North West nursery group to open UK franchises

While Kids Academy has franchises abroad, it is about to open five franchised settings in the UK for the first time in 2015.

The group currently has nine settings in the UK and abroad. Four are based in the Warrington area, with a further five franchised nurseries in the United Arab Emirates.

‘The demographics show how much take-up there is in the UK. There is a great demand for childcare, which we are trying to meet. We are going to use the five UK sites as a model to see how it goes, as we understand the difficulties of maintaining an outstanding level of childcare in more than one setting,’ said Ms Jones.

Kids Academy is also changing its name to ‘Evolution Childcare’ as part of a rebranding of the whole chain.

Ms Jones said, ‘We’re out of the recession and now it’s about so many more families having access to nursery places via Government initiatives, and the new name reflects this change. I choose to invest to the level that I do in order to ensure all parents to receive outstanding care for their children.’

Earlier this week childcare and education minister Sam Gyimah visited the Kids Academy Kalgarth Grange nursery to meet the founders of the chain, Sue and Rob Jones, as part of a trip to visit several nurseries thriving from the high demand for childcare in the North West.

Mr Gyimah said, ‘It is fantastic that Sue and Rob have gone from strength to strength in recent years and demand is so high they are rapidly expanding. More parents are using childcare and we have given a record amount of money to support the youngest children – increasing annual funding by over £1 billion. It was great to hear from Sue how much tax-free childcare will benefit working children in Warrington.’