Cranley Nursery provides a shining example of how it is possible to achieve very high standards across a small group of nurseries. Its three sites in Edinburgh all deliver a homely and stimulating environment that is highly prized by families, children and staff. This success was recognised recently with a Nursery World award for Nursery Chain of the Year.
It has only been possible to achieve this consistency by continually improving all three sites and focusing on in-house and external training of staff.
Staff morale is high, with a low turnover among the senior staff. The group's managers have been in post for between five and 11 years.
Area manager Karen Murray believes the key to this is involving staff at every level. She says, 'We firmly believe in distributive leadership, with every staff member having a leadership role, giving a sense of belonging and empowering staff to drive changes through their own professional development.'
Cranley organises a number of staff nights where either all staff or just the management team get together.
'This year we held our first Cranley team-building event over an afternoon and evening at one of the nurseries,' says Ms Murray. 'We hold an annual Cranley staff awards with certificates and prizes. Staff are incentivised and feel rewarded for their efforts. Above all, the pride, loyalty and hard working ethos of a long serving management team is, hopefully, infectious!'
She adds, 'We have a comprehensive training programme which includes bringing in external trainers for specialised subjects and in-house training when we work with staff on topics such as customer care.'
Cranley Nursery encourages staff to undertake further training in any area they are interested in. Room leaders are offered training in leadership and the company has now started to organise seminars in Edinburgh, inviting partner provider nurseries to share the training experience. The owner and area manager know every staff member individually and work with everyone's individual skills and talents.
Managers' vision
Karen Murray says, 'The fact that all of our managers have been with the company between five and 11 years provides a solid foundation for the business. Each manager shares the vision of providing excellent childcare by being professional and approachable at all times.
'All three nurseries adhere rigidly to the same policies and procedures, and the managers take joint decisions regarding this and legislation. However, space is given for each manager to introduce individual approaches and practices to their own setting.'
Creating a welcoming environment for everyone comes down to knowing every child and family individually. 'We have an open door policy, giving opportunities to parents to share their children's successes in the wider community as well as at nursery,' says Ms Murray. 'This enhances our continuity of care. We take a holistic approach to education, with active, experiential learning at its heart.
'Monthly theme sheets are emailed to parents as well as being displayed in the nursery. Parents' knowledge of these themes allows them to augment the experience the child has at nursery in the home. Each day is highly structured, although time is allowed for the children to make decisions about what they want to do.'
Customer care is at the core of providing an excellent service for all its families, she says.
'We pride ourselves on knowing every family individually and being sensitive to individual needs,' says Ms Murray. 'Team-building events help the team remain strong and engaged with all aspects of the nursery's life.'
The fact that all three nurseries are in close proximity means that Cranley can regularly deploy staff across all three and never uses agency staff. This, too, helps give continuity in service.
Ready for growth
With the business on a solid financial footing, Cranley has plans to launch another site.
Ms Murray says, 'We are always planning for the future and are never resting on our laurels! We would like another nursery in Edinburgh to be Cranley number four. In the meantime, owners and managers regularly get together, sharing viewpoints and brainstorming new ideas to take Cranley forward.
'We are really excited about our current project to build an allotment and Cranley orchard to be completed before spring 2012. We plan to buy a minibus so that we can regularly transport children from each nursery to the allotment.'
