Following the Government’s latest guidance limiting early years providers access to essential financial support, Busy Bees nurseries will be keeping over 100 of its centres open despite many of these not being financially viable. Tara Pilkington reports.
Busy Bees nurseries, who have 379 centres across the UK and Ireland, will be keeping over 100 of its centres open despite many of these not being financially viable, in order to continue providing crucial care, education and support for the children of key workers and vulnerable children during the Covid-19 crisis.
The childcare provider, which currently looks after over 55,000 children globally, has introduced flexible plans for its nurseries to ensure that children can be cared for while their parents carry out vitally important roles.
While the Government’s ‘Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’ has forced many other providers to close their doors, Busy Bees will continue to support as many key worker families as possible throughout the crisis, as well as the 194 vulnerable children currently in its care.
Of the centres which currently remain open, 22 are located at key hospital sites, providing NHS workers and hospital staff with essential childcare support as they battle on the frontline of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The support plans, outlined in an open letter from Busy Bees’ founder and chief academic officer, Marg Randles OBE, comes as the Government announces there are currently ‘no plans’ in place for when English schools will reopen, and the revision of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme which is providing critical financial support the sector is relying on.
Busy Bees’ founder and chief academic officer, Marg Randles, has said: “The global Covid-19 pandemic has brought huge changes and challenges to everyone across the world, and while we continue to celebrate the incredible commitment of our NHS and key workers it is important to remember the part our dedicated nursery teams have to play in providing care, education and a little normality for children during these challenging times.
“For us, we wanted to be part of a solution by keeping our doors open, despite it not being commercially viable for many of our centres, and not create further problems for under-pressure key worker parents and the Government by completely shutting up shop.
She added: “It’s an incredibly challenging time for us all and we hope that the Government revisits its criteria to protect jobs and the sector as a whole, enabling us to continue providing care to our key workers and vulnerable children.”
- Busy Bees will be providing flexible childcare options for key workers across more than 100 sites during the Covid-19 crisis. To see a map of centres remaining open, visit: busybeeschildcare.co.uk/open-nurseries-map.
