What are parents looking for that Daycares aren't currently providing

[Ciarab17]

I am opening my own nursery. Mums and dads, tell me what you want. What can I do to make your daycare experience the very best for you and your little one?

I haven't used a nursery yet (so don't know how it works in practice), but one I am looking at has a secure webcam that parents can log onto during the day- I like the idea of being able to look at what happens during the day, not just at pick up/drop off times, especially in the baby room.

Friends have mentioned how useful it would be to have a website with things like menus on, so they can check and plan evening meals, as they said their children got a mix of sandwiches and cooked meals at lunchtime and were never told what or how much their child has eaten? I would also like the idea of a website thats updated reguarly with details of activities/special events on as I always lose bits of paper and find it much easier to look things up online especially sitting at a desk much of the day at work.I've seen a lot of primary schools have these now so many parents mist find them useful?

flexible days, i work shifts, different days every week and its almost impossible to get professional childcare.

I think there are some ways where a nursery can save on money and still give great service, but not many. I'm keeping those to myself in case I get to start a nursery one day.

Good staff cost, but save money in some ways. They take fewer days ill, take less work to employ with fewer 'emotional episodes', use equipment/resources better, and stay longer.

I was just reading through this with interest until I saw your comment on how your good staff will save money.

Your comment on "emotional issues" has upset me and I would like to point out two things. Firstly, you cannot discriminate against those with whatever "emotional issues" you might see as a threat to your business. Secondly even if you did manage to vet in some way, many circumstances are entirely unexpected and can happen to anyone. Like mine at the moment, my father was taken critically ill and is likely to take months, if ever, to recover.

Next, it's a nursery, staff are going to get ill.

Finally on this point, quality is not about working longer, it's about working better. It's your responsibility to enable staff to do this and not to expect people to pick up shortfalls with more hours.

Either you are a good employer or you are not, and you will only get the best staff by being good.

Lastly, to answer your question constructively, here is what I would like to see which I feel is missing (not a description of my "ideal" nursery which has lots of happy fairies floating round with no sickness or emotional issues):

• I would like to see a sick bay where children could go for a rest if they are mildly unwell in the day (under a set of strict health criteria eg no rashes, d&v, etc) as a step before ringing parents to pick them up which can be very disruptive and not always necessary.

• I would like to see some structured activities included in a curriculum, possibly facilitated by external groups (or else visit a few for ideas). I say this because many kids at nursery don't have the time to go to classes that kids with a SAHP or carer do and they really can be great. Examples include ball play / sports type classes (teach all manner or balance, ball, athletics basics, following instruction etc), monkey music or early language type classes.

• our nursery is excellent at telling us what children have eaten. This is a big help, I agree with former comment about posting menus on web

• books, books, books, books, books

• I would not be averse to seeing age appropriate technology (no screens and not before 2) used better in the classes, afterall our children will be growing up in a world full of technology.

• I personally don't like the idea of webcams, I worry about anyone being able to log on and watch my kids. As a small business, internet security is not going to be your forte so it would stay well clear. I would be happy if you had CCTV for security though.

I know these aren't necessarily cost efficient suggestions but hope they help.

My apologies to op, I reread and realise it was another poster mentioning the staff

Surely cheap and flexible won't work. Good nursery staff need regular hours, you can't just send some of them off home unpaid during holiday season.

Wellies would be good though. It's easy to miss the forecast and forget to take a pair to nursery, or take them and forget to bring them home over the weekend.

The dc's old nursery was lovely so did lots of the things already mentioned.

fairylea have you considered a childminder if you want the home environment?

The difference between a bad nursery and a good one is that the bad nursery is full of staff who can't get a job doing anything else
The good nursery is staffed by those who don't want to do anything else.
And tiggy is right. If you want quality you have to pay for it.

I don't mind paying for my holidays (though we do get an option to pre-book a limited amount of unpaid holiday) but what I object to is when the nursery then re-sells a session we are paying for and we don't get anything back. This means parents have no incentive to give the nursery decent notice for planned absences, so if the nursery is full in general (ours is) you have no chance of booking extra sessions.

Generally I'd like them not to be working at absolute maximum capacity, and to have hours that actually take account of the hours of my place of work (they don't, and it's a workplace nursery).

Other than that it's a lovely nursery and has many of the positive features mentioned. They don't tend to ring us up for not very much in the way of illness - I've gone in at the end of the day a few times to learn of a rather exploding nappy that could have been the D bit, or once I think DC was given a dose of Calpol due to being mildly warm. Head bumps are also given cold compress and a form, not a call at work like one of DH's colleagues or a call to come and get them every time (for a toddler, really?!) like someone mentioned.

I'd quite like them to provide wipes (we use washable nappies). If we're talking utopia, they could provide and wash washable nappies of course! My DN who has just left Uni went to a nursery where they insisted on washable nappies and they provided and washed all their own terries. They just washed the one she came home in, I think, and popped one of those on her when she was heading to nursery in the morning. Given this was therefore about 20 years ago, it wasn't in the days when every child was in terries and waterproof pants.

We'll be moving this thread to Business Start-Ups in just a moment. Good luck with the new venture, OP.

Brilliant responses. Thank you everyone. The general feeling is that parents aren't asking for the unrealistic. Quality, reasonable and flexible. Thank you again. So helpful

When I talked about staff having "emotional issues" I meant staff getting teary after reading a bitchy facebook comment, or falling out with other staff because "She said that I said that she said...etc". And when I mentioned sick days I should have typed "sick days", as many are alcohol or nice weather related. Basically, good staff understand the purpose of doing a job in a professional manor to the best of their ability.

Anyway, kind of surprised nobody said what they normally do on threads like these and talk about caring staff who really care about children and give lots of smiles and hugs.