and we are not overly concerned at this time. Sometimes these discussions can be challenging but it is in the child’s best interests for a positive dialogue between parents, teachers and others to be maintained, to work through points of difference and establish what action is to be taken.”

Brant suggested doing role play with staff, especially new recruits, to support them in dealing with parents. “That first difficult conversation you have with parents can floor you; it can be quite brutal,” she said. “Give them that experience in a safe environment to allow them to develop their script, that dialogue.”■

Jenn Brant

nmtleadership

Meet the manager

In our series showcasing the sector’s nursery managers, we find out about Debs Parfitt, manager at Shelford Day Nursery in Cambridge

What was your route to becoming a manager?

I have devoted over 36 years to the early years sector, beginning as a nanny and moving through roles in day nurseries, childminding, running my own pre-school, and leading a nursery within a primary school. Along the way, I pursued a degree in early childhood studies and achieved Early Years Professional Status, alongside extensive training. These experiences gave me a well-rounded understanding of early education and leadership. My passion for creating high-quality environments and inspiring others led me to my current role as part of STEMtacular Childcare and inspired my vision when helping establish Shelford Day Nursery, Cambridge’s first science, technology, engineering and mathematics-focused nursery.

What is unique about Shelford Day Nursery?

We integrate science, technology, engineering and mathematics with the EYFS to create an inquiry-based, curiositydriven approach to learning. This sparks creativity and helps children develop critical life skills. Our purpose-built nursery fosters a rich, child-centred environment where children thrive as confident learners, ready to explore the world and the staff team are inspired educators.

What is the best training you’ve been on?

My need and desire for constantly seeking growth has meant that each and every training has made me who I am today. I hope that moving forward, I will continue to be inspired and that inspiration will continue to influence the passion with which I share my new-found knowledge with my colleagues.

What’s the most challenging part of being a nursery manager?

Balancing the multiple demands of the role is the most challenging part. Ensuring high-quality education, supporting staff, meeting regulatory requirements, and maintaining financial stability. The everchanging policies and the ever-growing new and inspiring initiatives in the early years sector add complexity, requiring adaptability and resilience.

What are you most proud of achieving?

I am incredibly proud of my part in the journey establishing Shelford Day Nursery as part of the STEMtacular Childcare brand, in particular the work I undertook writing the bespoke STEM curriculum for our early years settings. Watching children thrive in our innovative STEM-focused environment is immensely rewarding. Additionally, I take great pride in my contribution to safeguarding children over many years.

Which three people would you invite to a dinner party?

I think it would be great to delve into discussion with pioneers who have influenced my current journey, as well as discuss the challenges of leadership. I would invite John Dewey because he advocated for learning through experience and exploration, which is foundational to STEM education. His approach to

teaching emphasised curiosity, hands-on activities, and real-world problem-solving, making him an inspiring figure for discussions about fostering critical thinking in children.

I would also invite Friedrich Froebel because his ideas on hands-on learning materials have connections to engineering and spatial reasoning, and play-based methods encourage creativity and critical thinking, all key skills in STEM disciplines. Finally I would invite Michelle Obama for her perspective on leadership, and resilience. Wellbeing is such a hot topic, so I would like to gather her insights into creating environments where people can thrive through fostering a supportive and empowering culture in early years settings.

What do you do to look after yourself when things get stressful? I play in a brass band, which provides a creative outlet and valuable headspace. It allows me to step back from work, focus on something I enjoy, and recharge. Spending time with my family is another key way I relax and find balance.

What is the one thing you would change about the early years sector? I would increase investment in the sector’s workforce, developing foundational support to ensure all staff receive higher wages and have free access to professional development. This would ensure that early years educators are recognised and valued as professionals in the same way as teachers are for their vital work.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Trust in your passion and the journey ahead; never stop training so you constantly learn and grow; don’t be afraid of change and to take risks as the unexpected opportunities lead to incredible achievements.■

Debs Parfitt

Nursery managers round-up

Whether it’s sharing ideas, supporting their teams or getting involved in the local community, nursery managers across the country are going that extra mile. We round up some of the things you’ve been getting up to

Real recognition

Nursery managers put on a good show in the New Year Honours List, with those recognised including Lucy Driver, executive headteacher at St Pauls Nursery School and Children’s Centre in Bristol, who was appointed Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of her dedication to early childhood education and her transformative impact on countless children and families. Driver failed to open the letter telling her she had been awarded an OBE for several days, thinking it was a bill. She said the connections she had made with partners in the sector “continue to ignite my drive for continued improvement, integration and development in the early education and care.”

Lisa Evans, manager at Abacus Nursery and Childcare in Kent, and Nichole Garner, early years manager at North Tyneside Council, were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). Among those awarded the British Empire Medal were Janet Macgregor, owner and senior manager at Smithfield House Children’s Nursery, City of London and Sally Martiello,

manager at Oakley Kindergarten, Bedford. Also awarded the British Empire Medal were Jacqueline Morgan, manager at King Square Community Nursery, London, and Barbara Spiby, manager of Clifton Playgroup, Rugby.

Superstar fundraisers

Nurseries across the Old Station Nursery Group raised an impressive total of £5,362.86 for Children in Need at the end of last year. The funds were collected across the group through a series of creative and fun fundraising activities, including cake sales, pajama days, bakeoffs, and themed dress-up events.

Hdc Day Nursery Dartmouth led the way by raising £1,455.71. Natasha Slade, nursery manager at Dartmouth, said: “We are so proud of our fundraising efforts this week and our little superstars who took part in the sponsored walk. Our families have been so supportive and generous, helping us to reach our huge total for such a worthy cause. We would also like to thank our friends at The Fleet Care home for joining us on our walk and donating to the final total. What a week!”

Other nurseries also contributed significantly, with The Old Station Nursery Taplow raising £910, Little Green Rascals Day Nursery Elvington generating £175, and hdc Day Nursery Dartington collecting £550, along with many more nurseries raising over £60 each.

Grinch gets his comeuppance

When the children arrived at Primrose City Nursery in Glasgow just before Christmas, they were upset to find that a burglar had smashed through a door and stolen an iPad, and worried that he would come back. To make them feel better, nursery operations director Annefrances McGrath said to the children: “I wonder

if the Grinch has come to the nursery and been really naughty?”

This gave her the idea to as a local community police officer to stage a capture of the Grinch, to give the children closure and let them know the nursery was safe. Nursery caretaker - and McGrath’s husband - Paul dressed in a Grinch suit, and the children were ready and waiting to catch him in a giant net, and hand him over to the police.

“The most important thing to us is that the kids know that we’re here for them, and that if there is a problem, we can help, no matter how big it seems to them,” said McGrath.

Managers mingle

At the end of last year Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries hosted its annual conference, bringing together its network of franchisees from up and down the country to reflect on their successes from the past year while looking ahead to what 2025 has in store. Franchisees were able to attend presentations on issues including auditing and Ofsted preparation, as well as meet with external suppliers in between breaks.

Managers were able to learn more about the introduction of online platform Mo, which aims to bring together Monkey Puzzle’s franchisees into a supportive community. Shelby Wilson, room leader at Monkey Puzzle Loughton, said: “It’s not often we get to catch up with members of the team at different nurseries across the nursery group! With Mo we can share each other’s successes – it’s been a really nice addition to what we do and has brought everyone closer together.”

“We want recognition to be at the heart of what we do,” said Monkey Puzzle’s founder, Rebecca Crosby. “Mo allows us to celebrate our successes together more frequently, strengthening the sense of family within our brand.”

Author and award-winning trainer Ben Kingston-Hughes wrapped up the day with a session on the importance of play from a developmental perspective and also as a therapeutic process.

From the heart

Naomi Bartin, nursery manager at Little Discoveries Yeovil, spearheaded fundraising for a new defibrillator for public use earlier this year. The Yeovil branch of Little Discoveries Childcare, owned by SS&L, had its new defibrillator

installed last month after members of staff worked hard to raise the funds needed to facilitate the life-saving equipment.

It was a very personal achievement for Bartin, whose younger sister Sasha sadly passed away at school when Bartin was a teenager.

“This is such a massive achievement and a personal one for me,” she said. “When I was around 16 years old, my younger sister Sasha died at school – the school happens to be the same one we are based inside the grounds of. At the time, the school did not have procedures and the best equipment in place to be able to deal with this situation – they did not have any defibs on site. This meant that by the time it took for an ambulance to arrive, gain access to the school, and find the sports field, it was unfortunately too late.”

Bartin hopes the new defibrillator will fulfil her desire to give back to the local neighbourhood. “Over the years, I have been keen to make sure that a practitioner should not be left in a situation where they cannot help with a cardiac arrest situation,” she said.

“The impact a defib can have on saving a life is huge. We are now so proud to say that Little Discoveries Yeovil has a defib on site that can support children and adults should it be needed, and has been made public to help our community.”

Worthy winners

Two nursery leaders were crowned manager of the year at the National NMT Nursery Awards, hosted by former Boyzone member, Keith Duffy.

Ashley Webb, manager of Happy Days Nursery and Pre-School in Droitwich was named nursery manager of the year (groups) while Kirsty Bennison, manager of The Little Learners Montessori Cricklewood, scooped nursery manager of the year (small groups and independents). Both awards were sponsored by Millhouse.

“I was blown away to be nominated by my amazing team and to read their testimonials along with parents. It is made so much easier to manage when you have a supportive and collaborative team,” said Webb. “It is such an honour to be picked for this category and I am over the moon to picked and continuing the success we are having at Droitwich.”

Bennison said: “I am deeply honoured to receive the Nursery Manager Award. This recognition reflects the passion, dedication, and teamwork that drive everything we do to create a nurturing environment for children, families, and staff. I believe my focus on building strong relationships, fostering growth, and leading with heart played a key role in this achievement. Winning this award inspires me to continue making a meaningful impact and reminds me all the hard work and happiness provided to children and their families.”■

We know managers are doing fantastic things all around the country, If you have an achievement or a new initiative you’d like to share, contact: charlotte.goddard@ nexusgroup.co.uk

Everyone’s a winner

The National NMT Nursery Awards took place at the end of last year at the Platinum Suite of London’s Excel, celebrating the very best of the early years sector. Here our winners reflect on what their achievement means to them

Nursery Group (Large) sponsored by Christie & Co Winner: Kids Planet Day Nurseries

Kids Planet Day Nurseries, an award-winning independent, family-owned group and one of the leading nursery providers in the UK, was honoured to be awarded Large Group of the Year at the NMT Awards 2024.

During a time when recruitment remains a challenge for the early years sector, the judges praised Kids Planet’s investment in its staff through the many career pathways made available and the mentorship provided along the way. They remarked that Kids Planet’s impressive quality of care reflects the group’s passion for delivering early years education across the country and for generations to come.

With its own Training Academy, the Kids Planet group prides itself on fostering “homegrown” talent and where possible, promoting within and providing clear career pathways. Kids Planet’s staff are childcare professionals and hand-picked for their warmth, passion, commitment, and enthusiasm. Each staff member is committed to the care and safety of the children, and the group invests heavily in their ongoing training and development.

curiosity, and equipping them for exciting futures.

skilled and motivated workforce plays in shaping positive outcomes for children.

Kids Planet understands that finding childcare can feel overwhelming, and every parent wants the very best for their child, and that it’s about so much more than just childcare. The early years are a critical time for developing essential skills that prepare children for life’s bigger adventures, and as such, Kids Planet is devoted to delivering the highest quality education and development, inspiring young minds, nurturing their natural

Clare Roberts, founder and chief executive of Kids Planet, said: “When we set up Kids Planet in 2008, my family and I had a vision to create nurseries where teams could deliver outstanding childcare and education to every child who walked through our doors. We’re proud to serve diverse areas and demographics, giving children from all backgrounds the best possible start.

“Sixteen years on, although our group has grown, our core values remain as strong today as they were at the start of the Kids Planet journey. We are continually striving to provide the highest standards of care and are deeply committed to investing in and supporting our staff, understanding the crucial role a

“I’m incredibly proud of the way we’ve built a community-centred culture that encourages collaboration across all our nurseries. By prioritising colleague wellbeing, fostering open communication, celebrating achievements, and providing robust development opportunities, we’ve created an environment where employees can thrive.

“Receiving the Group of the Year award is a reflection of our dedication to addressing long-term needs, even while navigating the recruitment challenges our sector has faced in recent years. A sincere thank you and congratulations to everyone who has been part of this journey and who contributes to the success of our family group today.”

NMT Fellowship Award for Outstanding Service

Winner: Marg Randles, co-founder, Busy Bees

“Receiving the NMT Fellowship Award was a complete surprise and a huge honour. It has been a privilege and a pleasure to have had 40 years in a career doing something I have truly loved. It is a huge responsibility caring for and educating children and the award for me was such a great accolade at the end of my career.

“There are thousands of educators across the country who dedicate their lives to providing the best opportunities and improving outcomes for children, some of which were nominated and some who won awards. Thank you to NMT for helping to raise the profile for the sector and for recognising these incredibly dedicated people.”

Nursery Group (Medium) sponsored by Community Playthings

Winner: Storal

“Winning NMT nursery group of the year 2024 (medium) is recognition of the hard work, commitment and unwavering dedication of every team member in Storal. Winning NMT nursery group of the year two years in a row is recognition by our industry peers of the high-quality care and education we offer to our children, families and teams.

“Winning this award allows us to celebrate our teams, who are at the centre of everything we do. The impact they have on our children and families is seen through the positive feedback and reviews we receive, the strong partnerships we have with

our parents and the confident children who leave us ready and excited for the next phase in their education journey.

“At Storal, we not only strive for high quality in each setting, but what really makes us stand out is the consistency of high standards across the whole group, which is testament to our thorough quality assurance processes.

“We are always reviewing our practices and with strong leadership and innovation, we look forward to the next chapter in our journey with the acquisition of the Children 1st group and are excited to build on our shared experiences.”

“This incredible achievement is a testament to the dedication, passion, and hard work of each and every one of our team members at Muddy Boots, and we couldn’t be more proud. With the recent incorporation of our unique forest and nature school facility at our Poppleton site, we plan to roll out this concept at all of our sites where feasible.

We’re constantly endeavouring to get the most accurate data to support and improve the health and strength of the nursery.

We look at areas such as team culture, family satisfaction, environment audits, educational quality and financial health on a weekly basis, being confident that all the key areas of our business are healthy, tracking upwards, and leading us to becoming foremost in the sector.

We don’t take anything for granted, with robust marketing and sales systems that ensure we retain families, see more referrals, and deliver exceptional service.

As such, we are so excited for our future plans to expand, as well as continuously improving, innovating and raising the standard of how childcare can be delivered in the UK.”

Nursery Group (small) sponsored by Dot2Dot Winner: Muddy Boots Nurseries, York

Nursery Manager of the Year (groups and independents) sponsored by Millhouse

Winner: Ashley Webb, Happy Days Nursery & PreSchool, Droitwich

Ashley Webb: “I was blown away to be nominated by my amazing team and to read their testimonials along with parents. It is made so much easier to manage when you have a supportive and collaborative team. It is such an honour to be picked for this category and I am over the moon to have been picked.”

Early years operations manager Sam Richardson: “I am delighted that NMT recognised the hard work and commitment Ashley has to the nursery and her team at Happy Days Droitwich. It is a pleasure working with Ashley and seeing the passion she has for supporting everyone who uses the nursery. I am thrilled she has received this award and that I got to celebrate on the evening with her.”

Deputy Nursery Manager of the Year sponsored by CC Nurseries

Winner: Charlotte Spenser, Nursery on the Green

“Finding out I was a finalist for the NMT deputy manager of the

year award was such an amazing feeling. To then go on and win the award, up against so many other incredible finalists, was a truly surreal moment—and to be honest, it still feels that way!

“I don’t do my job for recognition; I do it because it’s what I love and because I’m passionate about making a difference. Receiving this title was beyond heartwarming. It’s a powerful reminder that my hard work, dedication, and efforts are truly seen and valued by others.

“This award not only makes me incredibly proud of myself, but it also reflects the incredible support of my manager and team, who share in this achievement with me. Their pride and belief in me make this recognition even more special. It’s a moment I’ll always cherish and a motivation to continue striving for excellence.”

Apprentice of the Year sponsored by Kids Planet Winner: Daisy Searle, Little Adventures

“Winning this award is a momentous feeling. I was extremely grateful to be nominated and did not expect to win. Nationally. I have worked with children from a young age and have such a passion for supporting them to learn and thrive.

“I am thankful for my team at Victoria Park Bridgwater. They have supported me in many ways, such as progressing in my career as I am now room manager. Thank you to the company also, the confidence you have in me and my work is admirable. I look forward to continuing to flourish within my role.”

Nursery Room Leader of the Year, sponsored by McQueens Dairies

Winner: Bo Forster, RAFAKidz

“Winning the room leader of the year award is a real honour and means so much to me. After spending more than 15 years working in the early years sector, I can honestly say I’ve loved every moment. For the past seven years, I’ve been lucky enough to work at RAFAKidz Cranwell, a place that feels like home. Being recognised in a job I care so deeply about makes this award even more meaningful.

“This recognition reflects the hard work I put in every day, but it’s also about the incredible support from my team and the

trust of the families I work with. It reminds me why I love what I do—helping create a space where children can feel safe, grow, and enjoy learning.

“Winning this award motivates me to keep doing my best for the children and families I work with. It’s not about grand gestures but the small, everyday efforts that make a difference. I feel proud and grateful to be able to do what I love and be part of a role that shapes young lives in such a positive way.”

Nursery Team of the Year, sponsored by Hope Winner: Montessori Minds

“Winning this award means everything to us all here at Montessori Minds and it is such an honour. Since opening six years ago, our team members have been the foundation to our continued success.

“Our team is made up of individuals who care, love, and work passionately to ensure our children and families have the fondest memories of their early year’s experiences. It really takes a special individual to work within an early years setting; to be creative, imaginative, compassionate and empathetic, on top of having knowledge and understanding of child development. We are so

grateful to have a team full of amazing individuals who have been acknowledged for their outstanding practise and dedication.

We had a fantastic night celebrating at the NMT Awards and look forward to future events!”

Nursery Operations/ Area Manager of the Year, sponsored by The Old Station Nursery Winner: Sherralyn Egan, Bright Horizons

“Winning the area manager of the year award is an incredible honour and such meaningful recognition of the hard work and dedication of my entire team. This award is not just a personal achievement, but a testament to the collective effort and passion that everyone in our region brings to their roles every day.

For me, this accolade underscores the importance of fostering a supportive and empowering environment where both adults and children can thrive. It highlights the value of our commitment to providing the highest standards of care and education, and it motivates us all to continue striving for excellence in everything we do.

“I am so proud of the progress we have made together and the positive impact our Nurture Approach is having on the lives of the children and families we serve. We will continue pushing boundaries, innovating and leading with compassion and vision. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with such a dedicated team and to be part of the Bright Horizons family, where we are all committed to making a difference in the early years sector.”■

nmtproperty sold properties recently

Following a confidential sales process with Nick Brown, director and head of brokerage – childcare and education at Christie & Co, Tiptoes has been sold to Kids Planet Day Nurseries.

Originally founded in 2009 by current owners Paul and Helen Gilson, Tiptoes provides childcare for over 700 children across seven freehold purpose-built properties located in West Hull, East Hull, Hessle, Willerby, Sutton, Goole and Bricknell Avenue.

Helen and Paul embarked on their journey of starting a nursery business, with their very young children, Jack and Lucy, who were their first customers and the inspiration behind their venture.

Helen and Paul commented: “Partnering with Kids Planet has transformed what could have been a challenging transition into a truly pleasurable experience. Their professionalism and genuine commitment to integrating

Tiptoes into their group, made the process seamless, allowing us to feel confident that our beloved business was in safe hands.”

Clare Roberts, Kids Planet chief executive, said: “Tiptoes is a fantastic group of purpose-built settings, expanding our presence in East Riding of Yorkshire and Hull. We are delighted to welcome these seven nurseries and their wonderful teams into the Kids Planet family. We look forward to supporting all of the teams, children and families moving forwards.”

“I first met with Paul and Helen in 2016 when they were looking to expand, and we have kept in touch since then. It was only this year when they were looking to re-assess where they were at that we had a more in-depth look at where the business and the market were in terms of potential value,” said Brown.

“This then triggered a highly confidential sales process

and it’s been a delight in working with them both. They are a buyer’s dream because they have been superefficient in providing all the information a buyer could want.”

Tiptoes Day Nursery Group was sold for an undisclosed price.

20 years ago by former owner

The setting has been rated Outstanding by Ofsted three times in a row and has won several awards and accolades including Quality Counts NDNA Platinum, Elklan’s Communication Friendly Setting status, and a Wellbeing Award for Schools.

Emma and her husband, David felt now was the right time to sell to allow them to explore other ventures outside of the sector.

Following a competitive confidential sales process with Sophie Willcox, director – childcare and education at Christie & Co, the setting was purchased by Bright Stars.

Kirsty Ibbott, M&A director at Bright Stars, commented: “This charming nursery perfectly complements our dedication to our unwavering commitment to nurturing the growth and well-being of children. Teepee has established itself as a reliable and reputable childcare provider under the previous owner, Emma Tennant, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome their passionate team into the Bright Stars family.

Willcox said: “We received multiple bids from a variety of operators, and I believe it’s the perfect fit for Bright Stars, I wish them all the success with the nursery in the future.I’d like to extend a special thanks to Julie Hughes, Lauren

Romo and Rachel Holdaway at law firm Cripps for all t heir hard work in getting this to completion.”

Teepee Private Day Nursery was sold for an undisclosed price.

a family-run group of five nurseries located across Sherwood, Arnold, Mapperley, and West Bridgford.

Established for over 30 years, Hollies Day Nurseries enjoy either Good or Outstanding Ofsted ratings and have a strong emphasis on using natural materials and nature-based play. The group has been owned by Andrew and Becky Pike for the last 32 years. Following a sales process handled by Jassi Sunner and David Eaves at Christie & Co, the group was purchased by Kids Planet Day Nurseries, which now owns over 200 nurseries across the UK.

Andrew and Becky Pike commented: “Hollies has been a part of our lives for 32 years and growing from one to five nurseries has been an incredible journey, making

the decision to sell extremely difficult. We knew Kids Planet was the right team to take it forward as our work ethic and ethos are closely aligned.”

Clare Roberts, chief executive at Kids Planet Day Nurseries, said: “I am delighted to welcome Hollies into the Kids Planet family, growing our presence in the Nottingham area. Hollies’ focus on inspiring learning environments is closely aligned with our own approach and we look forward to working with the teams and families moving forward.”

Jassi Sunner and David Eaves at Christie & Co commented: “When provided with the opportunity to bring to market an absolutely stellar group of nurseries in Nottingham and perhaps even some of the best in the East Midlands as a whole, we were excited to see the competitive tension unfold. Hollies is a shining

example of both excellent childcare that parents seek out across the city but also a fantastic employer that really nurtures its staff.”

Hollies Day Nurseries was sold for an undisclosed price.

Kids Planet Day Nurseries has acquired Hollies Day Nurseries,

day nursery group in Nottingham sold for first time

Bracknell day nursery joins Bright Stars group

Bright Stars nursery group has acquired Teepee, a 53-place nursery established more than

Emma Tennant.

Tennant said: “I wish Bright Stars all the very best and can’t wait to see the nursery keep growing from strength to strength.”

properties recently sold

Montessori

day nursery sold to Kids Planet

Kids Planet Day Nurseries has acquired Holly Grange, a nursery in Sandbach, Cheshire East, following a sales process with Sofia Beck, associate director – childcare and education at Christie & Co.

The nursery was acquired via Christie & Co by Trudie Walker in 2020, at which time it was a struggling day nursery with low occupancy. Shortly after, Holly Grange Montessori Sandbach was established, with a maximum operating capacity for 70 children.

Clare Roberts, Kids Planet Day Nurseries chief executive, said: “I am delighted to welcome Holly Grange Montessori Nursery into the Kids Planet family. The nursery comes with an excellent team that acts as role models to the children

and creates inspiring environments that closely align with our approach.”

Beck commented: “This really was what you would call a unique opportunity, given how quickly and seamlessly Trudie was able to turn the nursery around, not to mention doing so in the midst of the pandemic. When I initially marketed this setting in 2020, it struggled to generate interest from buyers as the business was in a declining state and very few could see its potential. Trudie certainly has an eye for potential and she could see how her vision would be a great fit for the nursery and no doubt that her high-quality childcare and education would attract local parents.

London day nursery schools group joins Dukes Education

Dukes Education has bought Pippa Pop-ins, a familyowned portfolio comprising four nursery schools located on the borders of Kensington, Notting Hill, Holland Park, Chelsea, and Fulham in London.

Originally founded in 1992, the nursery group was sold following a confidential sales process facilitated by Courteney Donaldson, managing director - childcare and education and Sophie Willcox, director – childcare and education, at Christie & Co.

Dukes Education Group is the largest premium school group in the UK. Founded by Aatif Hassan in March 2015, it has more than 30 school brands with 10,000 pupils as well as summer schools, activity camps, and a university entrance consultancy service.

Donaldson commented: “We are delighted to have aided our clients in the sale of Pippa Pop-ins Nursery Schools to Dukes Education. I first visited Pippa Pop-ins nursery schools over 15 years ago and was immediately struck then by how truly exceptional they were. Following our client’s acquisition of the business in 2012, this prestigious portfolio of leading London nursery schools has further expanded via the opening of a school in Kensington. Pippa Pop-ins is an exemplary business and, with its exceptional track record as world-class educationalists, we are delighted to have facilitated a sale to Dukes Education.”

Pippa Pop-ins Nursery Schools was sold for an undisclosed price.

Midlands-based day nursery group joins Storal

Storal has purchased Children 1st Day Nurseries following a sales process with Nick Brown director and head of brokerage – childcare and education and Courteney Donaldson at Christie & Co.

Founded in 1988 by Margaret Mason, Children 1st Day Nurseries provides childcare across 24 settings in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and South Yorkshire. The group also includes a training centre in the Midlands and Sheffield. Together, these settings offer around 2,567 childcare places and continue to grow yearon-year with a group turnover fast approaching £30 million.

With this acquisition, Storal has become one of the largest nursery groups in the sector, offering more than 5,000 places across 52 nursery settings.

Sarah Mackenzie, Storal chief executive, said: “Throughout my career, I’ve looked to Children 1st as one of the great pioneers of high-quality, early years

education in the sector. I have enormous admiration for everything Margaret has built and believe she has created an everlasting legacy, both at Children 1st and in the wider sector.”

Mason commented: “I can’t imagine Children 1st in better hands. It’s been my focus for so many years and I’m delighted that it will continue to flourish under Storal’s management. I’m so proud of the amazing and experienced team who have built Children 1st alongside me for so long, and I’m confident that Sarah is the right person to lead them and the business into the future, with her experience and long-term commitment to delivering quality provision and team wellbeing.”

Brown said: “This is the end of an era for the family and, as a broker, I have always dreamed of one day selling this group and we are delighted and very proud to have been able to make this happen. Margaret has been one of the leading lights in early years education for more than three decades – earning an OBE for her commitment to raising standards in Early Years

education. She will continue her work with children through her Foundation ‘Children 1st Trust’, which supports children and families in her local community.” Children 1st Day Nurseries was sold for an undisclosed price.

Holly Grange Montessori Nursery was sold for an undisclosed price.

nmtproperty sold properties recently

iStep Learning acquires Rocking Horse Nursery

iStep Learning has bought the Rocking Horse Nursery in Godalming, Surrey.

The Rocking Horse Nursery is Godalming’s longest established nursery, providing childcare for 60 children aged three months to five years old. The nursery achieved a Good rating in its latest Ofsted inspection.

Operating 24 settings across the South of England, iStep Learning aims to become the leading operator of early years education in the UK.

The sale was facilitated by childcare and education business broker Redwood Dowling Kerr (RDK). iStep Learning previously worked with RDK to acquire Stepping Stones Day Nursery in Okehampton, Frogmore

Montessori Nursery in Plymouth, and Home from Home Nursery in Hove earlier in 2024.

Childcare sales deputy manager Sarah Ellison said: “It has been a pleasure working with our clients at the Rocking Horse Nursery to allow them to retire from the childcare sector. Having run the nursery successfully for several years, it was time for them to step back and look for another operator to take their business forward. When meeting iStep Learning, they felt that the quality and standard of care it provides across 20+ settings fit with their nursery, and were pleased to have found a suitable buyer to continue the setting’s success for many years to come.”

The Children’s Cloud has acquired The Children’s House, a Montessori children’s nursery in Stallingborough, Lincolnshire.

Established in 2000, Outstanding-rated The Children’s House provides care and education for children aged from birth to five years. With a capacity for 76 children, the setting also offers a before and after school club and holiday club for children up to 11 years of age.

Childcare and education business broker Redwoods Dowling Kerr facilitated the sale, after the owner decided to retire.

Senior childcare sales negotiator, Karrina Lee, said: “It has been an absolute pleasure working with our clients throughout the transaction and I wish them all the very best in their well-deserved retirement. I wish The Children’s Cloud every success for the future.”

The Children’s House owner commented: “I had a great experience with Karrina. Excellent communication and really helpful throughout the process. Thank you, Karrina for your help and support along the way.”

Little Gems Aldershot acquires Pollyanna Pre-School

Little Gems Aldershot has acquired Pollyanna Pre-School in Lindford, Hampshire, in a deal facilitated by childcare and education business broker Redwoods Dowling Kerr.

Family-run Little Gems Aldershot has one existing setting and was established in 2019.

Pollyanna Pre-School is an independent nursery residing in the church hall of Lindford Methodist Church. Providing term-time care for 30 children aged over 18 months, the setting offers a free-flow environment to a large outdoor space all year round, also operating a large forest school nearby. The setting received an Outstanding rating at its latest Ofsted inspection.

Having acquired Pollyanna Pre-School from Redwoods Dowling Kerr in 2022, the owner decided to sell the setting following her relocation and change in career.

Childcare sales deputy manager Sarah Ellison said: “It has been a pleasure working with our client, who came to the market due to her wish to move back home to the Netherlands with her family. After meeting the buyer, she instantly knew that her nursery was going to the right person. I would like to wish both all the best for the future.”

Horbury Childcare has acquired Growing Minds Day Nursery in Northowram, Halifax, in a deal facilitated by childcare and education business broker Redwoods Dowling Kerr.

Offering a homely atmosphere for 44 children aged six weeks to five years, Good-rated Growing Minds Day Nursery is situated in the centre of West Yorkshire village Northowram. The spacious property has recently been converted to provide modern nursery accommodation.

With one existing setting near Wakefield, Horbury Childcare plans to grow to a group of six settings within the next three years.

“It was a pleasure to work with both our clients and Horbury Childcare on this sale,” said childcare sales negotiator Stephanie Quinn. “Despite a few bumps in the road, we managed to get the sale completed in a timely manner due to our great communication. I wish both our clients and the buyers all the best for the future.”

Growing Minds Day Nursery Sold to Horbury Childcare

The Children’s House sold to The Children’s Cloud

First Nursery sold to a first-time buyer

A first-time buyer, whose family owns several nursery settings in Scotland, has purchased First Nursery, a children’s day nursery in Peebles in the Scottish Borders. Operating for more than 20 years, the family-owned nursery provides childcare for up to 120 children aged three months to twelve years and was rated Very Good by the Quality Care Inspectorate at its latest inspection.

The buyer intends to continue to build First Nursery’s reputation and provide high standards of childcare in the Peebles area.

Childcare and education business broker Redwoods Dowling Kerr facilitated the sale, following the owners’ wish to retire.

Childcare sales negotiator Stephanie Quinn said: “After the previous sale fell through at the last minute due to no fault of our clients, we were able to find an alternative buyer and get the sale agreed within two weeks. I wish both our clients and the buyer the best of luck in their new ventures.”

The Den Nursery Group acquires Chuckle Bunnies Day Nursery

The Den Nursery Group has bought Chuckle Bunnies Day Nursery in Swadlincote, Derbyshire.

Providing childcare for children aged nought to three years alongside pre-schools, before and after school clubs and holiday clubs, The Den Nursery Group runs three existing settings in nearby Burton-on-Trent and Findern. Good-rated Chuckle Bunnies, which provides childcare for 54 children from birth to eight years of age, was an ideal acquisition for the nursery group to further its expansion.

Childcare and education business broker Redwoods Dowling Kerr facilitated the sale, which marks the client’s third transaction with the company. Deputy manager

for childcare Sarah Ellison said: “Through the marketing and sales process, we built a strong relationship, which enabled us to achieve three successful completions over different periods of time, allowing our clients to enjoy their well-deserved retirement.”

Chuckle Bunnies’ owners said: “It was a wonderful partnership where we worked together to achieve what we wanted - to sell our nurseries for the best price. This partnership included the content of the sales collateral, the price and who we wished to entertain as prospective purchasers. In each case, Sarah was essential to the success of the sale, especially with regards to chasing solicitors and meeting deadlines.”

To find out more details about the businesses available for sale, and sold, through Redwoods Dowling Kerr please visit: www.redwoodsdk.com

CONTACT SUMMARY

CHRISTIE & CO

LONDON

Sophie Willcox 07736 620 855

SOUTH WEST

Rachel Godwin 07701 315 061

EAST MIDLANDS

David Eaves 07711 767 094

WEST MIDLANDS

Jassi Sunner 07791 979 343

ABACUS DAY NURSERY SALES

HEAD OFFICE - 0333 370 0000

abacus@businesstransfergroup.com

SALES DIRECTORS

j.booth@businesstransfergroup.com 0161 393 2681

c.melnyk@businesstransfergroup.com 0161 413 5998

CHESHIRE/ NORTH WEST

Sofia Beck 07736 616 687

YORKSHIRE/ NORTH EAST

Grace Day 07756 875 222

SCOTLAND

Callum Lancaster 07754 559 529

PORTFOLIO

Courteney Donaldson 07831 099 985

Nick Brown 07764 241 316

GROUP SALES MANAGER

j.jackson@businesstransfergroup.com 0161 388 2151

REGIONAL DIRECTORS

c.rushworth@businesstransfergroup.com 0161 413 5997

j.mccuaig@businesstransfergroup.com

DDI 0161 393 2682

REDWOODS DOWLING KERR

SPECIALIST NURSERY TEAM

Jenna.Caldwell@redwoodsdk.com

Karrina.Lee@redwoodsdk.com

Sarah.Ellison@redwoodsdk.com

Kim.Emsley@redwoodsdk.com

Robert.Yates@redwoodsdk.com

REGIONAL DIRECTORS

Bryan.Fotheringham@redwoodsdk.com

Mark.Phillips@redwoodsdk.com

Matthew.Preston@redwoodsdk.com

Mathew.Parkinson@redwoodsdk.com

Head Office Telephone: 08442 488 322 / 01772 775 780 Email: sales@redwoodsdk.com

COULTER CONSULTING

Tel: 01525 860716 Email: info@coulter-consulting.co.uk

Christie & Co are proud to announce that we sold more day nurseries than any other agent in 2024, solidifying our position as the market leader.

With 2025 already off to an exceptionally busy start, if you’re considering selling or expanding or just want to understand the potential value of your nursery then our experienced specialist team are here to help.

Let us make 2025 the year you achieve your goals.

SPEAK TO THE

T: 0333 034 1751 | E: childcareandeducation@christie.com

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Leasehold - Offers Invited

• Operating capacity up to 80

• Turnover for Y/E 2024 c.£1.08million

• EBITDA for Y/E 2024 c.£430,000

T: 07754 559 529

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Leasehold - £650,000

• Operating capacity up to 109

• Turnover Y/E Jul 2023 - £571,219

• 2 Children's Day Nurseries T: 07711 767 094

– Leicestershire

Freehold & Leasehold - Offers Invited

• Leasehold EBITDA £132k

• Strong underlying property value

• Freehold and leasehold options available

T: 07701 315 061

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• EBITDAR YE 24 of £202k & T/O YE 24 of £687k

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