Vikki Slade, MP, visited Tops Day Nurseries Wimborne on Tuesday 20th August, to meet with the children and Founder and Chair, Cheryl Hadland and Chief Revenue Officer, Harriet Pacey, to discuss the upcoming expansion of funded childcare for parents, Education for Sustainable Citizenship, and the recent move to becoming an Employee Ownership Trust.
As part of Vikki’s visit to Tops Day Nurseries in Wimborne she joined in with the children and colleagues creating a belonging tree, a wonderful activity that represents their commitment to sustainability and joining all communities.
Harriet Pacey commented, “The children were thrilled to participate, and it was a pleasure to see their excitement as they added their own contributions to the tree.
Vikki also had important discussions with Cheryl, Harriet and the colleagues at Tops Wimborne, focusing on the crucial role of the Early Years sector, the expansion of funded childcare spaces being rolled out from April 2024, and the benefits of the EOT for the nursery.
Cheryl and Vikki discussed:
- How day nurseries and parents can help with financial and environmental sustainability as well as provide significant developmental support through supporting children to be nappy free earlier.
- There is now a national shortage of nursery staff which is reducing availability of nursery places and damaging the quality of education.
- Means testing for funding for early years places and funding could enable all children to attend for 30 hours instead of just those whose parents are working.
- The very heavy load of paying business rates.
- The land and water pollution being caused by water companies allowing sewage into the environment, causing sickness, and stopping children’s access to the seas, and the one use plastic and micro plastics now in our food chain causing infertility and disease in humans and injuring and killing birds, whales, turtles, dolphins.
- Air pollution, which is causing asthma and lung disease in small children.
- The lack of option to choose oat milk, fruit and vegetables instead of dairy milk in English nurseries, despite some children being dairy intolerant, and obesity being a major problem for increasing numbers of children.
- Waste costs of disposable nappies being 4% of the domestic rates bill for everyone plus £1000 per nursery p.a. Should have a washable nappy programme for all day nurseries in Dorset – funding available from the EU.
- The positive impact that Tops Day Nurseries (Queens Award) has on children and their families lives in Dorset, good and outstanding teaching, healthy, safe environments.
Speaking after the official visit , Cheryl Hadland said:
“We were delighted to welcome Vikki into the nursery, her first visit as our MP, and we noticed that she appreciated meeting our head chef, Pete Toftis, and enjoying the wonderful healthy and sustainable food that we offer children at Tops. We look forward to seeing her advocate for early years in the hope that her voice will be heard in parliament by the government and that children, early years educators and parents’ needs will be prioritised going forward so that everyone prospers long into the future.“
Vikki Slade, MP commented: I was inspired by the passion of the whole team at Tops creating a nurturing, vibrant and fun environment for the children in their care.
It was fascinating to hear about how the nurseries are evolving to meet the changing needs of children and I was concerned to hear about the issues they face in particular around funding and staffing and the incredible work they are doing to reduce their impact on the environment and improve the health and wellbeing of their children.
Our children deserve the very best start in life and it is clear the Tops children are receiving that!”
Tops Day Nurseries provides eco-sustainable Early Education and Care for children aged 3 months to school age. They have over 30-day nurseries across the South and Southwest. Tops also offer before, after-school and Hi5 holiday clubs for children up to the age of 11.