Mulberry Bush gains praise for staying open amid coronavirus cases

Parents have praised the nursery's response.

Rigorous procedures and careful planning meant that the positive cases were contained within one ‘bubble’ and the nursery was able to stay open in accordance with Public Health England advice.

Staff members and children from the relevant ‘bubble’ are currently self-isolating at home following a staff member testing positive for coronavirus on Saturday 1 August. Two further adults and one child also later received positive tests in subsequent days.

The team members who tested positive have had minor symptoms and are recovering well. The child did not have any significant symptoms. 

‘We have been working closely with Public Health England (PHE) and have followed all their advice in relation to this situation,’ said director Jo Kinloch. ‘PHE are extremely supportive of all the measures we have had in place and the action we have taken. We have also informed Ofsted as required by the current guidance.’

Ms Kinloch personally phoned all the affected families to explain the situation to them and has stayed in regular contact since. ‘We have aimed for direct, positive and honest communication with all families throughout,’ she said.

Forward planning

The family-owned nursery group, which has five Outstanding nurseries in Greater Manchester, has remained open throughout lockdown for keyworker and vulnerable children, including those from other settings that closed.

‘We knew that at some point we would need to deal with the possibility of a positive test in our nurseries and we have been glad to have stayed open since March without that happening,’ said Ms Kinloch. ‘We knew that when it did happen the most important thing would be to deal with it as well as possible ensuring that we kept the trust of our parents.’ 

The senior management team at Mulberry Bush had spent time planning what action they would need to take in the event of receiving a positive test and felt that this forward thinking assisted them in reacting to the situation. ‘We are lucky to have an incredible senior management team who all sprung into action to help with the phonecalls, working alongside the relevant nursery’s management team, giving up their Saturday to speak to parents and plan for the week ahead,’ Ms Kinloch said.

The nursery group wanted to ensure that it took all possible action to keep children and team members safe, in some circumstances going further than the PHE guidance strictly demanded, including asking that the siblings of children who had to self-isolate to stay away from the nursery for 14 days.

Ms Kinloch said that it had been a ‘very stressful period’ made more so by the story being covered in the tabloid media. She was grateful to have public relations support provided by their nursery insurer Dot2Dot. The PR support assisted in drafting a factual press statement and stepped in when a newspaper used a misleading headline.

Clear communication

Ms Kinloch advised other nursery leaders to ensure that they know the current guidance ‘inside out’. ‘Knowing it in detail was really important because people haven’t been receiving the most coherent messages from the Government,’ she said. ‘We know guidance really well and have been able to advise parents.’

She found PHE to be supportive and felt it helped that she could demonstrate that she and the Mulberry Bush team understood the guidance and were capable of dealing with the situation well.

Ms Kinloch also said, ‘It is important to also appreciate your staff team. Our team have been amazing during this incredibly stressful period and we are really grateful for all of their hard work and support.’

Key to everything, she said, is ‘clear communication’ and being available to answer questions and listen to the worries of everyone involved. ‘We have been so impressed by and grateful for the response of our parents throughout this situation. We have received really positive feedback about our communications with parents throughout lockdown, and we have continued to communicate with parents openly and honestly after the receipt of the positive tests,’ said Ms Kinloch.

Parents responded to media coverage by praising staff for their amazing response and stating how confident they are of their children’s safety. One parent wrote, ‘This is a brilliant nursery group…. I still feel at ease sending my child to their nursery as I know my child’s safety is their number one priority.’

Ms Kinloch added, ‘We appreciate that our parents are our biggest advocates and supporters and we are so incredibly grateful to them for all of their support.’