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Size wise?

With several nursery chains now operating sites of more than 200 places, Liz Fox looks at how to maintain quality on a large scale Running a nursery with 50 children can be challenging enough. But what happens if there are 250? Does five times the number of children mean five times the difficulty - or is it five times as good?

Running a nursery with 50 children can be challenging enough. But what happens if there are 250? Does five times the number of children mean five times the difficulty - or is it five times as good?

There is a trend towards bigger nurseries, with three of the UK's nursery chains, Busy Bees, Kidsunlimited (part of the newly-formed Nursery Years Group) and Ravenstone House, now operating settings with more than 200 places. Busy Bees operates four huge nurseries in Blackpool (238 places), Chorley (303), Preston (239) and Lancaster (204). The Busy Bees chain acquired these settings from Kindercare two years ago and, despite not being responsible for the initial development, the company is supportive of their size.

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