Charitable run nursery VS private nursery

[rickypurp]

just wondered if anyone has had any experience with a not-for-profit nursery. i hear they have dedicated staff who have been there for years and are generally more mature and experienced. plus all profits go back into the nursery after salaries and expenses have been taken care off.
i went to see a not for profit nursery and i was very impressed with the facilities and the staffs i met. the environment seem very pleasant and loving. what i didn't understand was why there were only 3-4children in the baby room as opposed to private nurseries where the numbers are higher. i began to wonder if the quality of care in charitable run nurseries are poorer than private nurseries.
Your thoughts please?

Really- it will depend. I know some great not for profits, I know some really terrible ones! Same goes for private. Same goes for state.

It depends on who is running it, who is working there (mature & experienced staff CAN be a great thing,it can also be a bloody awful thing if they are old school & stuck in their ways!) It depends on the location, what sort of building they have. It depends on what funding they can access or how much support they get. For the private ones it depends on how they prioritise their profit. Some private centres will have more babies in their baby room so they can make more money or it might be because their space allows it.

So instead of being able to answer your question here are some tips that many people find helpful:

• What is the staff turnover?
• What qualification does each staff member have? Do they also attend regular inset or extra interest training? (This lets you see the balance between those mature & experiences and those who might be stuck in their ways- i.e Trained 20 years ago... Not added to their knowledge since.)
• How many people have first aid qualifications (have they kept with the bare minimum of 1 per building or do they feel it is important to have everyone capable of handling incidents.
• How much access to the outdoors do the children have (bare minimum of daily for at least 3 hours if the child is there whole day. Ideal would be free-flow- regular access for the majority of the day)
• How much time do the children spend in adult directed activities (sitting still listening to an adult or following an adult led activity.) Ideally this should be no more than 2 times a day 10-15 minutes max. *How often do they plan & evaluate? Ideally this should be daily or every few days and should be flexible and based on observations of the children (as per the EYFS). Exercise extreme caution if they plan termly or heaven forbid yearly.

• In reference to these two points ask about what happens to the children who don't want to do planned activities.

I very much doubt it will make a difference. Charitable does not necessarily mean amateur; nurseries are often registered as charities because it's tax efficient and those running them are salaried instead of taking a profit share.

Realty Leftwing? I have seen charitable ones with very grotty hygiene and staff who were uninterested and barely spoke English. Depends on the management of course, and theoretically it should matter if private or charitable, but when the place is run as a money making venture, they are often better at making the delivering results.

Stupid iPad! Better at delivering results...

I've registered a few nurseries as charities which all seemed professionally run. There's no reason in principle why having charitable tax status should be a red flag, but perhaps it is. I don't have a broad experience of the whole market by any means.

DD's not - for - profit, community owned nursery was fantastic - professionally run by more able and better qualified staff than I ever came across in the private nursery DS went to.

I think "not for profit" organisations of any kind are called "charities" for tax reasons as LWH says and the staff are paid salaries, and there are no shareholders to be paid. It isn't "not for profit" at all - no one runs any kind of business that is not profitable.

Brilliant post from TlikesAples

Most private schools are registered charities after all - you wouldn't say Eton was an amateur outfit.

Nananina - not always the case with nurseries - the one DD went to was genuinely not for profit. Any surplus is ploughed back into buildings and equipment, and the "shareholders" are the parents and other interested locals.

My DC all go/have been to a charitable nursery. Staff are paid a wage bit anything left over goes into the pot. There is no owner just a committee made up of parents which runs the nursery.

I think a nursery can be good or bad regardless of how it's run. I chose the nursery as it felt right for us and our DC.

What I would say is our nursery is the cheapest in the area which I assume is down to the fact that beyond breaking even we're not under pressure to make big profits.