Nursery Chains 2024: Childbase top of our league

The group has 24 of its 44 settings graded Outstanding, while the rest that have been inspected are all graded Good (two nurseries are new registrations).

In second and third place respectively are N Family Club and the London Early Years Foundation, with all of their inspected nurseries graded Outstanding and Good.

As controversy over Ofsted inspections and the one-word judgement continues, it is interesting to note that the number of Outstanding grades among the 25 largest groups has fallen from 369 in our 2023 table to 318.

In our analysis of UK nursery groups by size, we look at how the 25 largest nursery chains in the country have expanded over the last year.

While Busy Bees and Bright Horizons continue their long-held dominance as the biggest nursery groups in the country, Kids Planet can lay claim to the highest growth in the last 12 months, maintaining its strong position in third place in our table of the 25 largest nursery chains in the UK.

The Manchester-based group now operates 172 nurseries in this year’s table, up from 145 in our 2023 issue.

Indeed, as we went to press (and just too late to include in this year’s table) the group has just confirmed a deal to buy the Fledglings nursery group of four nurseries and Springfield Nurseries, a chain of five settings in North Wales.

In a very challenging year, it was those groups backed by private equity investment, such as Kids Planet, that were able to continue to expand.

Not far behind in terms of expansion is Grandir UK, which remains the sixth largest group, after adding 14 more nurseries and more than 1,000 extra places since last year’s listing. (For more details see our commentary).

In Nursery Chains 2024, free with the February issue of Nursery World, we talk to nursery groups about how they keep quality the focus of everything they do in supporting children and families.

While our league tables analyse the fortunes of the 25 biggest groups in the country, our extensive directory includes everyone from small family-owned businesses to the biggest, international groups.

As the Government presses ahead with the expansion of funded places, thanks go to our first-time sponsor Funding Loop, designers of a system to support nurseries with the process.

If you would like to be included in next year's directory, we'd love to hear from you. Get in touch at catherine. gaunt@markallengroup.com

From our sponsor

The winds of change continue to blow through the childcare sector. Having come through the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic, providers now find themselves battling with inflation and rising costs across the board. Meanwhile, parents are struggling with the cost of living crisis. 

Added to this, the Government’s relentless increases in the minimum wage have substantially increased settings’ main overhead involved in delivering childcare. 

Given that so many of the costs that providers incur are legislated – from the number of staff employed to the amount of space required – it is ironic that the Government held an inquiry into the cost of childcare last year. This year will see the introduction of the Government's new funding offer to working parents. The subsidy will undoubtedly help many families who have been affected by the cost of living crisis. The offer will also bring with it many operational challenges for providers. 

The level of demand already seen by parents suggests that places will be highly sought-after.

If the new offer enables parents to access childcare they previously could not afford, the historic shrinkage in the number of childcare places on offer will become apparent to all.

With many providers expecting a doubling of the number of place claims, it will also significantly increase the burden of completing funding forms. The process is tedious and time-consuming for providers and parents alike. 

This is where Funding Loop comes in a system that automates the process. This transfers the data in your nursery management to create a minimal set-up time and thereby ensures that your invoicing is married up to the hours on the funding forms electronically, signed by the parent.

This system will even automatically type the funding data into the council portal for you, helping you to meet those submission deadlines in a stress-free way.

Many congratulations to all the providers in this year’s Top 25 Nursery Groups, and we wish them all continued success in their striving for excellence.

What unifies providers of all sizes is their passion for doing the best for the children in their care and an ability over the years to weather the obstacles to deliver for them.

Khayam Ezzat, co-founder of Funding Loop and owner of Abeona nursery in Kettering, Northamptonshire