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Teddies nurseries aim for further accreditation
5 June 2003
Teddies Nurseries, Bupa’s UK day nursery business and one of the UK’s largest nursery operators, has begun the process to achieve an additional three nationally recognised quality standards.
There are 36 Teddies Nurseries nation-wide looking after approximately 2,000 children every day between the ages of 3 months and 5 years. The decision has been taken to pursue two further nationally recognised quality standards: ‘Investors in People’ and the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) ‘Quality Counts’ programme. These would both be leading towards the Government proposed ‘Investors in Children’.
Attracting and retaining experienced childcare staff is an industry wide issue and Teddies Nurseries hopes that gaining ‘Investors in People’ will help to further demonstrate our commitment to training and career development in a competitive market whilst also maintaining high levels of parental satisfaction. Teddies Nurseries already provide an extensive training programme for all qualifications of staff, the benefits of which are highlighted by the annual SHINE Awards (Showing How Investment Nurtures Excellence).
As well as ‘Investors in People’, Teddies Nurseries aims to fulfil the criteria for nursery childcare set down by the National Day Nursery Association’s (NDNA) ‘Quality Counts’ programme. ‘Quality Counts’ is one of the leading independently assessed quality assurance schemes for nurseries, specifically designed for group day-care. The company hopes that this will lead to accreditation by the UK Government’s proposed ‘Investors in Children’ standard. This is a new national accreditation scheme, which would give information to parents on the quality of care and services provided by each day care nursery operator. Altogether, these three new accreditations will be an additional attraction and assurance to parents and nursery staff.
As Jeanne Barczewska, childcare policy and development manager, Teddies Nurseries explains: “There are a total of 64 kitemarks for childcare standards in the UK, some set up by counties and regions. As we are a national organisation we’ve decided to go for a national quality accreditation system in order to remain consistent and to ensure quality of care and standards of assessment. ‘Investors in People’ is a valuable human resources tool, recognised across all industries, while the NDNA ‘Quality Counts’ programme was the best fit for our needs because they have been heavily involved with the government’s proposed ‘Investors in Children’ standard.”
The majority of Teddies nurseries already conform to the requirements of Quality Counts, however, staff at all levels will be involved to ensure every Teddies Nursery will meet these standards.
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