Nursery Management: Case Study - Green living

After 'a lot of blood, sweat and tears', Vanessa Warn and her business partner Tracey Brooks have fulfilled their dream and opened the doors of Little Green Rascals, the first totally organic, Soil Association-registered nursery in the north of England.

It has been a year and a half since Vanessa spotted the ideal location for the organic nursery in an old farmhouse next to the popular York Maze.

'I knew Tom Pearcy, who owns the Maze, and was having a look around when I had a "lightbulb moment". I realised the old farmhouse next to it would make a perfect children's nursery. We have spent a vast amount of money turning it into a nursery and we have it on a seven-year lease with the option to buy it in three years,' she says.

As well as promoting the green, organic lifestyle in the nursery, Vanessa lives it, too. 'I was doing all these things at home, like giving my three children organic food and non-toxic paints, and I was looking at nurseries and they weren't doing any of these things. I didn't even put my children into nursery care until they were three years old because of this,' she says.

Her two eldest children are now at school but her youngest attends Little Green Rascals. Her aim has been to create a nursery where parents would want to send their children even if they didn't need the childcare because they benefit so much from it.

Vanessa teamed up with Tracey Brooks, another mum whom she met through her children's school. 'She already has a nursery and I thought it would be good to have someone on board with experience who knew about things like Ofsted, which was a complete enigma to me,' she explains.

Since it opened, demand for Little Green Rascals has been 'fantastic'. The nursery is registered for 77 children and it already has 70 enrolled.

Despite being in a recession, Vanessa had no qualms about opening a new business. 'I have felt so true to this whole idea since it started. It has felt so right. So many parents make a compromise when they send their children to a nursery and I didn't want it to be that way,' she says.

The children at the nursery eat organic food, with the ingredients being sourced locally, where possible.

There is an organic kitchen garden and free-range chickens, guinea pigs, a sensory garden and space to play.

The nursery has so far taken on ten staff aged from 18 to 54, all of whom have at least an NVQ level 2.

'We have found that taking on a wide range of ages helps them gel better as a team,' she explains.

Vanessa is keen to change conditions for nursery practitioners and wants 'to break the trend of paying them peanuts'.

She says, 'As far as we are concerned, we pay over the average by quite a lot. We are also offering them a bonus of five per cent of their salary if they do well in their appraisal, and up to five per cent of their salary again according to how well our profits do in the first year.

'They also get a free organic box of fruit and vegetables once a month. We think it is really important that they feel part of the company.'

The pair have also introduced an informal dress code with staff allowed to wear jeans, Crocs and a Green Rascals t-shirt so 'they feel relaxed'.

So far, there are only two other Soil Association-certified nurseries in the UK. In order to become certified, nurseries have to comply with the association's organic catering standards, which mean the food given to children has to be free from genetically modified ingredients, artificial additives, preservatives, flavourings, colourings, sweeteners or enhancers and pesticides.