However, profit is central to the survival of nurseries as a business and to the sustainability of the day nursery sector as a whole. Without profit, we have no means of raising the funds to invest back and improve quality. The last few years, where Government policies have clashed, have resulted in a number of casualties. Many small local voluntary sector nurseries have gone to the wall because of under-occupancy and no reserves to tie them over a difficult time.
I think the issue is not so much profit, but how it is used. The perception about what we do with the profit is crucial. The idea that we are all floating on the stock market is common, but the number of chains doing million-pound merger and acquisition deals is quite low. The majority of small local nurseries fail to make any profit.
Charities and social enterprises like WCS have to make a profit or a surplus for our services to remain sustainable and for us to be able to offer alternative services to certain groups. If we don't make a profit, potential contractors don't see us a viable option and we lose out to competitors for new contracts and funds, therefore reducing our opportunities to develop our business to secure our charitable purpose.
There needs to be more debate about profit and how we use it to develop the best possible child-focused services. In a competitive market, where partnership work is advocated as the way forward, we have to demystify some of the ill-considered ideas about profit.
For those with a social enterprise ethos, we must also measure the social return of our reinvestment in the community and see this as part of our profit.
June O'Sullivan, chief executive, Westminster Children's Society, London
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