Published by Farmers Guide, March 2008.

Caroline Basham.

Day nursery plan helps fulfil farming couple's dream

YOU might not think that there's much in common between raising livestock and looking after other people's children, but you'd be surprised. Both enterprises have stocking rates set down by Government - for example, two to three-year-old toddlers must be allocated 2.8 square metres of floor space each - and are both are subject to quality inspections, with the nursery needing Ofsted's go-ahead before it even starts operating.
The Farmyard Friends Day Nursery, at Mappleton, just north-east of Hull, which is owned and run by farmer's daughter Caroline Basham and her husband Mark, has brought the two enterprises together. The nursery has been set up on a farm and every opportunity is taken to introduce the children to livestock and the countryside.
"The fact we're based on a farm has been a strong selling point for the nursery among the parents that have chosen us to look after their children," Caroline told Farmers Guide. "They like the fact that we have space for the children to play outside and that they can interact with the pet livestock we keep on the farm. We even get the local farmers ringing up when there are newborn calves, lambs and chicks around so we can take the kids along to see them.
"We like to let the older children go outside as much as we can, and as we're only five minutes from the beach, that's another regular destination that we take full advantage of.
"We've found that quite a few of our parents will travel quite a distance to take advantage of our facilities, with some travelling from Hull and some from as far as Bridlington to the north."
The nursery, which has been set up in Portacabin-type buildings, opened for business in April last year and already has a register of 76 children and an ever-growing waiting list.
"We currently have room for 15 children between two and eight-years old and 6 spaces for children younger than two, 21 in total," Caroline said, "but the fact that they all attend the nursery for different periods between three hours and a full week, the actual number of children on our books is much higher.
"We knew before we started this project that there was a demand for quality childcare in the area, but it has exceeded our expectations."
When Farmers Guide visited Hill Top Farm towards the end of last year Caroline and Mark had already applied for planning permission to expand and had found a another Portacabin building - already kitted out for use as a nursery - to put on the site.
That will only be a temporary solution, however, as the medium-term plan is to convert one of the farm buildings into a nursery for 44 kids.

Dream home
The fact that the nursery is up and running at Hill Top Farm, just outside Mappleton, is a dream come true for Caroline and husband Mark, who works for his father, Agricultural contractor Brian Basham, who is based on the other side of the village (Caroline's parents are at East Carlton, just five miles away).
"Mark and I met through the Young Farmers Club and once we married we ended up living in a semi-detached house at New Ellerby, which was alien to both of us," Caroline said. "We both dreamed of moving to a farm of our own, but the prices of the properties that did come onto the market were far beyond anything we could afford.
"At that time Hill Top Farm was more or less derelict, with a just a couple of good buildings that had been used for finishing pigs. Mark knew the owner and happened to ask him about the property one day - the result was that we were able to buy the farmhouse, buildings and six acres."
That was eight years ago, when Mark was working for his father and Caroline was working full-time as a manager in a day nursery.
"It took us a few years to get the farm sorted out," Caroline said. "We started by clearing away many of the derelict buildings and then we turned our attention to getting the house as we wanted it."
By the middle of 2002 the couple had moved in and it was time for Caroline to start thinking about working for herself for the first time.
"It was Mark that prompted me to try and set up the day nursery," she said. "I had originally trained as a nursery nurse at Beverley College in 1989, but when I finished there were no jobs and I ended up working on farms for a year or so before I found work.
"My first childcare job was at a nursery at Withensea School, where I was lucky enough to get management training; that eventually led to me leaving when I got the chance to open a new 102-place Leapfrog Nursery at Beverley as manager.
"My next move was to Hull University where I managed a 51-place day nursery for the children of staff and students. I reckon I would still have been there if I hadn't had the opportunity to start a nursery of my own."
With Mark's support, Caroline applied for planning permission for the nursery in the summer of 2005. In all, it took 18 months for permission to be granted - with negotiations about where parents would park when they dropped their kids off just one of the issues that proved a sticking point.
"About a year into the planning process I took the plunge and started working from Hill Top Farm as a childminder," Caroline said. "I had already gauged the demand for childcare in the area, and when I started I was looking after 10 children with two staff in the farmhouse kitchen - the maximum number I was allowed to look after there."
Thankfully, the planning consent did eventually come in December 2006 and the kitchen reverted to its original purpose as the new nursery buildings were put in place and opened for business at Easter 2007 - there were 14 children there on the first day.
Today there are six staff helping Caroline aged from 18-58.
"It's a nice mix of ages as it helps the children relate to different people," Caroline said, "we have the grandma figures and we have the young girls.
"Unpaid, but nonetheless important to the nursery, is Pippa the Dexter cow, who the children help look after, as well as various chickens and a couple of Guinea pigs and rabbits."
Caroline and Mark benefited from a Defra-sponsored diversification grant of £5,000 and a similar EU-sponsored LEDA grant, which together helped them get through the set-up phase of the business. In fact the Defra grant also came with access to a mentor for a year, to bounce ideas off.
But at the end of the day it was the couple's own time and effort that paid off as positive inspections from Ofsted, the Fire Brigade and the local Environmental Health department allowed the day nursery to open for business.
Now, as well as children being successfully looked after at Hill Top Farm, the original farm buildings are also back in use and are housing 650 pigs being reared under contract.

The Farmyard Friends Day Nursery has a website at: www.farmyard-friends.co.uk.