Employees’ selfless acts mean Northampton nursery can battle on as it begins to welcome more children back

A local nursery has only been able to remain open during lockdown due to the generosity of its staff.

Omnipresence Nursery, in Freehold Street, off Barrack Road, has welcomed back a few children today (June 1) as some school year groups also return.

However the nursery that came dangerously close to having to shut its doors during the pandemic due to poor funding, is only there for the children now because staff decided to commit some of their wages to pay for resources and costs.

Dawnlousie Young, owner of the nursery, said: “It’s been really tough. The only reason we are open is because of the support from our staff and our families.

“We took a decision as a team to use our wages to pay for resources and costs to keep us going and some families have continued to pay their fees.

“We have to assess it week by week but we are muddling through at the moment because we are determined to keep this nursery open for our staff and children.

“Our amazing team is doing everything we can to keep open.”

As more children return school today, the nursery is implementing measures to make sure their children are safe.

Nursery manager, Sharon Norell, added: “We’re taking the children’s temperatures as they come in, and the staff we have as well.

“All our staff have uniforms at work too and we’re following the Government guidelines.

“We’re protecting our children and watching them flourish and grow.

“They’re still young enough not to know much about what is going on so they are still happy and that motivates us to keep going.”

Although the nursery has welcomed a few more children back, it is still only at 15 percent capacity of what it would have been before the pandemic hit as many parents are choosing to keep their children at home.

This means that the nursery is also still a lot worse off financially, especially as Dawnlouise and Sharon say the standard Government, non-Covid related funding that nurseries receive is ‘nowhere near enough’.

An issue that the manager and owner of Omnipresence have already spoken out about by starting a petition to change the funding.

The pair added: “Government funding has not been enough to keep us open.

“We are still pushing the petition because if it does not change, a lot of nurseries will not reopen.”

To sign the petition, visit the page on change.org.

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