With some creative thinking and reconfiguration of existing space, providers can grow and expand or simply re-organise to offer this service, says James Hempsall
This is the case for Tik-Tok nursery, a registered charity established in 1991 and located in the Felling area of Gateshead. An Ofsted 'outstanding' nursery it is registered for 130 places and provides full-time and part-time daycare places, as well as holiday care for older children. The nursery building has multiple rooms used by the three age groups: a sleep room, a family room and an additional room which is used for its holiday club.
Tik-Tok has always worked with the local authority, and has embraced new initiatives to ensure that it maximises the services available for its local community. It was a neighbourhood nursery and is now a part of children's centre services.
The nursery was part of the pilot for two-year-olds and there has been high demand for places from local families. Through local authority briefings and information sharing events, the nursery was aware that the Government planned a significant increase in places from September 2013. Knowing that there would be many families in its community who would fall into the eligibility criteria, the nursery saw this expansion as a business opportunity that would enable it to meet the needs of many more families. Working with the local authority, the nursery developed a plan to re-organise its rooms, to use the existing space more creatively.
Under its plan, which will now have been implemented, the holiday room (currently only used in the holidays) becomes a dual-purpose space incorporating the family room. The existing family room will now offer an additional 16 morning places for two-year-olds.
Although the plan has no structural costs, there will need to be a small investment in equipment.
The decision to offer mornings only from September is the first stage of its expansion plans. As well as having the physical space to facilitate this growth, the nursery is fortunate to have a large team of 34 staff and bank staff.
Using the existing staff creatively the nursery is able to offer the additional morning places from this month 2012 without having to recruit any new staff members.
The reconfiguration is the first stage of the nursery plans. The next stage will involve recruiting additional term-time staff to allow growth to offer 16 places in the morning and afternoon, and offer increased flexibility for families from 8am to 6pm by Christmas.
Further information
James Hempsall is director of training and research provider Hempsalls
