Our Workplace Nursery: TFTF Tots

It has long been the dream of Think for the Future’s CEO to build an in-house, workplace nursery for working parents at TFTF. At first, a lot of people thought it was a crazy idea and one that wouldn't work....however, 12 months later we opened TFTF Tots within our Think for the Future HQ!

We wanted to provide an affordable childcare option for some of our parents to be able to balance their roles and parental responsibilities more easily, as well as provide an incredibly high-quality childcare facility.

There are many benefits to a workplace nursery which we are experiencing right now:

• It helps you retain staff, their experience and talents at no extra cost to the business

• Helps attract high-calibre new staff

• It makes the return-to-work decision for new parents far easier

• Empowers women when making career choices, when their children/pregnancy are not considered an issue

• Improves employee's work/life balance

• Ease of commute issues (e.g, getting children to nursery before getting to work)

• Less stress on finding a nursery that is close to work.

About TFTF Tots

TFTF Tots Nursery is a small mixed-aged setting with low 1:3 ratios for all age groups. We have between 6 and 9 children daily which means our practitioners can form stronger connections with the children. Our staff know the children’s needs and interests by heart and plan the days around the children and what they enjoy and need. It also enables us to have closer communication with the parents and families as well as the children. This means that we can spend time on more personal extra activities; recently for World Book Day the TFTF Tots staff collected photos of the children’s pets and created each child a “That’s not my pet...” sensory book to take home, full of pictures of TFTF Tot’s pets each with a sensory element added to it.

We are really excited by our new venture and how it grows and develops over time and how it can support our staff further! From idea to implementation to Ofsted approval, it has been a really smooth process that has been enjoyable and we would recommend that more employers explore workplace nurseries within their own organisations.