Opening a nursery involves making many difficult decisions: how big to make it, who to employ, and most important, what building to choose.
Below is a checklist of the some of the key decisions that you should consider when trying to pick the perfect building for your setting.
Location
'The first requirement is location, location, location,' says Caroline Fraser, architect and enabling adviser for the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. 'Do a preliminary survey to check the existing facilities and find out if there is a need for a new nursery in the area: is the property in a good catchment area?'
'The ideal location these days is on a school site - actually inside the school gates,' says Rosemary Murphy, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association. 'If you want to keep pace with Government initiatives, then check out what is happening about extended schools in your area.
'The children's minister, Margaret Hodge, does not want to see a child going into school for nursery education in the morning and then in the afternoon going to the nursery down the road. Unless you are absolutely on the school site you are going to miss out on some of the Government's initiatives.
'Traditionally the NDNA would have advised you to set up a nursery near a school so you could do drop-offs and pick-ups and support parents with older children going to school. Now being near a school is probably the least helpful place to be for the long-term viability of a nursery.
'The key thing is to be in the community. Parents prefer to use a setting close to home as they feel they are going to meet other parents from the locality. Parents like to know that at nursery their child is going to be with children who live locally and who will move on to school with their child.
'Visibility is very important. Later on people will find you by word of mouth but many of your first parents will come to you because they have been past your site and seen you. You do not have to place your nursery right on the main road but ideally choose a site where parents will notice you. For example, maybe on the route to the park or the medical centre - places people go with their children.'
Change of use
A day nursery is in the D1 class of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987. Obtaining permission for change of use takes at least three months, says Martin Pace, a director of the Dolphin Nurseries chain, so you might want to look at buildings with D1 classification: premises providing education, medical or health services, public or church halls.
Freehold v leasehold
With freehold, the purchaser buys the property, doubtless with a mortgage from the bank, while leasehold gives you the right of possession, but not ownership of a property for an agreed period of time. Some leaseholds can be for such long periods of, say, 70 to 80 years that they can almost seem to be freeholds.
Mr Pace warns, 'If you take on a short leasehold, say ten to 20 years, clearly you are going to need to recoup any money you put in, so plan carefully. Thirty years might seem a long way ahead, but if you want to sell your leasehold in 15 years' time it will only have 15 years left which is not such an attractive proposition.
'Sometimes you see nurseries for sale either freehold or leasehold. There was a 135-place nursery for sale recently at 2.1m freehold or 900,000 leasehold.'
New-build v refurbishment
'Traditionally people converted houses,' says Ms Murphy. 'Social services departments often insisted on keeping nurseries small, maybe with a limit of 25 children, but that is not really viable these days. People tend to look for larger premises or do a purpose build.'
'Refurbishment is no cheaper and can be far dearer than building from scratch,' says Mr Pace. 'If you have a bare piece of ground you can design your ideal nursery and build it at almost any price: a prefabricated building can be put up quickly and cheaply, or you can go for something more individual.
'With a refurbishment a lot of time and money can be spent working around the existing building: opening up spaces and making sure you have the drainage and water pipes positioned so you can site the toilets, milk kitchen and nappy change areas in the best place.
'Converting a house is not so straightforward as in the past as nobody wants to live next door to a nursery.'
Bricks and mortar
'Think about the impact your building will have on people approaching it,'
says Martin Rimes of equipment manufacturer Community Playthings. 'It wants to look friendly, and that can often be down to a question of materials.
Wood, for example, is a more friendly, warm material than steel.
'I think infloor heating is more effective than wall heaters which are unsightly, take up valuable wall space, and around which you have to put guards to make them safe.'
'Ideally, a single-storey building is better than two storey,' says Mr Pace.
'I saw one refurbishment where the owners had coped with having some children on the first floor by having a big ramp down from the first floor play rooms,' says Ms Fraser. 'So going outside was a big adventure.'
Accessibility
'Check the orientation of the building, and any planned extensions on the site,' says Ms Fraser. 'You don't want to end up with the play area in the most exposed, windiest part of the site. Make sure you will make the most of good daylight while avoiding the risk of direct summer sun.
'Look at where people will be approaching you from and how to make their arrival easy. Look at vehicular and pedestrian access and how to keep the two separate.
'The entrance has to be able to allow buggy parking, and protection from the rain. Inside the entrance you need direct access to toilets and the reception and some quiet space where a parent can have a quick, private word with a staff member.
'There should be clear, direct circulation and not a rabbit warren of corridors. You will also need disabled access.'
'Don't skimp on the fittings in the welcome area,' adds Mr Rimes. 'This is where you make your first impression.'
Security
'Don't make it like Fort Knox,' says Ms Murphy. 'But there are quite sophisticated bits of equipment to make it safe.
'Have an awareness of in-hours and out-of-hours security,' says Ms Fraser.
'We feel very strongly that there should be a single point of entrance.'
Flexibility
'Allow yourself the scope to be flexible,' says Mr Rimes. 'I have seen purpose-built nurseries with lovely big rooms where the owners have divided them up with concrete walls which cannot be moved. Use equipment and shelving as room dividers.'
Space
You will need to meet the space requirements for the children as set down in the National Daycare Standards, says Ms Fraser. 'If you are planning a "cut-and-carve" refurbishment the emphasis would be on creating some big play rooms rather than lots of little ones to enable the children to spread out.
'Have a survey to check that any walls that need to be taken down are not load bearing. If they are, there are ways around it, but that will have cost implications.'
Don't forget to provide sufficient office space and a staff room, says Mr Pace.
'A low ceiling can feel oppressive and as if someone is jamming a lid down,' says Mr Rimes. 'A high ceiling adds to the feeling of spaciousness and also allows you to install "lofts" for the children.'
Light
'You need plenty of daylight and good views out of the windows so internal rooms are not desirable unless heavily top-lit,' says Ms Fraser.
'If you are going to use skylights, make sure you are not flooding the floor with direct sunlight making it too hot,' says Mr Rimes. 'Do not over-emphasise one design attribute at the expense of others. Strike a balance, for example, with light.
'French windows are a great link from indoors to outdoors, but if you put French windows all the way down one wall you create "traffic" problems and you cannot create cosy corners in front of French windows.'
Indoor-outdoor experience
'Look to see if you can have an awning attached to the side of the building or create a veranda so the children can be outside even in wet weather,'
says Ms Murphy. 'Outdoor play requires not just a slab of concrete and three tricycles. It should open a whole, exciting world for the children to explore and learn.'
A veranda could be equipped with tables and chairs so the children could use it every day for snack time, says Ms Fraser. 'Again be aware of the orientation of the nursery site when building a veranda. 'It must not be in a howling gale.'
Further information
* Building for Sure Start, Integrated Provision for Under-Fives, a client guide and design guide produced by the Sure Start Unit and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment is available online. Visit: www.cabe.org.uk or www.surestart.gov.uk.
* The National Day Nurseries Association runs regular seminars and publishes an information pack on starting a day nursery which includes information on choosing the right building for you. Visit www.ndna.
org.uk.
* Spaces, room layout for early childhood education published by Community Playthings. Visit www. communityplaythings.com.
* Building for Young Children by Mark Dudek, published by National Children's Bureau.