Interview - Linda Cuddy, head of childcare, Welcome Nurseries

TELL US ABOUT YOUR RECENT ACQUISITIONS.

Both nurseries opened on 7 September. The Village Nursery and Pre-School in York is Welcome’s smallest nursery at just 24 places, but forms the foundation of a sub-brand – Welcome Petite.

The tenth acquisition is the 158-place Care 4 Kids nursery in Blackburn – the second setting the group now owns there. Both are nurseries that had closed down because of Covid.

WHAT IS THE THINKING BEHIND FOCUSING ON SMALL SETTINGS WITH YOUR WELCOME PETITE BRAND?

The intention of Welcome Petite Nurseries is to create a collection of small, high-quality settings in areas of high demand, so we can offer an outstanding quality of childcare.

We are investing heavily into these smaller settings to make them ideal learning environments for young children and ones that are extremely well resourced.

For Welcome Petite, we are currently looking to acquire nurseries or pre-schools that have under 35 places. This size of setting can still provide what is very much a home-from-home feel. The nurseries are a lot smaller than our others.

It’s all about being very creative within these small spaces. Each nursery offers free-flow provision and is open-plan. And every single nursery looks completely different from the others.

The reason why we’ve picked the Petite brand is that some children are unable to cope in a larger setting. A smaller setting helps to build a child’s self-esteem and work on their Personal, Social and Emotional Development. That’s the reason why we have the Petite brand – to support children’s emotional well-being.

We’ve had many parents who like the feel of the smaller nursery. A lot of parents are anxious about children going into the larger settings.

The nursery in York is the first in the Petite brand and we’re looking to acquire another 11 in the Petite range. I’m speaking to five owners at the moment.

The York nursery is in a building that a long time ago was the Parish council community hall, then it was a pre-school. It’s such a quaint nursery, just on one floor. As with all our nurseries, it has outside space.

WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A NURSERY THAT YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT BUYING?

The nurseries we are acquiring are handpicked; no two nurseries are the same. There’s no one size fits all. Our largest setting is a 202-place setting in Bury, for example. We look at the environment, the room sizes, the outdoor area, the location.

When we acquire a setting, we do a refurbishment; we change everything about the nursery. If it’s a distressed setting we’re purchasing with old and tired buildings, we give them a new lease of life. It may be a nursery that’s not been run efficiently because the previous owners didn’t have the time and resources to invest.

We always keep the manager and staff in each new acquisition and embark on a two-week refresh of each setting immediately post-acquisition.

CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE ETHOS OF YOUR GROUP?

We believe that every child deserves the very best start in life. We have a privileged and honoured opportunity to be instrumental in delivering outstanding outcomes for children in the early years and we are committed to achieving that objective.

Staff well-being is something we are extremely passionate about. We believe that staff should embark on their own professional development to further develop their skills in early years. We have an unlimited staff development budget. The more skilled our practitioners, the better the outcomes for children.

HOW DO YOU CHANGE THE ENVIRONMENT IN YOUR NURSERIES?

We have book areas right at the centre of the room, rather than having a book corner. What we have found when we changed the environment is that the engagement in teaching and learning is absolutely fantastic. Children’s behaviour changes, and we have no behavioural issues.

We do one room at a time. Everyone in the nursery is involved with the changes – parents, staff and children, collectively.

In some of the larger nurseries, we have an artist’s room, while in other nurseries we have libraries. In others, there’s a construction zone or a music room. We aim to create a hive of activity.

We also change the colours. Some of the nurseries that we’ve bought have had really bright colours on the walls. That can be very hard for children on the autistic spectrum. So, we choose a calm colour scheme for the nursery, and we also play classical music.

HOW HAS IT BEEN SINCE LOCKDOWN EASED?

Covid has been a worrying time for many nurseries; however, we are currently weathering the storm in a positive way, hence why we are acquiring many settings.

Parents are beginning to bring children back, and at the moment around 30 per cent of children have come back. Some parents are anxious, but we have strict controls, as other nurseries do.

YOU HAVE EXPANDED FAST. DO YOU HAVE AN IDEAL SIZE FOR THE NURSERY GROUP?

At the beginning, we said that our aim was to have 100 nurseries. At the end of this year, we will have 20 of the big Welcome nurseries and five of the Petite nurseries.

We opened our first nursery in June 2019. Our first acquisition was a group of three nurseries, but we combined the staff teams and child numbers to make two beautiful nurseries.

It was in April this year that we really started to focus on acquisitions. We have another five nurseries at exchange, pending completion this autumn. The group now has 1,041 childcare places.

We are continually looking to acquire more settings. We have another five nurseries in the pipeline at the moment. We will achieve our objective by the end of the year. We are in this for the long term, we want to spark learning in a child’s life.