While the growth rate in the early years sector is slowing, according to Ofsted's latest statistics, full daycare providers still account for the largest and most rapidly growing element of the market.
'The growth in the sector is linked to the areas where there are major housing developments: the commuter areas such as around London, the South East and South West,' says Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association.
Ofsted's childcare statistics for the three months to last December show that over the previous quarter there had been a rise of 200 in the number of full daycare providers in England to13,800, who between them provide 596,600 places (an increase of 8,300).
In contrast, across the whole sector the number of registered providers rose by 500 to 108,100, offering 1,566,500 places compared with 1,559,400 places three months earlier.
However, market conditions are ever tougher. Maintaining occupancy rates is becoming harder as the market reaches saturation point in many parts of the country. 'It is quite a challenging time for the sector because of a number of issues: free early years entitlement, children's centres, staff ratios and fees,' says Ms Tanuku.
Nevertheless, some new providers are taking advantage of the Government's extended services agenda, while others are capitalising on their 'USP'
(Unique Selling Point).
Integrated working
ABC Day Nursery, Telford
Penny Hustwick is realising the Government's much vaunted vision of integrated working to deliver seamless provision of childcare and education.
Her passion for children with special needs and ability to make the most of every opportunity led her from a steady job as a nursery nurse in a special school to owning three nurseries and taking a key role in an innovative Pounds 70m integrated education and community development.
Her ABC nursery, which opened in early January at the Hadley Learning Community in Telford, is an essential element of the private finance initiative (PFI) project which has brought together, on to a shared site, a children's centre, secondary school, primary school and special school, alongside community facilities, such as a 150-seat theatre, cafe, swimming pool, fitness gym and sports pitches.
The move into nursery ownership came about almost by chance. 'I was working in a special school in a unit for children with the most complex needs and I absolutely loved my job. I could have stayed there until I was 60 but I just knew I wanted to give something else a go.
'I heard that the old village school in Wrockwardine was up for lease and thought it would make a nice nursery. We opened in January 1993 and have since added an after-school club and a holiday club.
'Later our Early Years Partnership was inviting bids to tender for setting up daycare provision on a school site at Hollinswood. I already knew that Hadley was going to be built and I was interested in it because it was going to involve working with children with special needs. I have a passion for children with profound learning difficulties.
'At Wrockwardine we have taken children with cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome and autism - a cross-section of children with learning difficulties, as well as children without learning difficulties.
'We made it work and in a building that was not necessarily suitable. So, I was really excited about the idea of having a purpose-built building where you would be able to provide services for children with special needs and their families.'
She had registered an expression of interest in the Hadley scheme but knew to succeed she would have to submit a tender, which was something she had never done before.
'When Hollinswood came up my husband said I should have a go, fill in the forms and if I got invited to make a presentation it would be a learning curve for the Hadley project.'
She made short work of the learning curve. She not only won the tender for the nursery at Hollinswood school, opening the setting in August 2004, but then went on to win the bid to run the nursery at the Hadley Children's Centre.
She clearly does not settle for the easy life. On top of the negotiations, meetings, site visits and all the planning involved over 12 months in getting the new nursery equipped, staffed and opened, and running her two established settings, she is in the final stages of a four-year part-time early years foundation degree.
During the past year she has been talking with the different settings to determine how best they can integrate their services and work together.
'This is something new. There is something for everybody here. We are looking at all these facilities and seeing how best we can use them.
'It is a case of coming at it with an open mind and the desire to work together, I am quite forward thinking and I make connections.
'With the primary school we are going to be providing the Foundation Stage curriculum as a whole, together. There is a sliding door between our pre-school room and the local authority nursery, attached to the primary school.
'We share a full-time teacher. Because we are part of the children's centre services we have funding for point 5 of the post and the school has the funds for point 5 of the post too.
'When the door is open we will be providing a seamless provision. We have the staffing ratios so the children can flow back and forwards through the sliding door.
'At the end of the nursery "school day" we can close the door and be cosy providing the childcare. Everything is the same either side of the door, which means, with planning, we won't be duplicating what is on offer but adding to it. So, if they have sand in their wet area we can have paper and glue in ours.
'We have the teacher from the advisory team helping us to plan it all together. We are looking at how to implement the Early Years Foundation Stage. We are discussing ideas with the special school. The head teacher, through the governors, is surveying the parents to see if they would like after-school provision.
'The idea is to make the best use of resources. The special school takes children from the age of two and a half. The vision is they may have children who need to come over to us and socialise with our children, for example, to develop their communication skills.
'We worked in a similar way with the same special school at our other nurseries, but that was more difficult as we were miles apart. Now it is just a walk down the corridor and a journey in the lift.
'With the secondary school, we are looking at offering work experience placements when they get into Year 10. In the case of teenage pregnancies, we can offer support and help with parenting skills.
'The possibilities and opportunities here are endless. What we can achieve together could be vast.'
FAMILY FRIENDLY
Mini Moltons Day Nursery, Devon
Mini Moltons aims to become a home from home for the children enrolling at the new setting in the Devon market town of South Molton.
The family feel starts with the team behind the new venture: Molly Palmer and her mother Felicity Baxter have gone into business together and a key member of the team is Molly's younger sister, Florence.
'We want the nursery to have a family feel,' says Ms Palmer. 'We want the children to feel they are coming to play at someone's house and it is not a school as such. We are providing learning through play in a family, homely environment.
'We want to be emotionally attached to the children and offer them the security and love that they need. It has a family feel. I live next door and my cats spend their time sitting on the nursery doorstep.'
Felicity, a former primary school teacher, and her two daughters are accustomed to working together. Before setting up the new venture, they were all working at the same nursery in Barnstaple, with Felicity and Florence working in the same room together.
'We debate things, but because we are a family we know when someone is being serious about something and that they are not going to change their mind.
The family decided to go into business after learning that a local daycare centre was to close. The light and airy building did not need much more than redecorating as it had been designed for adults with special needs, so the radiators are adapted so they are not too hot to touch and the taps and washbasins are set at a low height. The outdoor area, in a central quadrangle, can be accessed from all the rooms.
'We have got an armchair in the babyroom which you can snuggle up in and the babies' sleeping room is like a nursery at home with mobiles.
'At all meal times and snack times all the groups will come together and sit around a big table in the dining room, obviously later it will be two tables. The babies will be in their highchairs up at the table along with all the staff and all the children. We will be enjoying home cooking. It may be hard work for the staff to bring the babies through for snacks, but we want that family feel of everyone together. The older children enjoy helping to feed the babies.
'In a lot of nurseries the baby room is separated from the rest of the building and it can be a real shock for toddlers when they move out of the baby room. We want our babies to know the children and the staff.
'Children respond to new people and find them interesting so we want people we know who have a particular skill to drop in on a Friday afternoon and share that skill with the children. So, someone who is a good singer will come in and lead some singing. When the gardener comes we will get groups of four children to work with him for a bit. We want to develop a vegetable plot so the children can help grow our own vegetables but that is something for the future. We want our children to be able to dig up the potatoes for their lunch.'
WELSH LANGUAGE
Y Cam Cynta Nursery, Carmarthen
The niche Susan James and Siriol Butterworth have filled in the early years market is to open a Welsh-medium nursery in their home village of Peniel near Carmarthen.
With 29 places, the nursery might be regarded as small, but it has clearly met a big need: a return to traditional childcare with the emphasis on child-led activities and play-based learning.
'It is all in the Welsh medium, but most of our families - around 60 per cent - come from English backgrounds,' says Mrs James. 'It opens many doors for them later in life if they have learned another language at an early age.'
The two were chatting about the difficulty in finding Welsh language childcare when they had the idea of starting their own nursery.
'I worked in a bank but gave up when I had my first daughter because I was looking for a Welsh-speaking childminder and the good ones were fully booked. Siriol has four children. She had a nanny and then she used a local a nursery, which was bilingual, but most of the work came home in English.
'I had got involved in the local Welsh-medium playgroup. I used to help as a member of the committee and then in various positions until I became the leader of the playgroup.
'We are about a mile outside Carmarthen. Although there are about six nurseries in the town, none of them offered Welsh-medium daycare.
'Our staff all speak Welsh. They are all qualified, except for one. They range in age from early 20s to late 50s. One worked as a teacher; another has a degree in early years education and others have early years qualifications, so there is a good mix of experience and new ideas.'
Care is at the heart of the Y Cam Cynta nursery whether it is in the care for the children or the care for the environment in the way it uses natural wooden toys, as much organic food as possible supplied by local producers and terry towelling nappies, offering a free washing service for parents.
'Parents do not have to buy nappies while their child is attending nursery.
They are saving money and we are doing our bit for the environment.
'We follow the children's ideas of learning and encourage them to learn from the environment. We have built two dens in the garden and they have big logs as seats. The children sit and use their imaginations to tell stories and play games.
'There are no computers or televisions at the nursery. We talked to a lot of parents prior to opening. We felt that children spend a lot of time in front of the TV, a computer screen or with a game boy and we wanted to step back from that. There has been a problem with children spending so much time in front of the television or computer screen they are not communicating. At nursery they are communicating with their peers and with us.'
