Nursery group to recruit 130 staff and open its eighth centre

Kids Allowed, the Manchester-based nursery group, has announced its biggest recruitment drive yet as it celebrates 15 years of delivering award-winning childcare across Manchester and Cheshire.

The nursery business, founded in 2003 by Jennie Johnson, is recruiting nursery nurses and apprentices across its seven centres in Cheadle, Stockport, Wythenshawe, Knutsford, Macclesfield, Altrincham and its headquarters in Christie Fields, Didsbury, as part of its expansion plans for 2018.

In all, it expects to recruit around 130 staff.

One of the region’s flagship female-led firms, Kids Allowed said it prides itself on its impressive rates of pay, its focus on training and development and its approach to rewarding employees for their hard work.

Chief executive Jennie Johnson said: “We’re in the lucky position to have grown an incredible team of caring, engaged and talented people who go above and beyond every day to give every child at Kids Allowed the best environment and the best care.

“I owe it to the existing team to find more extraordinary people to match their passion.”

Now with more than 450 employees looking after around 2,000 children across seven centres, from babies to five year-olds, if the group successfully recruits in all roles, it will grow its team by around 130 in 2018 – around 30% growth across the year.

Recognised as trailblazers in the childcare sector, Kids Allowed is set to open its eighth centre in Trafford City in September, featuring Manchester’s first Urbanscape green roof system as part of the £1.5m project which will enhance local air quality for its 106 children and employees.

The contemporary building, which will be developed by Peel Land and Property, will be developed next to the Venus building at Trafford City, situated off Junction 10 of the M60 and immediately opposite intu Trafford Centre.

The Trafford City project follows the opening of its Altrincham centre and the award of £600,000 jobs’ funding from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority in April last year.

Kids Allowed said it also continues to lead the way in its environmental thinking.

Ms Johnson introduced biodegradable nappies in 2013 long before others considered the issue and today she is actively reviewing the firm’s policies and procedures to drastically reduce the group’s reliance on single-use plastics.

Kids Allowed has graduated 3,000 children in Manchester and Cheshire over 15 years – an alumni, Ms Johnson says, “achieving great things in school, thanks in part to their brilliant early years start with us.”

She added: “It’s so rewarding to hear the team talk about why they love working at Kids Allowed.”

The nursery group’s academy and apprenticeship scheme has won numerous awards for its training techniques and the calibre of apprentices who gain their levels 2,3, and 4 qualifications in childcare.

In 2016 Kids Allowed completed its first acquisition after a successful tender process with the NHS to take over the running of its workplace nursery on the Wythenshawe site – now known as University Hospital South Manchester.

In January this year Ms Johnson was announced as a member of Mayor Andy Burnham’s Greater Manchester Business Advisory Panel.

Alongside 17 other Greater Manchester-based business figures she will share her views, advice and insight into issues affecting business in Greater Manchester and how to make the area the best place to work, live and invest.

She said: “I believe if we attract, upskill and retain great people, they’ll go on to achieve great things.”