Interview - Nicola Brimble
Nicola Brimble, Head of Nursery, Raised in Bristol (RIB)
Monday, February 3, 2020
As the social enterprise opens its second nursery in the city, Nicola Brimble explains its ethos
HOW DID YOU COME TO OPEN YOUR FIRST NURSERY?
From the outset Raised in Bristol wanted its nurseries to be community-focused so children would grow up feeling part of their own community and of their city with everything that it has to offer them.
Community centres seemed like a good place to site nurseries, with two of the founders having already done this in the city. We also knew that we needed to find a replicable model.
The founders are Anne Malindine, Sasha Lines and Kirsten van den Hout. Between them they have a mixture of experience in business with roots in communities. I was recruited to add professional early years expertise.
WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT YOUR SOCIAL ENTERPRISE MODEL?
Our business model is very simple. We run a tight business intending to make a profit. What’s different is what happens to that profit.
We are a business dedicated to delivering the highest quality early years education and childcare. We are also a social enterprise with a focus on ensuring that local community assets remain viable by providing them with a sustainable revenue stream. This re-routes power and determination back into the hands of those within the community. We have no shareholders, so there is no private gain from profit – it is shared with the local community, keeping wealth where it is generated.
Raised in Bristol is for working parents, open from 8am-6pm 51 weeks of the year. We accept government funding for places and we make it work with a sliding scale of payments to cover the cost of additional hours and the shortfall in Government funding.
Raised in Bristol values the skills of its nursery teams very highly and has made it a priority to be an accredited Living Wage employer. It gives autonomy to each nursery team to respond to the priorities of their community.
YOU NOW HAVE TWO NURSERIES – TELL US ABOUT THE LATEST ONE THAT HAS JUST OPENED.
We are very pleased to have opened a second nursery, Raised in St Pauls, in January. It’s in a community building where the rent is supporting activities for young people locally. The first nursery, Raised in Easton, opened in January 2018 in Easton Community Centre and is now full.
There are plans for several more nurseries in Bristol over the next few years, and now that our model is tested, we are making plans to replicate it elsewhere. We want to be invited to work with communities anywhere.
WHAT MAKES YOU DIFFERENT?
We care as much about the whole team as we do about the children in our care.
We prioritise a feeling of safety, security and inclusion for everyone. We value this as the bedrock on which effective childcare and learning is built. Similarly, we are passionate about supporting the professional development of our staff through lifelong learning.
The Raised in Bristol ethos empowers the children in our care to be confident, independent and curious learners by providing an environment where they take the lead. They have the opportunity to learn through first-hand experience with no limitation on how or what they can learn.
We take time to consider how we create a homely environment which sparks children’s interest, using natural objects and materials that provide opportunities for ‘open ended’ play, with highly trained professionals to support the children – and to learn together.
