Worried parents, slick takeovers and a £30m windfall: How chains snapped up Greater Manchester’s nurseries

Dear Millers – in recent weeks, we have been hearing from concerned parents across south Manchester about something deeply important to them: nurseries. Every one of them wants to give their child the best possible start in life, but while once their local neighbourhoods were dotted with family-run, independent nurseries, in recent years that has changed.

Chains have come in, and the growing sentiment amongst parents we have spoken to is that they are driving quality down. So, Lucy — herself a nursery worker before joining us as a reporter — has been trawling through dozens of Ofsted reports, speaking to nursery staff and the managers of these chains to get to the bottom of what is going on.

In August last year, staff at an independent nursery in Northenden received some shock news. The nursery’s owners announced at a meeting with staff that the nursery was no longer financially sustainable and was being sold to a fast-growing chain. Some of the 24 staff members cried, according to one person present, and others remained silent. Several of them had been through this process before.

The buyer was Kids Planet, a company that has snapped up hundreds of nurseries since it was founded in Cheshire in 2008, including 30 in Greater Manchester. Its growth is the most striking example of how the local nursery sector is changing, with an increasing number of parents paying their fees to large corporate entities rather than family-owned businesses.

Rising costs have pushed many independent nurseries to the brink of sale, and the sector has become attractive to investors as government funding for childcare increases. The three largest chains own 3.9% of nurseries in England, and our analysis suggests around 6% of GM’s day nurseries are now controlled by them. Although this number appears to differ by area, sitting at more like 9% in Trafford, and closer to 6% in Manchester City Council wards. 

For some parents and nursery workers, this is a cause for concern: they worry about the quality of care and the mingling of childcare and the profit motive. Others we’ve spoken to in a month of digging into this question welcome the chains and argue that they bring more rigour and professionalism. Can both groups be right?