Opening a nursery at home

Step 1 – Prepare yourself and your building

Before starting anything, the first thing you need to do is speak to your family and anyone else who lives in your house, to discuss whether they are ready to have a nursery in your home.  These need to be honest and frank conversations as their home and the way they live there is going to change.

Gone are the days where your child might be able to stroll downstairs in their underwear during the day.  Even lie-ins may be a thing of the past for, as they may be greeted and woken with potential screaming children early in the morning.

Are they ready for this?

These are all things my family struggled with when we opened a nursery in our home. They supported the nursery and were glad we were starting our own business which they knew wasn’t an easy thing to do.  They were frustrated with the change, but didn’t really complain until after the nursery was no longer in the house.

Your family may be similar, so make sure they are ready for you to open a nursery in your home.

Are they ready for the increased noise that the children will naturally bring for long periods on most days, whenever you are open.

Are they ready for the reduced space that they will now have?  Part of there house will now be being used for a nursery.  We converted our living room into the nursery which meant that there wasn’t really a shared space in the house.  Meaning most of the family ended up staying in their rooms.  It affected out socialising and family life.  We had to work harder to make quality time for each other.

Are they ready for the need for them to maintain professionalism?  As I mentioned, no coming downstairs half dressed.  No playing loud music in their rooms. Parents will see them as reflection of you. They are now representing you and your business, especially whilst in the house.  It may be more difficult for people to visit the house.  You want maintain some level of professionalism.  Are they ready to represent your nursery and your brand to your potential parents?

If you family or anyone living in your house isn’t ready for this, you need to really consider whether you want to go ahead as you don’t want it to put friction on your relationships.

If they are supportive, you can then decide whether you are ready.

Running the nursery will be demanding, there will be long hours and a lot of responsibility.  Living in the nursery made it very difficult to separate home-life and nursery.

Also, in order to be classed as a nursery and follow nursery ratios as opposed to childminding ratios, which are more favourable.  You will need to ensure you have a relevant level 3 childcare qualification and be working with three other members of staff.

You will also need to have a paediatric first aid and a DBS check for yourself and everyone over 16 in your home.  Whether, that be staff or family members.

You can then move onto preparing your building.

You need to think what parts of your building are going to be used for the nursery.

Really thinks about the set-up.

Will the nursery be there permanently?  So, the set-up will stay there in the evenings and the weekends?

Or will you be a pack away setting, packing away all the nursery stuff and storing it in the evenings or weekends.

This will naturally impact on how you and your family use your home. SO really consider this.  As I mentioned, we used our living space permanently for the nursery which meant most of the family was confined to their rooms.

Though, you really need to think heavily about the set-up of your house.

What parts will your home and the nursery be sharing?  Will family be sharing the toilet? Will they have access to the kitchen?  How will this impact the children.

Think about where will children put their stuff, like coats, bags and shoes.  Is there space for this?

How will parents and children enter the nursery, where will parents drop-off.

How will parents sign in and out.

You need an area to be able to privately discuss anything with parents.  Where can this be done?

Where will children eat?

Where will children sleep?

Really think about the different things that happen throughout the day and determine whether this will work.  You can do this by drawing it out, running through your nursery day or just envision it.  This part is important as it gives you an idea of whether it is actually possible for you to do.  You don’t want to open up and find out nothing works as you planned.

Though, naturally when you do open you will find things that do not work and you will want to change.  But you want to plan as much as possible so that any change that you do need to make is not a major change.

Once you’ve thought about what space will be used for the nursery and the children’s play area you can then work out how many children you can actually care for, in terms of the size of your space.

This is all covered in the early years foundation stage statutory framework.  The EYFS Statutory Framework states that you can have:

• under two per 3.5m2
• 2-year-old per 2.5m2
• Three- to five-year-old per 2.3m2

So, measure the space you plan to use and determine how many children you can have.  Determining how many three-five-year-olds, 2 years olds and under 2s you plan to look after.

These requirements refer to the useable space for the children, so wouldn’t include spaces like your hall way, kitchen, toilet etc.

This is the main consideration you need to think about when planning the space, you need for your nursery.

If you need more information we go more into detail on the open a nursery in your home course and discuss other things you need to consider, so if you want to find out more about this, wait until the end of the video.

Once you know the space requirements, how you will use the space and everyone in your household is on board, you can then contact the relevant people to get permission to open your nursery.

If you are renting you will need to get permission from your landlord.  Check your rental agreement to ensure that you will not be in breach of your contract by running a business in your home.  If you may be, then speak to your landlord and let them know what you plan to do.  Depending on how you frame it to your landlord and your relationship with them.  They may be supportive of you new nursery.

If you own your property and have a mortgage, you may need to speak to your mortgage provider.  Although unlikely, it may invalidate your mortgage and it is best to check just in case.

If you own your property outright, you just need to contact your local council.

This applies to if you are renting or have a mortgage too.

You will need to get permission from your local council to run a nursery from your home.  This can be just by emailing the relevant department of your council.  They will let you know whether you can run or not.

What you put in the email to them is very important, as you need them to approve your new nursery.  You need to convince them that your nursery will be a positive for the area and wont cause any adverse effects to the neighbourhood.

If they don’t accept your proposal via email you will need to do a full planning application.  This can be long and costly so it is important you get the initial proposal done well.

We go through what to include in order to increase the likelihood of the council accepting your proposal on the course. As well as how to apply for planning.  So, if you want support on this then make sure you do enrol.

Most planning permission can be completed online.

After you have permission from the council, you know that running a nursery from you home will be possible.

You can then start getting resources and apply for Ofsted.

Firstly, when preparing to get resources, my personal advice is to take advantage of your homely feel.  You don’t need to set-up your nursery to look like a typical day-nursery held in it’s dedicated building.

You are in a home, and this has its own benefits.

Children will naturally feel more relaxed there than in a nursery setting as it will feel more at home.  It is something they will be more used to, and generally will help them to settle in quicker.

There is even been a move by nurseries are now attempting to make their settings feel more homely.

So take this into consideration when looking for resources.

I’ve said this in a previous video, but I stress again.  You don’t need to spend £1000s on brand new resources for your nursery.

You can get some really good second-hand resources as well as some free donated resources.

New resources are great to get, but remember you will likely to have replace a lot of resources as things will get damaged quicker than you probably expect.

If you know any parents already you can ask for donations of their old toys or books.  You can sign up to your local library and rent books regularly, so you always have new and a range of books for your nursery.  And check charity shops they usually have some great and cheap resources.

As well check online resale apps like eBay, Facebook marketplace and places like this.

You should try to gradually get resources over the course of setting up your nursery and after you open, depending on how much finances you have.

You don’t need to get every resource straight away.

Get a range of resources to start off with to cover the different areas of learning and add to it as you grow.

No nursery or any business starts off with every resource that you need so you don’t have to go crazy with the budget.

And most importantly always remember your biggest resource for the children and the nursery will never be what you buy, but who you invest in. investing in developing yourself and your staffs knowledge will always be more important than investing in the latest expensive resource

Now, that’s the main things associated with the first step of preparing yourself and your building.  Before moving onto the second step, which is to register with Ofsted I want to ask a quick quiz question to see whether you have been paying attention.

On the course each section has quiz at the end to test your knowledge and help embed your learning.

How many members of staff (in total) do you need to register a home nursery (CODP)?

1. 2
2. 3
3. 4
4. 5

Yep, it’s c) 4.  You need and three other members of staff.  Congratulations if you got it correct.

Step 2 – Get Ofsted Registered

Now we will discuss the second step, which is registering with Ofsted.  Or with the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales if you are from Wales, the Care Inspectorate if you are from Scotland and the Health and Socials Services Board in Northern Ireland.  You can find out how to register with this bodies by clicking the links at the bottom.

With Ofsted, registering with Ofsted involves filling in two forms and getting on the Early years and childcare register.

The two forms you need to fill in are an EYO form for your nursery and an EY2 form for yourself and all the member of staff you will be working with.

These can both be done online.

Ofsted will be looking at whether you can run a nursery and whether your building is suitable for a nursery.

After you filling in both forms and registering Ofsted will come and visit you within 12 to 25 weeks usually.

When they visit, they with look around your building and discuss with you your suitability. They will also want information about who will be living there.

When discussing with you, they will ask you about your knowledge of the Early years foundation stage how well do you know about safeguarding, inclusion, British values, how will develop children, work in partnership with parents, how will you recruit staff e.g. applying for DBS’ and references.

It will be good to refresh your memory in preparation for this visit.

They may check your DBS certificate, your level 3 qualification as well as your 1^st aid certificate.

Any other qualifications you have will all aid your application.

If you have pets, they may ask about how this will impact the children and how you will ensure the safety of this.

They will also check through some of your policies.  So, you will need to recreate them before their visit.  The key ones you will need to create are your safeguarding policy, your recruitment policy, your behaviour management policy, special educational needs policy and inclusion policy.

Now, in terms of your building Ofsted will be looking at how safe your building is.  You should do a risk assessment of your whole building.  Identifying all of the major and minor risks associated with your building and state how you will reduce the risk to children.

Firstly, in terms of fire safety.  What is your fire evacuation procedure?  Do you have more than one exit.  If not, can windows be used as a form of evacuation.  Have you got a fire extinguisher, fire blanket etc.

You will need a first aid kit on the premises.  Stair gates if there are stairs.

You need to make sure that any areas that shouldn’t be accessible to children are cordoned off.  For example, by putting locks or stair gates on entrance of your kitchen and locks on storage cupboards.

How will you store dangerous items, like medicines and cleaning products?  They need to be out of reach of children.

Radiator covers too.  If radiators can be touched by kids, you will probably need something to cover them to prevent them from being burned.

These are just things you need to consider and that Ofsted will quiz you about.  You will need to make sure that your building is safe.

You can put your application forward through, and as you have 12 to 25 weeks to prepare for Ofsted to come you can use this time to prepare your building and other things.

Ofsted will likely only visit you once, so you need to make sure your ready and your building is safe and ready when they do.

They will tell you in advance when they do plan to come, so if you aren’t ready you can delay them until you are.

After the visit if they approve you, they will tell you and you can pretty much open straight away.  Though, as I mentioned this can take 3 to 6 months so whilst you are waiting for them to visit and going back and forth with them regarding your application, you can begin planning other areas like planning and organising your finances.  Which is the third step.

But before going onto this,  I said I would give a quick quiz question for each step. The question for this step is.

What are the two forms you need to complete in order to register as a CODP:

1. EY0 form
2. CR1 form
3. EYS form
4. EY2 form

The answer is a and d.  The cr1 form is an application to join the childcare register.  Although, you will be joining the childcare register you apply to join by completing the EYO form.  The EYS form is used to add a setting to a nursery and is only used if you were to rent or buy a building specifically for the nursery.

Step 3 – Begin Planning and Organise Finances

Begin planning and organise your finance.  You can continue or start purchasing resources.

But you should now start creating your business plan, if you haven’t already.

A business plan is a document setting out a business’s future objectives and strategies for achieving them.

In your business plan include information like how many children you will have, how much you plan to charge and things you plan to buy.

All of this is stuff that you should research.  The course ‘open a nursery at your home’ has documents to help you with this research.

You should already know how many children you can have.  But you can research how much you can charge by seeing how much your potential competitors charge for similar services and by working out what your costs are likely to be.

Ensuring that how much you charge covers all your costs.

You will need to work out how much it will cost to get you started as well as how much your on-going running costs will be.  Some of these costs will include the costs of training, any renovations you plan to make, the cost of cots, beds, toys, gates and door locks.

Will you be providing food? If so the cost of food will need to be included too.  Though, with milk schemes you can get the cost of milk reimbursed.

As well as researching your costs, you should also research your area primarily to research what the demand is like in your area.  You need to make sure that there is enough demand in your area for your potential childcare.

Typically, there is not a shortage of people needing childcare.  I’ve never researched an area and found that there was not enough demand for me to open a nursery.  But it is still an important step to do to let you know how much demand there is.

Doing research also gives you other information like what type of services other childcare providers offer.  It will give information about what parents are currently using and can give ideas on how you can differentiate yourselves.

Some parents may prefer a day nursery as they like a large environment, whereas others may prefer a smaller setting as it has a more homely feel.  This is where you can capitalise.  Stress these benefits in your marketing.

Your research may also give you ideas on how you can change the service you offer.

For example, you may find that your area is near a factory where lots of people work overnight, so you may be able to differentiate yourself by providing overnight.

Do all providers in your area only provide care for pre-schoolers and you can take advantage by providing care for those younger. Etc

So, doing research will not only let you know the demand in your area but give you some ideas of how to differentiate yourself.

Though, if you do find your area doesn’t have the best demand, you need to start thinking about your USP. How will you make your setting unique?  What will make parents choose you over your competitors.  In this case you have a big advantage as you have a more personal touch as it’s in your home and the parents will get to know you personally.  So, you can make this your main selling point.

You may also need to adjust your expectations too.  If after completing the area research document in the course and the demand isn’t as high as you expected you may have to adjust the business plan as it may take a little longer to sell all of your nursery places.

In your business plan you should also put:

• Your opening hours
• Whether you will be term time only/ open throughout the year
• Any other things you will offer e.g. school drop offs etc. just describe the service you will be offering in detail
• Also, state things like how you plan to market your business, how you will organise your recruitment, which we will go over both in the final steps.

Once you have completed your business plan, you can use this to apply for a loan or any other outside finances.  You will not be able to apply for a bank loan without a business plan.

So, a quick recap.

The first step is to prepare your self and your business.  Ensuring your family are prepared and your building is safe.

The second step is to register with the governing body for your area.  Whether that be Ofsted for England, the Care Inspectorate for Scotland, the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales for Wales and the Health and Social Services Board (HSSB) for Northern Ireland.

And the third step which we just done which is preparing your plan and organise your finances which includes creating your business plan.

Before, moving onto the next step we will do this steps quiz question.

True or False, you can apply for a business loan without a business plan.

1. True
2. False

The answers b) false.  In order to get a load for a business as a start-up you will need to create a business plan.  You should all have got that one correct as I not long ago just said it.

Step 4 – Start Recruitment

The next step is to recruit the staff that you need and plan your human resources.  As mentioned previously, you will need 3 members of staff working with you.

In order to employ staff, the first thing you will need to register as an employer.  This involves sending information to HMRC.

This is very easy to do and just involves filling in a short form.  Though, if you need guidance, you can get this on the course.

Once you register, you then just need to send the payment information of each staff e.g. how much you pay then whenever you pay them.  You do this by downloading software which will workout how much tax and national insurance they will need to pay.

You then need to register as a pension provider.  There are many different companies you can choose.  But for any person you employ that is over 22 years old and earns over £10,000 a year must be enrolled onto a workplace pension.  This is where you and the staff contribute to their pension.  Staff should be auto-enrolled, though they can opt out.

You need a minimum of 3 members of staff.   Though, depending on your size you may need more. So, you should work out how many members of staff you will need by using the ratio requirements stipulated in the EYFS.  This states that you need:

• One member of staff for every 8 three – five year old
• One member of staff for every 4 2 – 3 year old
• One member of staff for every 3 under 2s

After you know how many of staff you need you can then start recruiting them.

You should create your interview questions, job descriptions and application forms.  You can find these all online though this is also available to download on the course as well as staff handbook guidelines, induction checklists and other documents to aid your recruitment.

You can advertise the job role at the job centre on websites like indeed, on Facebook and other sites dedicated to nurseries like day nurseries and childcare.co.uk.

After choosing any candidates when enrolling them it is good practice to get them to fill in a starter checklist as this will collect the information that is needed for you in order to pay them.

You can pay them easily just by sending them their payslip and doing a bank transfer.

So, that’s the fourth step, which is to recruit the staff that you need.

The quiz question for this step is Which of these members of staff will need to be auto-enrolled on a pension scheme?

1. A Staff member aged 55 years old earning £25, 000 per year
2. A Staff member aged 45 years old earning £9,750 per year
3. A Staff member aged 19 years old earning £18, 000 per year
4. Staff member aged 22 years earning £11, 000 per year

The answer is a)  A Staff member aged 55 years old earning £25, 000 per year and d) Staff member aged 22 years earning £11, 000 per year.  Remember anyone who is 22 years old and over and earning over £10,000 a year should be enrolled on a workplace pension. Anyone else can also be enrolled if they request.  Though, when an employee becomes pension age, there is no requirement to enrol them on the workplace pension.

Step 5 – Promote and market

The final step is to promote and market your nursery, in order to start getting children enrolled.

The first thing you should do is to come up with your branding.  This is more than just coming up with a name and logo.  Your branding is how you portray your nursery to parents, staff and everyone who comes in contact your nursery.

How you brand your nursery covers every aspect of your nursery. From how you send emails to how you set-up your nursery.  Will you brand yourself as a fun nursery like this one…. or  brand yourself as an educational nursery like this one?  Now this isn’t an either or situation. But merely an example of two ways you can brand your nursery.

Once you have decided how you want to brand your nursery you can then start promoting it.

One of the first things you should do is to create your website.  This will become one of your most important tools.  Creating a website can seem like a big step but I have created a 5-day website builder challenge, where you will learn the steps needed to create your website.  At the end of the 5 days, by spending roughly an hour per day, you will have a fully functioning website which you can use to attract customers.

Regardless of how you get your website, creating a website is a must!  The cost of a website will be roughly £5.00 per month.

Enrol on the challenge today which you can find information in the description.

Though, there are plenty of free ways to market your business too.

One thing you should do is to create a Facebook Page.  This is how we started.  We never had a website at first.  It wasn’t really effective on its own but when paired with a website it managed to attract parents to the website.

On the Facebook page you can upload pictures once you’ve opened of things you are doing with the children.

Prior to opening you can have a count down to when you open and upload it to your page.  Try to get local residents excited by your opening.

If you have any pictures of yourself with children as well, this would be good to upload too.  It is better to have real images of you and your nursery on your website and Facebook page as opposed to stock images.

So, whether you’ve done childminding before, done babysitting, looked after families kids or even your own kids.  Any pictures you have of you with kids to show prospective parents what their child will be doing.  Will all help to show parents you can look after their child and that their child will be safe with you.

There are loads of Facebook groups as well where you can advertise that you have a home-childcare opening soon.  So, use these, post in these regularly leading up to when you open in order to boost your enrolment.

You can also plan an open day prior to opening, to help get your nursery out there in the community.

When parents show interest, it is good to get them and their child in for a show around and an induction.

This is so that you and the family can build a relationship with each other.  Remember, although it is your nursery, it is still your personal space and home.  You will be inviting people into your home and you want to get to know who you are inviting in.

There are many ways you can promote your nursery including handing out flyers.  Though, this should give you an idea of where you can start your promotion.

The final Quiz question for the fifth step is which of these forms part of your branding:

1. Your logo
2. Your name
3. Your tagline
4. Yourself

The answer is a, and b, and c, and d.  yes, all of this forms  part of your branding. Your branding includes everything that can effect a persons decision to choose you and you want all your branding to be saying the same message.  You don’t want to have your nursery branded as fun and bubbly if that’s the opposite of how you portray yourself to parents.