Cash injection helps childcare enterprises to flourish

Apr 2 2009 by Iain Laing, The Journal

CHILDCARE businesses in County Durham have been given a £280,000 investment from the EU.

The funding, through One North East, will sustain new or recently opened childcare businesses in the county, providing support activity to maintain jobs and services during the economic downturn. Assistance will include marketing, sharing best practice, business analysis, financial management and legal support.

Carol Chambers, manager of the Tarka project, said: “The childcare sector in County Durham has expanded beyond recognition over the last 12 years and now employs about 2,500 local people.

“We want to build on our partnership with SureStart which has made significant strides to develop the sector in recent years.

“We have identified gaps in specialised, sustainable business support and areas in which we can give inexperienced staff a helping hand in day to day operations.”

The project will concentrate its support on the nursery and school age childcare sectors, with a commitment to helping 120 employees with specific development needs and supplying 20 community enterprises with at least £1,000 of direct financial assistance.

“Helping community enterprises develop and grow is a key priority for the ERDF programme,” added One North East head of European and skills strategy Lesley Calder.

With third sector capacity as a whole continuing to grow, the project will work with childcare businesses where gaps in business support provision have been identified.

Tarka’s provision will tie in with Business Link, the SureStart Partnership and the Local Authority. Voluntary and Community Sector businesses likely to benefit are typically located in schools, community family centres, nurseries, SureStart centres, and other rented or purpose-built venues.

The European Union’s ERDF Competitiveness Programme 2007-13 is bringing over £250m to the region, supporting innovation, business growth and enterprise through One North East.