Nurseries in Kettering and Northampton celebrate Employee Ownership Day

Members of staff at nurseries in Kettering and Northampton pulled out all the stops to celebrate national Employee Ownership Day.

The teams at Nene Valley Day Nursery in Cliftonville and Windermere Day Nursery in Kettering celebrated full pay, free childcare and bonus payments with treats including cake and uniform-free days at the nurseries, at the complexes of NGH and KGH respectively. They are all partners in the employee-owned Childbase Partnership.

Windermere Day Nursery manager, Amy McCulloch, said the annual celebrations for Employee Ownership Day, which included fun activities for children in protective ‘bubble groups’, were particularly important this year.

She said: “We’ve been doing ‘In it together’ for years and while social distancing requirements may keep us apart we have never been more committed to each other or the children and families in our care.

"Ensuring we have the right support and tools to be the best we can be has never been more important when you think about the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on our children.”

The support meant full pay for everyone, with a ‘top up’ applied to the 80 per cent Government grant aid for furloughed partners, a bonus and free Childbase nursery childcare for those working through the pandemic.