Business development - A marvellous business

There was great demand for quality childcare in Smethwick, but reports said high-quality childcare was the preserve of the middle classes. We wanted to go against that. Our aim was to be outstanding from the very beginning.'

The views of Zad Padda, executive director of Smethwick Youth and Community Centre (SYCC), will be shared by many good nursery practitioners setting up for the first time. This one achieved its aim with an Ofsted 'Outstanding' just six months after opening, which was followed by this year's Nursery World Business Development award.

The 60-place GNG Nursery was set up, its directors say, because of a lack of high-quality childcare in the area, in part of SYCC. There is an emphasis on providing early education places for funded two-year-olds and ensuring that threeand four-year-olds take up their funded places. More than half of children attending are on a free place.

Flexibility is built in to the two-year- old provision, with no set time slots for funded places. The nursery instead incorporates the funded sessions into its existing sessions.

'We don't discriminate between funded families and fee-paying parents. We wanted to close the attainment gap for when the children get to school, so all receive the same tailored nursery services,' says Mr Padda.

'We made the decision right at the start to make our fees affordable. But we needed to be practical about it - there was no point in starting off with our prices being too low, in case we needed to realign them, as that would be unfair on the families,' he adds.

For parents who do not qualify for funding, GNG's fees are set at a competitive rate - just under the 'average' price of £177 per week - as they have a weekly charge of between £160 and £170 per week depending on the child's age.

The nursery tries to support the whole family. Nursery manager Gisela Costa says, 'It is important that we are in tune with the families' needs - by helping the family, we are helping the child. This can be anything from supporting special educational needs to child protection plans and dealing with family conflicts and social services.'

This also includes referring parents to other services in the community centre, which include advice on employment and welfare, English and computer courses and fitness classes.

By encouraging parents to seek employment advice, the nursery has even inspired some to take on a career in childcare, and has offered placements and apprenticeships to several parents.

Mr Padda comments, 'It's about developing people and increasing the quality of staff in the early years sector, even if we aren't able to hire them ourselves. It's a very deliberate development of best practice.'

Ofsted praised the nursery in its report for allowing children to 'flourish' in language development. For a high percentage of the intake, English is a second or even third language.

To aid vocabulary development and general communication, practitioners use the Makaton language programme, which uses gestures and pictures as visual cues to support vocabulary. Practitioners have also started learning words in other languages to help them converse with the children.

'This shows the children that learning one another's languages is a two-way thing, and encourages them to develop their English skills,' says Ms Costa.

The nursery has an advantage in this regard due to the fact that it has a diverse staff population, with native Portuguese, Spanish and Punjabi speakers. In a move to make the process full circle, the nursery also refers parents to lessons at the community centre in order to improve their English.

Activities are organised on a free-flow basis. Children are given designated, age-restricted groups for some parts of the session, and twoto five-year-olds mix during activity periods, which allows the children to be grouped by development, rather than age.

'We have some advanced younger children who can mix with the older ones with ease. By allowing different age groups to play together, we are promoting faster language and social development, giving each child targeted, individualised care to ensure they develop their skills at a rate to suit them,' says Ms Costa.

'Children are more likely to interact with an activity they have chosen themselves. Focused play has helped them to reach their development goals more quickly,' she adds.

The open-plan nursery, which was rebuilt upon conversion and is divided into three principal rooms, has an indoor play area featuring padded mats for cushioning, slides, tunnels and foam blocks that the children are encouraged to move around. There is also a new outdoor area, which is used each day. Once a week the children go out into the community, such as to visit a local shop to buy their own fruit and vegetables.

As a non-profit organisation, SYCC puts any money made by the business back into the community. Mr Padda says, 'SYCC has a very good relationship with Aston University Business School. When we set the nursery up, we had three young people from the school on placement with us, who became integrally involved with the opening.'

The nursery itself is in the early stages of further expansion, with staff looking at ways to increase the size of the setting by either taking up more space in the community centre or even moving to another venue altogether.

Looking forward, SYCC aims to help tackle the low literacy levels in Smethwick. The charity wants to encourage parents to read more, consequently influencing their children to do the same and improving the family's reading, writing and speaking as a whole.

Mr Padda says, 'We have proved that it can be done: if you centre around the right business principles then you can set up a successful, high-quality childcare service in a short space of time.'