When a larger group takes over a small setting, parents may have understandable concerns. ‘Going from a small, family-run nursery to being part of a group can be scary and frustrating for parents, especially those who specifically chose an independent setting,’ says Sarah Dee, integration manager at Thrive Childcare and Education, which owns 46 nurseries across the UK.
‘We explain to parents we are not this big corporate where they will become a number,’ says Kindred Education brand and marketing manager Sarah Fromageot. ‘The setting is going to carry on doing the brilliant things it was doing, but with a new support network behind it. Parents can now feel confident that any changes Ofsted make, staff are going to know about it, any training staff need, they are going to receive it, any maintenance issues, they will have support.’
Kindred Education, which owns 23 settings in London, the South East and South West of England, creates a booklet for parents at new settings, welcoming them to the Kindred family and explaining the organisation’s ethos. Parents attend a meet-and-greet session with the new management team and receive an electronic version of the booklet with extra information. ‘We send out four or five bits of communication, gradually planting the seed of where Kindred came from, so by the time Kindred is the face of the nursery, parents are already quite comfortable with our ethos,’ says chief executive Ruth Pimentel.
In the past, Kindred has run parent evenings at newly acquired settings to answer questions, but such events can be counterproductive if there are one or two parents who have particularly vocal concerns, fostering alarm rather than giving reassurance. Instead parents are given the contact details of Kindred’s director of childcare, who can deal with any questions that the nursery manager can’t help with.
Storal Learning, which owns 25 settings and two after-school clubs, likes parents’ first introduction to the company to come from the departing owner, followed by opportunities to meet with the new owners. Parents at settings bought by Thrive Childcare and Education also receive a letter from the previous owner, followed by a welcome letter from chief executive, Cary Rankin. ‘I am on site for the next couple of days, from the moment the nursery opens in the morning to the end of the day, so I am accessible to parents,’ says Dee. ‘We try to combat that corporate image from the beginning by giving parents someone to talk to face-to-face.’
Parent concerns
Parents’ most immediate concerns tend to be around staffing. ‘Parents’ biggest concern is that the staff remain and we reassure them that this is the case,’ says Pimentel. There are also anxieties around operational issues such as opening hours and drop-off and pick-up arrangements, says Sarah Mackenzie, chief executive of Storal Learning. ‘We don’t make changes at the outset,’ she says. ‘If little tweaks are needed, we will do that gradually.’
A very common concern is whether fees will rise. ‘We don’t go in and put the fees up,’ says Pimentel. ‘We are buying successful nurseries – you don’t want to go in there and lose all your business.’ If there is a fee increase, it will take place gradually as new parents join the setting, she explains.
In a similar way, Thrive Childcare and Education has a gradual approach to changing policies, with important issues such as safeguarding coming first. ‘Parents are informed but often don’t register changes until they come up against them,’ says Dee. ‘Perhaps the nursery did not have a robust sickness policy in the past, for example. But generally as soon as we explain why the policy has been introduced, they are fine with it.’
Gathering feedback
Recent University College London (UCL) research found that while parents of children attending voluntary-run settings are often strongly involved in the running of the nursery, this is less often the case in privately run chains. The researchers suggest childcare companies consider having representation of parents and staff on the nursery management board, so that their interests can be best represented. They also suggested the Government consider making staff and parental involvement in the management of nurseries a condition of childcare companies receiving public funding.
Thrive introduces parent committees into its settings, which regularly meet with staff, managers and senior leadership to discuss issues ranging from menus to proposed Government policies. Kindred runs an annual survey across all of its settings and reports back to parents through a ‘you said, we did’ approach. It also surveys parents just after an acquisition and again in six months’ time to track how well the integration is proceeding. ‘I would like to think that our mantra of the Big Little Family would support parents putting forward new ideas and that these would be well received in the nurseries,’ says Pimentel.
Storal Learning also tracks parents’ reactions to integration. ‘We survey parents at the beginning of the acquisition to get a baseline of happiness and track over time whether we see it increase or dip, and if it dips, why that might be,’ explains Mackenzie.
Smoothing operations
When a nursery is taken over practical issues such as invoicing and payment systems, safeguarding procedures, policies, record keeping and communication methods may all be subject to change. In some situations a nursery may require a new registration, in which case bank details will need to change, says Pimentel. ‘This may mean that parents have to change direct debits, standing orders, childcare vouchers and Tax-Free Childcare payments, but this can be managed well with good communication.’
Even if they are more efficient, changes can be difficult to accept. Thrive Childcare uses Connect Childcare to invoice parents. ‘When the first invoice comes through, it looks very corporate – the amount doesn’t change but it may be presented differently and can cause confusion,’ says Dee. ‘We ensure there is someone on the finance team at the end of the phone ready to take calls.’
Kindred settings uses the Famly app to communicate with parents, which is branded Kindred Satchel. ‘The communication that they get through the app is invariably a hundred times better than they ever had before, and they see that really positively,’ says Fromageot.
Thrive Childcare also finds that parents react well to the introduction of ParentZone and the iConnect online learning journal. ‘A setting might have had excellent face-to-face communication, but parents often appreciate being able to log in and see what their child has eaten, or receive pictures as they are taken,’ says Dee.
Some of the settings that Thrive Childcare has recently acquired are rooted in the community they serve, looking after the children and grandchildren of original attendees. ‘We want to be sensitive about amalgamating that legacy to ours, not riding roughshod all over it,’ concludes Dee.
case study: Woodville Day Nursery & Pre-School
When Woodville Day Nursery & Pre-School was bought by Storal Learning in 2018, parents’ main concern was for the staff. The setting had been under the same family ownership since 1996, and the sale came as a shock for employees.
‘We had parents popping into the office saying are you OK – they were worried about us,’ says Tammy Mansfield, senior nursery manager. ‘They wanted reassurance that staff who had developed bonds and relationships with their children were staying.’
Parents first learned about the acquisition from the existing owners, then received an email from Storal Learning managing directors Ash Grover and Varun Chanrai, welcoming them to the group. Changes were made gradually, to ensure parents were on board. ‘We have had a voice as managers to say “I don’t think our parents are quite ready to go for that yet”,’ says Mansfield.
The nursery moved from a bright, plastics-dominated environment to a more natural aesthetic with loose parts. ‘We told parents what we were doing and why, and we did it room by room, advertising when we had changed it so parents could see,’ says Amanda Gadsby, also senior nursery manager.
Policies and procedures have also changed, but again this has been done gradually with full communication at every stage. ‘We switched to a new software system for recording children’s learning journeys, but it was a smooth transition,’ explains Gadsby. ‘We supported parents in downloading their children’s old learning journeys and gave them guidance on how to use the new one.’
Parents seem to prefer Storal’s invoicing system as it is more consistent. Having a regional administrator who deals with finance frees the managers to have more positive communication with parents. ‘We haven’t got to the awkwardness of talking to parents about owing money,’ says Gadsby.
Annual surveys gather parental feedback, which is acted on where possible, and parents are also asked to input into other projects and decisions. ‘We wanted to develop our outdoor space, so we sent our plan out to parents asking what their child particularly likes at home,’ says Mansfield. ‘We made a whole storyboard of ideas that parents sent in, which fed into that development.’