N Family have continued to grow rapidly over the past couple of years. Sarah Mackenzie, chief strategy officer at N Family Club speaks about the launch of the N Bursary to NMT.

Throughout the pandemic, the childcare sector has faced some significant challenges. However, new ways to support children and parents continue to evolve and N Family Club has remained committed to raising the standard again and again.

It first opened its doors in London in 2017 with the goal of equipping children with the right tools and support for life.

During the lockdowns and regulatory changes, N Family educators rose to the challenges and found new and innovative ways of helping children learn and develop while staying safe.

The groups first impact report looks back at what has been achieved, but also what plans are set in motion for this year and beyond.

Every child across the country should have access to a fantastic early years education. However, as we know, the sector has continually been plagued by underfunding and more times than not, it is the children in the most deprived areas that suffer from government cuts and strains on the sector.

The rise in social inequalities due to Covid-19 has only exacerbated the problem.

N Bursary

Therefore, N Family Club has launched its bursary scheme this year. The bursary scheme is partly funded through N Family Club and other companies. Funds management company Gravis has been the first to partner with the group on this.

The scheme will see the group provide places for a number of qualifying 2-5 year olds across N Family Club established nurseries. Through this move, N Family Club hopes to help remove some of the barriers that are stopping parents from accessing high quality childcare for their children.

Sarah Mackenzie, chief strategy officer, said: “We’re aware that experiences in the early years provide the building blocks that shape our whole lives. Wellbeing, educational achievement, lifelong health, responsible citizenship, economic productivity, and strong communities are all influenced by early experiences. The evidence is clear that high quality early years provision can make a real difference in a child’s life.

“At N we strive to be the highest quality and most loved early years group in the UK. We’re conscious that the attainment gap between children growing up in deprivation and those in affluence shows no signs of closing and the current government policy on ‘free’ childcare only serves to exacerbate this issue with the most deprived children eligible for 15 hours and those children where both parents work and earn over the current threshold eligible for 30 hours. The reliance of providers operating within areas of deprivation on underfunded government funded hours compounds the issue. Too many parents – and in particular, mothers – find the cost of childcare prohibitive in seeking employment. Being mindful of this we are extending access to our environments, curriculum, and Educators to families whose financial situation would otherwise prohibit them from enrolling.

“We’re working with local authorities who will identify children for our available bursary places and as N grows so too will the number of available places. Each bursary place will be fully funded, the family will have no costs to pay and will have access to all elements of our offer including a welcome pack, three full days at nursery all year round with everything included and full access to our family club offering.

“We’re donating a percentage of our revenue to fund the bursary scheme and we’re also encouraging and welcoming positive futures partners to join us in extending the number of bursary places we offer. Gravis were our first positive futures partner, and we’re delighted to have them on board.

“We know the wider issues of accessibility to high quality early years provision for all children will not be solved by this move, but we are very proud to have created this targeted offer. Our team have been really clear with us that the bursary scheme is the part of our impact strategy that they’re the most excited about and I know they’re going to make a real difference for the children and families.”

Board of GCP asset backed income fund shared a statement: “GCP Asset Backed Income Fund is delighted to be working with N Family Club to deliver the first bursary places. We know how important early years education can be and the long term benefits it brings children, so we are delighted to be able to give children in the local community access to the first-class facilities and educators at N Family Club.”