i've been thinking about how great it would be if there was an independent not-for-profit group of nurseries that were able to provide lower cost childcare. perhaps like a co-operative group where all the staff and parents were shareholders.
childcare costs could be subsidised by things like renting the space out to adult education groups in the evenings / childrens parties at weekends; even operating a family-friendly cafe on the same site, or something (though you'd have to be careful about having members of the public on site and keep them well away from the children, etc). having a veg garden and charging groups to come and learn about gardening, running courses, i don't know.
obviously you'd need to cover staff costs plus rent and everything - but i am convinced there is a way. perhaps co-operative members could get trained up and then you could have parent volunteers who could help in return for free / reduced childcare for their own children, or use well-supervised trainee nursery nurses.
it would be so great if there was a space where you could also accommodate elderly people and other community groups in some way, eg once a week a shareholders' bring-a-dish supper, once a week afternoon tea for the elderly people and you could bring in some children to entertain them. i don't know.
what do you think, is there any mileage in this or is it a non-starter? am i missing some essential bit of info that renders this completely impossible...? or are we just waiting for a brave entrepreneur to tackle it and then roll it out across the country?
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so.. is there a market for independent not-for-profit low cost childcare?
8 replies
superfrenchie1 · 24/09/2011 23:50
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