Families North London / May/June 2004

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Best Nursery?

Best Bear Childcare, the on-line independent listing of recommended childcare agencies and nurseries, has launched its UK’s Best Nurseries Survey 2004 to produce a parent-generated insight into the care that nurseries do, don’t, could and should provide. Parents of nursery school children across the UK are invited to vote by visiting www.bestbear.co.uk/parents/nursery_survey.aspx. Parents who fill in the survey before the end of May will have a chance to win one of three £100 vouchers to spend on Aspace children’s furniture. Once its findings are published, Best Bear Childcare will act as an on-going platform for parents and childcarers to share comments about nurseries.

“The aim of this survey is to provide a different perspective from the Ofsted reports that are already available. The results will provide an invaluable source of information for parents on where to look for the best nurseries and will help us to establish minimum acceptable standards for nurseries, as judged by parents,” says Sally Harrison, Director of Best Bear. With 30,000 unique users a month, Best Bear Childcare is already firmly established as the comprehensive and quality-controlled guide to childcare agencies in the UK. 020 7352 5852. www.bestbear.co.uk

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When Best Bear Childcare performed its annual review of 849 childcare agencies, 338 failed the test outright, 298 had closed or gone out of business since the last review and only 213 passed the test. Anybody can set up a private childcare agency, without qualifications or police checks. The Best Bear Childcare survey found that some were willing to send nannies to interviews having only spoken to them briefly on the phone. You can find agencies that met with Best Bear’s approval on the website, but please note that some which passed their tests have chosen not to be listed. You should not, therefore assume that an agency is disreputable just because it’s not on the site. www.bestbear.co.uk