The nursery cut fees by ten per cent in August after receiving feedback from local parents at open days and stay-and-play sessions that the original costs were too high. A full day rate has been reduced from £42 to £38.
Nursery manager Babita Saroy said, ‘Parents love our nursery, they like the beautiful environment and open rooms and they want to come here, but they just couldn’t afford it. So I had long discussions with my management team and we did some competitive analysis and decided we had to meet the needs of our community.’
‘To be honest this reflects the climate at the moment. There aren’t the jobs available and people aren’t being paid enough to meet nursery fees.’
Since the introduction of the lower fees the setting has seen a marked increase in numbers, particularly with children who were already registered at the nursery now attending more sessions than before.
The Kidderminster setting charges all-inclusive fees which cover meals, snacks, formula milk and nappies. It also runs a voucher system which rewards parents for money spent at the nursery by entitling them to discounts on other Co-operative services.
The nursery, which operates as part of the Midcounties Co-operative, the largest independent co-operative society in the UK, is rated outstanding by Ofsted and is registered to provide 117 places.
Additional services provided by the nursery include parenting classes for the local Bangladeshi community and meeting space and staff volunteers for neighbouring group Friends of St George’s Park.
Ms Saroy said, ‘We want to meet the needs of our community in everything we do, and that has had a really positive impact. We are a nursery that tries to go above and beyond, and we want to celebrate that.’