Celebrating 4,000 years of service to children

The practitioners from the Ofsted-rated ‘Outstanding’ day nursery in Park Road, Hemel Hempstead, joined 200 colleagues at a special dinner marking 15 years and over at the employee owned Childbase Partnership, a UK Great Place to Work and a Sunday Times Best Place to Work 2023.

In addition to a share in cash rewards totalling nearly £160,000 so far this year, marking long service achievements from 5 years upwards at the company, the partygoers also receive an extra week of annual leave in their milestone year.

For Lime Grove Manager Kelly Climpson, who started with the company as an apprentice and is now celebrating 23 years long service, the benefits go much deeper than profit-sharing and cash rewards.

“Childbase and Lime Grove have been a massive part of my life. It is like a ‘home from home’ for me as I am surrounded by people who are fully supportive of me professionally and personally. When you find that, you don’t think of working anywhere else,” she said.

“The benefits are outstanding and being employee-owned is just amazing as every employee has a voice and a role in decision-making. We support each other to be the best possible early years educators, and I am enormously proud of what we achieve together in nursery and the company,” she added.

Emma Rooney, Chief Executive Officer at Childbase Partnership – employee-owned since 2017 with 44 award-winning day nurseries in England - described her long serving colleagues as standard-bearers’ for the company’s mission to deliver outstanding outcomes for over 6,000 children.

“You are role models, mentors and a source of inspiration and motivation to your colleagues company wide. I am immensely proud to work alongside each and every one of you and look forward to seeing all of the great things I know you will accomplish in the coming years,” she said.

Additional holiday awarded in the milestone year of long service is one extra day for those reaching five years, and a week of annual leave for those achieving 10, 15, 20 and more years.