Kiddi Caru Day Nursery & Preschool Achieves Central Bedfordshire’s Healthy Child, Healthy Workforce Accreditation!

The team at Kiddi Caru Day Nursery & Preschool in Leighton Buzzard are thrilled to announce that they have achieved Central Bedfordshire Council’s Healthy Child, Healthy Workforce accreditation!

The nursery have worked so hard to meet the healthy workforce standards, especially within the early years settings. They have come on leaps and bounds to ensure that the emotional and mental health of their children and young people are put at the forefront of nursery.

Achieving the Healthy Child, Healthy Workforce quality standard accreditation is a massive accomplishment and at Grandir UK, we are really proud the the nursery team for getting this achievement.

Overview of the accreditation

The healthy workforce accreditation demonstrates an organisation’s commitment to support positive mental health and public health of all people within their business. Set up by the Central Bedfordshire Council, any childcare or education provider can apply for this award. The goal of the accreditation is to create an environment where children thrive emotionally, physically, and mentally, while also ensuring that staff members have all they need to support good mental health and a healthy work-life balance.

Highlights from Kiddi Caru’s accreditation report

Both the council and nursery are passionate about promoting the public health of early years children within the local community. Alongside the nursery conducting a self-assessment of their nursery, members of the Central Bedfordshire Council also visited them to see all their efforts in action, and the nursery team were excited to showcase their nursery!

From the accreditation report from the visit, the council members were happy to see that the ‘children were happy, confident and well settled’ within the nursery and also noted that there was a good amount of staff who were happy within their working environment. In both the indoor and outdoor setting, the nursery had lots of communication-friendly spaces, with the environment being designed to foster interaction, learning, and emotional wellbeing for all at the nursery.

There has been a ton of great feedback from the report which the nursery is eager to share! Read on for the full details.

Mindfulness and wellbeing

Kiddi Caru in Leighton Buzzard showed an excellent approach to mental wellbeing and mindfulness for both children and young people.

One particularly impressive observation was the emphasis on sensory play in the baby room, which plays a crucial role to develop emotional resilience and cognitive development in young children. the nursery have also included Golden Values into their setting, a positive affirmations and support systems for children’s behaviour, which stood out to the council visitors. These values are not only displayed in the nursery rooms, but are actively reinforced through language used by the staff, helping to create a nurturing environment for children to grow.

Kiddi Caru’s mindful activities, like a nursery spa day showcases their commitment to creating a calming environment within their early years setting. Activities such as yoga, hand massages, and even having designated time to relax with cucumbers over their eyes, shows how creative the nursery team are to introduce mindfulness and relaxation into play.

Support for parents and families

Kiddi Caru in Leighton Buzzard’s commitment to supporting positive mental health and physical development isn’t just for the children in their care, they also ensure this offering extends to their parents too!

The nursery provides a care package for parents when their children begin their nursery journey. The package includes useful resources, such as a First-day at Nursery book to read with their child, tips for settling into a nursery routine, and a small treat for parents, a thoughtful coffee sachet and a KitKat, acknowledging that starting nursery can be an emotional experience for the entire family​. Theses packages are great for reinforcing positive relationships with parents from the get go and make them feel welcome within the Kiddi Caru nursery family.

Communication is something the nursery strongly focuses on to support children’s learning. Their new affirmation station encourages children to celebrate their achievements by earning “ask me about…” stickers. These stickers spark conversations with their parents when they get home, helping families feel more included in the nursery life, while helping develop their child’s communication skills. Resources like colour monster puppets, emotion spoons, and specially curated books on subject matters such as My first visit to the dentist or The arrival of a new sibling helps raise children’s awareness of their emotions so they are better prepared to handle difficult emotions independently.

More for staff wellbeing

While safeguarding children and providing the right kind of education is at the forefront for Kiddi Caru in Leighton Buzzard, they also go and beyond to make sure that the mental health and wellbeing of their team is top notch too. Working in an early years settings can been mentally, emotionally and physically challenging for all nursery staff, so Kiddi Caru do whatever they can to make sure they provide a good mental health offering as apart of their business.

The nursery excels in this area, offering numerous initiatives aimed at promoting a healthy work environment for its employees. One aspect the council members loved to see during their visit was the May I Say Thank You Tree, a place where staff can write notes of appreciation to one another. Getting positive feedback makes the team thrive and encourages them to keep helping children to grow and flourish within the nursery.

Kiddi Caru also provides a wide range of wellbeing resources for staff, including a staff break area with access to outdoor seating, an employee assistance program, and regular awards events that recognises the efforts of the team and all they do for children and young people.

Mental health is taken extremely seriously at Kiddi Caru, Leighton Buzzard, as the nursery has specially trained mental health first aiders to support both children and staff who might need further support with their mental health. The nursery also includes counselling sessions through their HR department and has wellbeing baskets in their restrooms to really ensure they are looking after their people.

What this means for Kiddi Caru, Leighton Buzzard?

Achieving the Healthy Child, Healthy Workforce quality standard accreditation is not just a tick box exercise for our Kiddi Caru nursery in Leighton Buzzard, it showcases their dedication to supporting positive mental health for children, families and staff members a like – something the nursery is super passionate about.

The nursery hopes this will increase their reputation in the local community, encouraging new parents to choose a nursery that prioritises the wellbeing of their children and staff and to provide everyone a nurturing and stimulating early years settings to allow everyone grow to be the best they can be.

Interested in our Kiddi Caru Day Nursery & Preschool in Leighton Buzzard?

We would love to show you around our Kiddi Caru Day Nursery & Preschool in Leighton Buzzard and show you how everything we have to offer from our stimulating nursery rooms, highly trained nursery staff and our bespoke curriculum. Speak to our Parent Engagement Team today to book a show our nursery.