With over six months of successful trading under the belt of the Gateway Nursery and Pre-school in Harlow, Essex, owner and manager Emma Pike is confident about weathering the challenges that 2011 is expected to bring.
'When we took over the site last July, occupancy was struggling and the existing 11 staff were all concerned about losing their jobs,' she says. 'However, we have now built occupancy and we employ a total of 19 staff and feel the business is going from strength to strength.'
Overall, the nursery now takes 11 children in its baby room, 32 in its toddler room and 56 children in its pre-school. Word of mouth has been a strong factor in boosting the popularity of the site, which has been refurbished under its new ownership. Ms Pike has tried to use all the available space imaginatively.
'For example, in our baby room, which is not terribly large, we have cleared out a cupboard and converted this into a sensory area,' she says. 'We have also extended the physical area in this part of the nursery, providing new equipment for older babies, which reflects our current intake.'
She believes the nursery benefits hugely from being the 'link' nursery for its local Sure Start Centre. 'One of the greatest benefits for us is that we get the input of a fantastic early years teacher, who shares our vision and puts planning, activities and resources into place. She is with us for one afternoon or morning a week, but we get much more of her time, as she is always available on the other end of the phone. She also supports us with projects such as ECAT and Musical Minds, which our children and parents have fully engaged with.'
Currently, Ms Pike is not too concerned about the hike in VAT rates. 'We recently re-branded our uniforms and have just purchased those, so will avoid paying more. However, as the year goes on, the rise will start to affect us in terms of what equipment and resources we buy in.'
Ms Pike is more concerned about the cuts in funding for training. 'Having well-trained staff is an absolute priority for us and last year we were able to access funding to upskill team members to Level 4. Without this, we will have to factor in training costs.'
She adds, 'We want to give our staff a progression path and give them new opportunities. One of our senior team members has just side-stepped into a supernumerary role which involves supervising the care of children in the nursery who have special educational needs or who may be under child protection orders.'
Gateway operates in a deprived area of Harlow and Ms Pike hopes that the Government will fulfil its pledge to focus on disadvantaged families. 'At the moment the criteria for the free entitlement for two-year-olds is being renewed, and we would like to see this released as soon as possible, as many local families could benefit.'