The new nurseries include a second 60-place setting in Poole, Dorset, at the end of November and a 60-place site at Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, before Christmas under the Neighbourhood Nursery Initiative (NNI). Earlier this year the group opened neighbourhood nurseries at Moulsecoomb and Whitehawk in Brighton in East Sussex, Rainham in Essex, Warrington in Cheshire, and Poole.
Funding has been confirmed for a further 50 NNI places at Buffer Bear's nursery in Newcastle. The site, which opened in 1994, currently offers around 20 of its 92 places through the scheme.
Several of Buffer Bear's planned or existing neighbourhood nurseries are based in the grounds of primary or secondary schools, in line with the Government's policy to have almost a third of neighbourhood nurseries built on school sites throughout England.
Private providers have voiced concerns about the sustainability of NNI, but Buffer Bear's managing director, Dr Kay Turner, said neighbourhood nurseries fitted naturally with Buffer Bear's vision of social enterprise and history of partnership working with employers, local authorities and community groups.
Dr Turner said that a major recruitment drive was underway and that the group chose its projects carefully to ensure their long-term future. She cited Buffer Bear's Newcastle nursery as an example of a setting that had survived for several years in an area of disadvantage before the NNI was introduced.
The group also plans to continue to expand in partnership with the NHS to create on-site workplace nurseries. Last week it received the go-ahead to develop provision for Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust in West Yorkshire.
In the spring Buffer Bear is to open a 56-place setting in Burton, for Burton Hospitals NHS Trust in Lancashire, and a 50-place nursery in Burnley for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust. It currently manages five NHS nurseries, including two facilities for Barts and the London NHS Trust.