Training Talk - Hour Power

Many nursery owners report the Government’s 30-hours funded childcare scheme damages business. But after attending a course on how to manage the offer, Lucy Patrick (pictured), who bought Foundations Nursery two years ago with her husband, says the funding saved the nursery, and helped convert occupancy from 20 to 70 per cent.

The one-day course was delivered by MBK Training early years director Tricia Wellings. After Ms Wellings visited the nursery, she invited Ms Patrick to take part in free support for businesses she was running on behalf of Kirklees Council. The day session covered all aspects of the 30-hours funding, including understanding legislation, how to business plan, places planning and how to market the offer. Ms Wellings delivered the content through presentations and group discussions.

As a result, Ms Patrick introduced a weekly charge of £12 for consumables for all families of two- and three-year-olds. She increased her daily rate from £35 to £46 after making improvements at the setting. ‘It was too low when we took over the nursery, but it wasn’t a very good nursery,’ she says.

Ms Patrick got rid of all the plastic toys she inherited and replaced them with natural objects, woodwork and clay. She also refitted the toilets to look like a toddler spa complete with Buddha statues.

Ms Patrick stretched the funded hours to 48 weeks a year, and no longer offers term-time-only places. ‘We noticed we were pretty much full on a Wednesday, so we had nowhere to go,’ she says. ‘So we stretched the hours. Since doing that training, as a result of working really hard on our environment, our customer is now changing. We still have a decent number of funded children, but the amount of money coming from funded places compared to private payers is lower.’

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