Nursery News

One of the UK's largest nursery groups is set to expand in a deal worth £10m.

Just Learning, which owns and manages 68 nurseries, said the 'acquisition chest' would ensure it continued to be a key player in a rapidly changing market.

Jonathan Bell, managing director of Just Learning, said the investment bank Ares Capital Europe had taken on the nursery chain's debt and agreed to lend the group £10m to fund expansion, which he said would be sufficient to buy a small nursery chain.

In addition, the company's largest investor, the Alchemy Investment Plan, has said it will inject more capital if the right deal emerges from the current sector-wide consolidation, enabling Just Learning to buy medium-sized companies.

Mr Bell said Just Learning was interested in buying nurseries based on their merits, whether they were individual nurseries or small and medium-sized chains.

He said, 'Trading has been good in 2007 and 2008. We've had a much stronger year in terms of occupancy and are on our way to achieving or beating our budget.'

Occupancy is currently around 60-65 per cent, based on full-time equivalents, he said.

In 2006 Alchemy had been interested in selling the company.

Mr Bell said, 'If the timing had been right, we would have wanted to talk to ABC (Learning Centres).

By Catherine Gaunt, Nursery World, 30 April 2008

Nursery World

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Nursery head banned from teaching after force feeding

A Birmingham nursery school headteacher who force-fed children in her care was banned from teaching last week.

Patricia Ann Baynes, head of Bordesley Green East Nursery School for 23 years, was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct by a committee of the General Teaching Council (GTC). During the tribunal, she was accused of force-feeding, assaulting and unfairly punishing children in the nursery school (News, 20 March).

The GTC stated in their announced decision, 'We are satisfied that these incidents did occur and we find that they constituted assaults on these very young pupils, aged three to four.'

Mrs Baynes was found guilty of assault in relation to 'force-feeding' and 'rough handling of pupils by dragging them along corridors'.

Many employees and ex-staff gave evidence against her. It was also found Mrs Baynes 'seriously demeaned or undermined colleagues by behaving inappropriately towards them'. The tribunal ruled that Mrs Baynes' teacher registration be withdrawn immediately.

The GTC said, 'Witnesses were called who spoke in support of Mrs Baynes, including two former Chairs of Governors who spoke highly of Mrs Baynes' character and her commitment to the school. However, she was clearly and by her own admission a forceful character who appears to have polarised opinions about her.

'We have heard evidence that this was a very good school which received a very positive Ofsted Report in 2000, praising the school and Mrs Baynes' leadership of it as head teacher, and it was highly regarded in its local community,' it continued.

'We have found it difficult to understand, particularly in relation to allegations directly concerning pupil welfare, how these matters were allowed to continue unreported for such a long time.'

By Laura Marcus, Nursery World, 1 May 2008

Nursery World

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Demand for nursery places rising

Occupancy is rising and the number of nursery closures may have peaked, according to a leading childcare survey.

Interim results for Laing & Buisson's Children's Nurseries UK Annual Report have found that demand for childcare rose by between 4 and 5 per cent last year, pushing occupancy levels up to 80 per cent.

Higher occupancy stems from fewer nurseries opening, a high level of closures and greater demand for childcare, made possible by a massive rise in employer funding.

The improved operating conditions pushed the value of the UK childcare market up to £3.8bn, a 7.8 per cent increase on 2006, which saw only a 5 per cent rise.

Delivering the interim results of the survey at Laing & Buisson's Annual Children's Nurseries Conference, company economist Philip Blackburn said, 'Demand last year increased pretty strongly and as a result of this, occupancy for the first time on record increased.'

Last year, noted Mr Blackburn, 'the dynamics of the market changed', with the trend of oversupply, as seen over the past five years, now in reverse.

'Closures are still a dominant feature of the market but they may have reached their peak over the last two years. Overall, I think trends look brighter than 12 months ago, but I'm still cautious,' he concluded.

Positive trends emerging from the survey were greater affordability of childcare (with three years of inflation-only rises bringing no increase in real terms) and better planning by local authorities.

While Government funding remains constant, employer funding has soared from 7 per cent in 2004 to represent nearly a quarter of spending on daycare nurseries.

Mr Blackburn said, 'It is crystal clear what has been driving demand in the marketplace, and that is funding from employers. It's an extraordinary growth rate and reflects the willingness of employers to fund childcare.

'Some research now confirms that childcare vouchers are the second most valued and important employee benefit after holiday entitlement. However, conflicting research suggests that only one in 50 eligible employees are actually taking the offer of vouchers.'

On the negative side, he cited underfunding from local authorities and a drop in the numbers of women of child-bearing age within the workforce.

Further information: The full Children's Nurseries Report 2007. Visit www.laingbuisson.co.uk

By Ruth Thomson, Nursery World, 30 April 2008

Nursery World

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Councils to rethink nursery funding

Nurseries are being asked to share their experiences as local authorities start looking at new ways of paying for free childcare services.

As part of new arrangements for funding, announced by children's minister Beverley Hughes last year, all local authorities must work out how much it costs nurseries to offer the free childcare entitlement.

The idea is to find gaps between the cost of providing the childcare and the money given by government to fund it.

The National Day Nurseries Association is asking members to let it know whether or not the cost analysis process has made an impact on funding levels.

Chief executive Purnima Tanuku said some providers were worried councils had not communicated with them properly during the process.

The survey can be completed at www.ndna.org.uk.

Children and Young People Now

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Policy Exchange: '£55 childcare for all mothers'

All mothers should be entitled to a weekly payment of £55 to help to cover childcare costs, even if they do not go out to work, a think-tank close to David Cameron has recommended.

The proposals for a flat-rate Parental Care Allowance (PCA) for all mothers with children under three will be considered by Conservative policy chiefs. Policy Exchange said the current system of means-tested subsidies was unfair both to better-off working mothers, who do not qualify, and to mothers who stay at home.

Labour targets childcare subsidies to low-paid working families through the tax credit system.

Policy Exchange said UK parents paid 70 per cent of childcare costs compared with an average 30 per cent elsewhere in the EU. This was despite total spending of £17 billion since 1997.

It was particularly unfair, it said, that most parents (59 per cent) got no help at all, either because the mother stayed at home, or because grandparents and friends helped out.

Of the 41 per cent who used formal childcare, most preferred individual care by a nanny or child minder to the collective day-care of a nursery, Policy Exchange said. Yet subsidies were heavily skewed towards the latter.

The scheme would cost £5.4 billion a year, and be paid for in part by scrapping the childcare element of Working Tax Credit, worth £1.4 billion. Policy Exchange also suggests that benefit for 16 to 18-year-olds should be cut, the Sure Start maternity grant for very low income homes should be scrapped, and that spending on Sure Start children’s centres be scrutinised.

TimesOnline

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