Is it a red flag if a nursery has places for an immediate start?

[HeyDuggeesFavouriteSquirrel]

I read in another thread popular nurseries usually have waiting lists and no places for a while. However, the one I like and am looking at has a place for an immediate start? Is this a red flag?

Does this idea go out the window a bit with Covid? Lots of people are moving away (we live in Central London) and pulling kids out of nursery. Plus it's September and kids are going off to school.

I'd say because it's September and lots of kids will have left. I lived in London and got dd straight in to one and it was great - no complaints at all so I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. And absolutely no probs getting her a place where we moved to either. If you like it there then I say go for it.

If they have a few spaces than that's probably normal, if they are half empty then I might worry!

Not necessarily a red flag, as PP says likely to do with the time of year. A lot of the bigger ones will be moving on to school and freeing up space, you tend to find the same around Christmas too. DD goes to the best nursery in the area and they are currently advertising spaces due to leavers.

Not at all. Where I live there are so many nurseries that they all have spaces, even the best ones.

It’s the summer holidays so all the pre-schoolers will have moved on too so there will be more spaces than usual, and then add in the effects of Covid.

As you say children are moving up to school and people have left London, plus some have chosen not to use nursery due to COVID concerns and wfh. There has been something like a 7% drop in applications for primary school is London, so presumably a similar drop for nursery age. I work with some great nurseries who had spaces in June and more in Sept.

I reckon our nursery probably has availability about now as the kids are all moving up a room/leaving.

Our nursery is fabulous and the staff worth their weight in gold. My DC love going to nursery.

No, it depends on area. The nurseries in our area usually had spaces for a pretty much immediate start as there were quite a few of them.

Ours is fabulous and is never full. If every other nursery in the area has a waiting list I'd worry but otherwise no.

Not necessarily. Will depend on your location and time of year (always spaces in September). Ask around locally to get a feel/see how it is regarded.

A sudden glut of spaces can sometimes indicate a problem that has very recently arisen and so not reflected in Ofsted reports etc.

Nursery place availability changes year by year based on birth rates for the years prior, some years there are more kids than places for the number of nurseries in an area, some years there are fewer.

Have you looked around the nursery, what was your impression about its suitability for your child? How responsive were staff to kids while you were there? Things like that and staff to child ratios, the activities that they do, testimonies from other parents; these are helpful in deciding of it is the right nursery for your child.

Available places with no waiting list isn't an immediate red flag.

Thank you so much. Yes I have viewed the nursery and liked the setting, the staff and the reactions to the children. They actually hold free playgroups in their garden so I've been a few times and been able to interact with everyone there.

But yes there are other local nurseries with places and it's not like there's loads of free places just a few.

I'd say you're lucky!.
If you've looked around liked it and the people then why not?
If the only ones that are any good are the ones you gave get into them that's a bit self defeating!

We usually have spaces but we are a rural nursery so our catchment area is sparse and large. We have a good reputation locally, there just isn’t a large number of children because of location.

I run a nursery and we currently have 79% occupancy
in July we had 99% but we have just had 20 children leave for school
Some days in some rooms are full though and we have lots of babies signed up to start over the coming months
I’m not going to turn down a child who inquires now as I have no idea what might happen in the future- children might leave or the new ones might not start

@RestingPandaFace

Not at all. Where I live there are so many nurseries that they all have spaces, even the best ones.

It’s the summer holidays so all the pre-schoolers will have moved on too so there will be more spaces than usual, and then add in the effects of Covid.

Yes its the same here, only one of the nurseries ever has a wait list, and that's due to the excellent location. The others are all great but don't tend to have waiting lists as for some reason there are a tonne of nurseries here.

What everyone else said. There’s also the waiting list v reality - the very popular one near me basically states an 18 month waiting list but friends who moved to the area got their kids in in a matter of months. Just depends on movement etc.