What questions to ask when visiting prospective nurseries?

[Promdress]

I'm looking at putting my 6mo DS into nursery a few days a week. Going to view some next week but haven't a clue what to look/ask/check for - can anyone advise? TIA.

(The nurseries in question have been approved and recommended by the HV, FWIW, plus they have a good local reputation, so that's the basics covered I guess).

Hi, I looked round a few nurseries after having my first child and will be using the same one again with my baby when I go back to work.

The things I asked were - meal preparation - some nurseries give alot of ready made/processed food - where mine go it is mostly home made, staff retention is also a good one as I think it gives a good measure of how satisfied staff were with working there, which to me linked with how nice the place was.

It may be useful to check on the fees sytem as well as I know some nurseries friends use only allow them to have one week off a year for a hol without needing to pay fees, which will soon add up.Depending on where you work your employer may offer busy bee vouchers so check with them and the nursery that they will accept them as this can save you lots of money.

One other thing that may be good to check is the ownership of the nursery - sometimes an indendently owned nursery will be able to respond to your feedback much quicker - the one I use is a family ownedone which means they are usually quick to respond to any comments - although I don't have experience of any others so maybe I am reading too much into this.

Finally I would have a check at their ofsted report as this can be useful. The biggest advice I have though is to go and see how you feel, I visited a few which on paper sounded great but just didn't like the feel of them.

Hope this is useful - sorry so long winded and good luck with looking.

Thanks very much OlandDaisysmum, not long winded at all, just the direction I was looking for

So:

Food
Fees re holidays
Ownership
Ofsted report.

All very good points and none that I would have thought of asking (tis first baby so am a novice!)

One of the nurseries is a small, smart, well-regarded one which I don't think is part of any chain or brand. It is considered to have more of a family, homely focus.

The other is one of the very large, well-known chain of nurseries, purpose built buildings etc.

If they are like for like in terms of standards then I will have to choose based on whether DS will be happier with lots of babies and purpose built facilities, or a smaller environment but more, er, cuddly staff/environment, as it were.

Staff retention, how many of the staff are level 3 qualified, how many unqualified (ie cheap) staff they have, is there an Early Years Professional or qualified Early Years Teacher working there, what do they offer staff in terms of training (good nurseries will invest in staff and send them on training courses like makaton sign language, dealing with challenging behaviour, special needs etc). Those are all from my experience of working in nurseries. Nurseries employing lots of young, unqualified girls aren't bothered about keeping them or training them and it's not good for the children at all.

Also, do they rely on agency temps a lot? Most nurseries will have to get in a temp occasionally, but good ones will have their own regular cover staff and less staff sickness. Lots of random temps in and out is very unsettling for the children.

Where do the children sleep? Do babies have their own cots in a separate room? Can babies sleep whenever they are tired or are they on a strict schedule? How often are nappies changed?

Think ahead to when your LO is older - is there sufficient outdoor space? Climbing frame? Is it all grass so will be unusable when muddy or is there an all weather surface? Do they take the older children on outings/walks?

Thanks so much for all your input.

Have visited nurseries today and both were very good in terms of standards/Ofsted reports, food etc.

We have decided to go for the smaller, independently owned one as it had a lot more, I don't know, charm than the big chain one. My DH described the big chain one as a "battery farm nursery" and it seemed a bit plastic and corporate.