Sevenoaks Day Nursery was set up to offer low cost childcare to those who needed it.  This is still our prime aim, but there’s more to it than perhaps first meets the eye!

Yes, of course, we keep our fees as low as we can, which is no easy task in this day and age, but we also offer emergency places throughout the year for families in need.  Not only are these places offered but, thanks to our long-term relationship with local social and child services teams, they are taken up.

Examples of the support provided by the nursery include:

• Where a parent at the nursery has died, free places have been allocated to the children whilst the bereaved parent sorts out their affairs
• Free sessions have been given to children whilst their single parent attends hospital appointments or a job interview
• When a father was taken seriously ill and placed on life support for several months, the Nursery waived the fees in full throughout this time
• When a single mother was trying to get back to work, the Nursery waived her fees to help when her benefits were stopped
• The free places have also been allocated to children where there have been issues around domestic violence in the household
• A free place was allocated to a young boy attending the nursery so that his mother and support worker could concentrate on his older brother who has behavioural issues. It meant that the younger brother had the chance for some normalcy in his life whilst the mother gave her full attention to the brother’s problems.

In addition, we now sponsor at least one FF2 place every year; the 570 hours that come with a FF2 place falls short of our minimum requirement of 2 days a week, approximately 1,000 hours.  So we cover the difference and continue to do so until the child leaves us for school.

We are registered with the Charity Commission and if you follow this link, you’ll be able to see our latest submissions.  This link takes you to the CIO which has only recently been established.  If you search on Sevenoaks Day Nursery Trust you’ll find much more historic information.