It costs around 4,000 to install the system, and Busy Bees hasbeen testing it at 14 nurseries in the past year.
Once a user's fingerprints are registered, the sensor pad scans 27'minutiae' - key points on the fingerprint unique to the individual -and matches them up.
Busy Bees said the data is only held by the nursery and it is impossibleto recreate an individual fingerprint or any part of it from the datastored.
Marg Randles, operations director for Busy Bees, told Nursery World thatthe chain's existing security systems needed to be replaced. Previously,Busy Bees used a variety of entry systems, including swipe cards andkeypad systems into which parents entered a code.
Ms Randles said, 'As they need replacing, we will install thefingerprint systems and there will be a programme to do more over thenext year. Parents think they're fantastic because it's so much easierfor them. You don't have to remember a swipe card or numbers, and ifit's raining it's two seconds and you're in the nursery.'
She added, 'It's optional. If parents object, they don't have to use it,but the feedback has been extremely positive.'
Paul Easton of UK Biometrics said more than 700 nurseries across the UKhave installed the fingerprint scanners.
'Security is paramount,' he said. 'Nurseries need to be sure thatstrangers can't wander in. But also there is convenience for parentswhen they are picking up or dropping off children.'
He acknowledged that parents sometimes had concerns that theirfingerprint could 'end up in the wrong hands' or with the police, butsaid that most were reassured once the system was explained to them.
Berkshire Healthcare NHS Trust has become the first healthcare trust inthe UK to install biometric access in three of its workplace nurseriesin Reading and Slough.