I've worked with children since I was 14 and had run Children 1st for over 35 years. It was a joy to run the nursery group. It has been my life. I didn't want to give it up, but I'm 85 this year. I was employing 800 staff and thinking that I need to leave them safe. If I could have, I would have ran the nursery group for another ten years, but the odds are against me.
Once the group had been sold to Storal, telling my team of staff was very difficult.
I've had so many. The most significant is how through the nursery group we've been able to develop and train people – I've enjoyed that. It wasn't until I sold the business that I realised how long my staff have worked for me. We had a huge number of employees who had worked for Children 1st for 20-30 years. We had also been running our own training department during that time, which I believe is a big reason many people have stayed for so long.
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