Interview - Russell Ford

High-quality childcare is obviously important to you. How do you plan to improve the CfBT nurseries?

We want to build on existing practice, which is already good, to develop outstanding settings. Our first priority is to work with our teams to write a development plan for each nursery. Liz Richardson, our childcare and education director, will deliver training and work with our teams to create exciting environments and activities - for children AND themselves.

We'll look to improve resources and develop the large outdoor spaces at our nurseries, which offer huge potential for us to do something innovative. Each of our nurseries is different and we look to retain and develop their individuality.

Was it difficult to secure finance to expand the business given the current financial climate?

It has been difficult to secure finance over the last three years, but strangely that's helped us to expand, as the lack of suitable financing to support buyers has resulted in the value of nurseries becoming depressed. This is probably the best time to acquire nurseries for the last 20 years, as values are the lowest they've been in that time. We haven't used external funding at all, to date. We've selected our nurseries very carefully, bought nurseries that are not unlocking the potential that we believe they have, and have used our own funds to do so.

What are occupancy levels at your nurseries?

I've heard from various owners that occupancy is down on last year, and this does seem to be a difficult time across the sector. High-quality operators seem to be doing a lot better than mass market operators. We're lucky that occupancy in all of our nurseries is up 30 to 40 per cent on last year, and we have the staff teams in our nurseries to thank for that.

They've been fantastic! All our nurseries have been inspected this year and achieved great outcomes - and while we've also invested in refurbishments and resources, that's been the main factor. 

So if they’re reading this – a really big ‘thank you’ to all of our staff for that!

Do you have any more acquisitions in the pipeline?

No. Well, perhaps one more. We're hugely excited about the one we've just made, and we have a lot to do next year in all four nurseries. We won't do anything to compromise that. We'd rather ensure that we end up with eight outstanding settings, than chase more.

We've only moved on to acquire four new settings because we're confident that all of our existing ones are outstanding and want to ensure that our new settings are outstanding too, before buying too many more.

What are your long-term ambitions for All About Children?

Much the same as our short term ones…..to have wonderful settings, fantastic staff teams who love working for us as much as they love the children, delivering outstanding care. We’re much more interested in that than chasing growth. If the right settings come along we may buy a few more, but we’re genuinely focussed on quality rather than quantity.

We know our staff teams feel well supported and that they enjoy working with us. As I’ve said, they’re really amazing and passionate about the activities and experiences they provide for the children and they make our nurseries what they are. We love being a small group as it enables us to know all of our staff really well. We’d like to keep it that way.