Nursery World - Nursery Chains: Profiles

Two nursery groups in this year's directory have rapidly expanded in recent year to become some of the largest in the country. Katy Morton discovers the stories behind their growth

CHILDREN 1ST

New to Nursery Chains this year, family-owned Children 1st Day Nurseries has been operating settings across the Midlands and South Yorkshire for 27 years.

The group of 18 nurseries was established in 1988 by Margaret Mason, one of the founding members of the National Day Nurseries Association, in a bid to boost the quality of provision.

‘It was when I returned to England after spending time in Scotland where I worked as a pre-school community advisor – supporting playgroups and private settings – that I saw provision wasn’t at a particularly good standard,’ she explains.

‘At the time, a nursery in Long Eaton was up for sale. It was one of two private settings in the whole of Derbyshire. Back then it was very hard to get private settings registered, as local authorities were very suspicious. It had been run by a children’s nurse, which is how she’d been able to do it.’

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