business plan for children's home

CHILDREN’S HOME BUSINESS PLAN: Guide to Starting a Children’s Home Business Plan

• by Folakemi Adegbaju
• August 14, 2023
• No comments
• 7 minute read

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What is a children’s home, #1. create a business plan, #2. registration with the regulator (ofsted), #3. property, #4. staffing matters in children’s home, #5. market survey, #6. funding, #7. advertise your children’s home, who is children’s home created for, #1. executive summary, #2. market analysis, #3. detail your marketing plan, #4. outline your organization and management, #5. milestones, final thoughts, how long does it take to register a children's home, what do ofsted look for in children's homes.

Starting a children’s home can appear like an appealing option because the monetary obstacles are low and the financial rewards can be considerable. If you have always cherished assisting those in need and have a tendency to reach out to those in need, you may agree that orphans are among those who require the most love and encouragement. Reaching out to folks in need of love and care is one thing; being able to act to improve their lives is quite another. A good children’s home business plan, which is also known as a residential children’s home plan, is necessary when setting up a children’s home. You must have the necessary policies and procedures in place, as well as business planning, risk assessments, and qualified and competent personnel.

This is for you if you’re having trouble with the process of starting a children’s home business plan.

Get started today!

People under the age of 18 are considered children. Children’s homes, also known as residential children’s homes, are a place to stay when foster care is not ideal for you or your needs. One possibility is to open a children’s home in a separate structure. However, it necessitates a significant amount of labor.

Children’s homes have higher administrative and management costs than other forms of child care enterprises, in addition to more severe licensing requirements. One of the most exciting things you can do is learn how to open a children’s home and take your children’s home from concept to reality. However, it can be a long and tough route with many barriers and diversions.

How to Start a Children’s Home

The following are steps you need to take when starting a children’s home:

Your ideas are worthless unless you have a solid plan to back them up. A business plan can be written in two ways: as a one-of-a-kind and simple piece for your own use, or as a foundational and financially sound document to attract investors. However, when it comes to investing, no one can do it without the assistance of an experienced business plan writer . Keep in mind that the intention of a residential children’s home business plan is to filter out the most important aspects of your care business. Whatever route you take, there are three things that you must include in your residential children’s home business plan.

It is critical that before opening a children’s home, you need to follow the regulations as the administrator. Children’s home is highly regulated, and you must meet the specified requirements in order to operate. You need to understand that the average duration from application to registration is currently 17 weeks.

The following are the steps to take when registering :

• Fill out an SC1 and attach all of the required documents to it.
• OFSTED will conduct additional checks and may request additional information. Examining your DBS, GP health evaluation, and sending out requests to your referees are all part of this process.
• OFSTED will interview you, your source, and your management in order to determine your appropriateness and whether or not the registration conditions have been completed.
• They will inspect the provision twice a year once you register. A poor inspection report can affect the likelihood of receiving placement authority recommendations.

Due care and effort must be exercised before investing in a new property for your children’s home, establishing that they need such a service in the area. Most local governments have a preferred supplier list that they utilize to award contracts. Because you may have a children’s home and not be able to easily access bidders in your area, try to check the location before starting your children’s home in such an area.

You’ll need to think about the type of property you’ll need, where it’ll go (from the perspective of child safety and taking into account neighbors ), and whether or not you’ll need planning approval. You won’t be able to register with OFSTED unless you obtain the necessary permissions for your property, which you must document.

However, planning regulations are always changing, so we always recommend hiring a planning consultant to verify you have the proper rights to operate as a children’s home.

The type of property required, whether you will rent or buy, where it is located both for safety reasons and in relation to neighbors, and whether you will need planning approval, will be the first things to consider.

Anyone interested in opening a children’s home should be aware that it is a highly regulated industry that requires qualified staff and a registered manager. A responsible individual with prior experience is also essential. You’ll have to show OFSTED that you have enough employees with the necessary expertise and credentials to care for children. There will never be an anticipation of a complete complement of personnel from the outset, but enough to open the home and accept your first child. However, the position of the registered manager is crucial, and it is imperative that they have the necessary qualifications, expertise, and skills. As part of the OFSTED registration process, the registered management will be interrogated.

Anyone unfamiliar with a children’s home should be aware of current regulatory and market situations, as well as have thoroughly examined the needs in the targeted geographic location.

The time it takes to start a children’s home is long, and you’ll have to pay a lot of money to get started. Make sure you have enough money to last you until you can accept children. Due to the extensive regulation process, it takes longer to open a children’s home than it does to open other types of care enterprises. As a result, your startup costs are likely to be higher, and you’ll need enough cash to get to the point where you can begin taking children.

However, it’s critical to have a solid and realistic business plan and financial forecast, and OFSTED will most likely examine it closely. To lend credibility to your plan or forecast, it’s a good idea to hire an accountant with professional experience. Working from a freehold property makes the possibility more appealing to lenders and boosts the likelihood of obtaining funds.

Remember that if you want to build a business, you’ll need to teach people about your children’s home. You might distribute fliers and pamphlets to inform people about your it and its location. However, you can also publicize the children’s home through social media, TV, or radio so that people can call you if they need to visit.

For a variety of reasons, children and young people must live away from their families. Here are a few of them:

• For children and young people who are disabled, including those who have physical or learning difficulties.
• Children whose parents are unwell
• Children and adolescents with emotional and/or behavioral issues
• For children and adolescents who have psychological problems.
• For children and young people who are drug or alcohol addicts,
• Those who have committed a crime or those who require additional protection
• Those that are refuges

Children’s Home Business Plan

Writing a business plan for a children’s home might have a variety of reasons. To begin with, a business plan can assist you in organizing your ideas for starting a business by specifying the actions you’ll need to take. After you’ve opened your children’s home, a business plan will help you keep on track as you work toward your objectives. However, a children’s home business plan, on the other hand, isn’t put in law, update it as your children’s home business grows and your goals start changing.

The following are guides to starting a children’s home business plan:

This is in the form of goals and a vision or mission statement. Make a high-level outline of your residential children’s home business plan. Include why you think launching a children’s home business is a smart option in a quick explanation of your aims. Include a summary of your own qualifications and experience, as well as your staffing standards.

What’s the problem your children’s home solves for people? What’s the problem you solve for your customers? Why would they choose you over other alternatives?

You must include an examination of the children’s home industry. Make a list of children’s home trends and forecast revenue for the children’s home industry. Include information on your target market’s needs and how you can meet those needs. Include details on how you want to position your children’s home company for success in the face of stiff competition.

What will you do to promote your children’s home business? If you intend to buy advertising, make a list of the types of ads you intend to run. Keep in mind that different target markets may require different marketing strategies to get your service in front of them.

 Plan how you will communicate your children’s home business benefits to your target market.

Describe the legal structure that you intend to use for your children’s home business. You can form a sole proprietorship if you will be the sole owner of the children’s home business. You will, however, need to form a partnership if you have a partner.

Add details about how you run your firm. Include information about how to hire and train personnel. Cover the legal needs of a children’s home business, such as site safety, emergency care, personnel credentials, and other local laws.

What are the most important tasks you must complete in order to get your business up and running? This will assist you in staying on track and achieving your objectives. Assign targets to your team members so that you have genuine duty and commitment.

The most important aspect of a children’s home business plan is to always review and adjust it when circumstances change. However, it’s possible that your business objectives need to be updated, or that your expense budget needs to be amended. 

At the moment, it takes an average of 17 weeks to complete the procedure from accepting your application to registering your children’s home. 

OFSTED really want proof that employees are familiar with the children, including things they like and dislike, as well as their anxieties and emotions. Workers who are committed to each child’s personal growth and well-being. Your workers must have skills to support the learning process of the children.

To qualify for this position, you do not need any qualifications or training.  For a residential children’s home, your life experience, character, and personality are all vital attributes to bring into the home.

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Folakemi Adegbaju

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Child Care Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Download our Ultimate Child Care Business Plan Template here >

What Is a Business Plan?

Why You Need a Business Plan

If you’re looking to start a child care business or grow your existing one you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your child care in order to improve your chances of success. Your child care center business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Source of Funding for Child Care Businesses

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a child care business are bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable. But they will want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business.

The second most common form of funding for a child care is angel investors. Angel investors are wealthy individuals who will write you a check. They will either take equity in return for their funding, or, like a bank, they will give you a loan. Venture capitalists will not fund a child care business.

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Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of child care business you are operating and the status; for example, are you a startup, do you have a child care that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of child care businesses.

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the child care industry. Discuss the type of child care you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers. Provide a snapshot of your marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.  

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will detail the type of child care business you are operating.

For example, you might operate one of the following types:

• Home-Based Child Care: this type of child care business operates out of your home and typically has one or two caregivers on staff.
• Child Care Center: a child care center operates out of a commercial building. It typically has multiple staff and caregivers and can serve many, many children.
• Pre-School Child Care: a child care business that primarily serves preschoolers
• School-Age Child Care: a child care business that primarily serves school-age children.

  In addition to explaining the type of child care you operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to question such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include sales goals you’ve reached, new program offerings, etc.
• Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the child care business.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the child care industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy particularly if your research identifies market trends. For example, if there was a trend towards child care that includes transportation, it would be helpful to ensure your plan calls for such a service.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your child care center business plan:

• How big is the child care business (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the local or national market?
• What trends are affecting the child care industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your child care. You can extrapolate such as figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your child care center business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: soccer moms, young families, baby boomers caring for grandchildren, etc.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations and income levels of the customers you seek to serve. Because most child care businesses primarily serve customers living in their same city or town, such demographic information is easy to find on government websites.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

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Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other child care businesses.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have that aren’t direct competitors. This includes keeping children at home and/or after school programs among others.

With regards to direct competition, you want to detail the other child care businesses with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be child care businesses located very close to your location.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

• What types of customers do they serve?
• What child care services do they offer?
• What times are they open?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

  With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide superior child care services?
• Will you provide child care services that your competitors don’t offer?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a child care business plan, your marketing plan should include the following:

Product : in the product section you should reiterate the type of child care that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific services you will be offering. For example, will you over technology or exercise classes to the children?

Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the menu items you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the location of your child care. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. For example, is your child care located next to a heavily populated office building, or gym, etc. Discuss how your location might provide a steady stream of customers.

Promotions : the final part of your child care marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Social media marketing
• Reaching out to local bloggers (particularly “mommy” bloggers) and websites
• Local radio advertising
• Banner ads at local venues

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your child care such as discussions with prospective new customers, procuring supplies, keeping the child care center, etc.

Management Team

To demonstrate your child care’s ability to succeed as a business, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.

Ideally you and/or your team members have direct experience in the child care business. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in child care businesses and/or successfully running retail and small businesses.  

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you serve 10 children per day or 50? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt. For example, let’s say a company approached you with a massive $100,000 child care contract, that would cost you $50,000 to fulfill. Well, in most cases, you would have to pay that $50,000 now for employee salaries, etc. But let’s say the company didn’t pay you for 180 days. During that 180 day period, you could run out of money.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a child care center:

• Child care center build-out including design fees, construction, etc.
• Cost of fixtures like tables, chairs, couches, etc.
• Cost of equipment used like computers and televisions
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Taxes and permits
• Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your child care center design blueprint or location lease.  

Putting together a business plan for your child care is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the child care business, your competition and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful child care.

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Setting up a childrens home

Children’s home providers and managers must meet a range of legal requirements; this includes a requirement to register with ofsted. if you want to apply to open a children’s home, you should also read ofsted’s ‘guide to registration for children’s social care services’, which sets out the process of registration for all children’s social care providers., in summary, a children’s home must have:.

• A registered provider and, where the provider is an organisation such as a company, a person known as a ‘Responsible Individual’ who represents the organisation to Ofsted.
• A qualified (QCF Level 5 children and young people) Registered Manager who has their own personal registration with Ofsted.
• A Statement of Purpose that sets out the overall aims of the children’s home and the objectives for children who live there or those provided with short breaks – the law sets out the information that the statement must contain in regulations; you can find these in schedule 1 of ‘the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015.’
• A Children’s Guide, which explains what a child can expect from the home’s care, including the support each child is entitled to, how they can make a complaint and how they can access advocacy support; the guide must be in a form that is appropriate to the age, understanding and communication needs of the children
• A number of policies and procedures – these are set out in the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015.
• An appropriate/suitably equipped and furnished property, with planning consent to operate as a children’s home.
• Ofsted will also undertake financial viability checks on the provider including bank references, business plan and financial forecast.

Ofsted registration process can take up to 16 weeks. 

Once the application has been submitted:

1. A site visit is undertaken – is the property fit for purpose?:

• Property must relevant planning consents
• Property must be fully furnished (ready to admit children/young people)
• All health and safety requirements must have been fulfilled with appropriate certification provided including fire doors and fire alarms
• All fire certification met/signed off
• All PAT Testing to have been completed
• Appropriate insurances must in place
• Premises must clean and tidy – including gardens.
• Floor plan of the home needs to be created
• policies and procedures
• some staff recruitment files
• certification
• staff rota’s
• Training matrix

2. ‘Fit Person’s interviews’ (Manager and Responsible Individual): A set of questions is completed and then formal interviews held.  During the interview process previous work history/inspections will be discussed in detail, as well as understanding of practice (including SOP), policies, procedures and regulations.

A note of caution:

• If you are new to the sector – seek expert advice from the outset; there are many experienced consultants in the sector; it will save you time, money and heartache.
• Makes sure the property is the right size, in the right location and get the planning consent.
• Budget well: you will need between £60k to £100k for the setup costs (depending on the size of the home).
• Do not take the risk with hiring an inexperienced manager; they will not get through the Ofsted interview process.
• This is not a short-term business with quick returns, it is a long-term investment which requires long term financial commitment. Talk to other small providers.
• Be realistic about your expectations.
• Once you have the property, recruit your manager; they will help set everything up thereafter.

Support from Kayn Consultants

We can assist with a full or part support in the registration process:, example timeline of setting up a children’s home, the property - identify and enquire.

– Identify Property

– Can you get planning permission?

– Can you get insurance

The Company

– Register the Company with Companies House

– Get an Accountant

– Set up Company Bank Accounts

– Develop a Business Plan and Cash Flow Forecasts

The Property - Acquire

– Acquire the Property

– Acquire planning permissions

– Insure the property for purpose

The Property - Renovations

– Start Physical Renovations

– Hire an RI

– Hire an RM

– Complete DBS Checks

– Complete all SC1 and SC2

– Complete all Fit Person Questionnaires

– Make all registration payments.

Paperwork - RM to complete:

– Statement of Purpose

– Policies and Procedures

– Children’s Guide

– Location Assessment

– Finish Renovations

– Hire Staff

– Train Staff

– Receive your Certificate of Registration

GUIDE TO PLANNING PERMISSION FOR CHILDREN’S HOMES

The town and country planning (use classes) (amendment) order 2005 (amended further in 2010) distinguishes a range of uses of buildings and specifically permits changes of use from one use to another within individual classes. where activity results in a material change of use of a building to a use falling within a different use class then planning permission will be required to authorise that change of use. depending on the circumstances of each case, a children’s home will fall into either a c2 or c3 use classification., classification.

Use Class C2 (Residential Institutions) of the above Order reads as follows:

• Use for the provision of residential accommodation and care to people in need of care (other than a use within class C3 (dwelling houses).
• Use as a hospital or nursing home.
• Use as a residential school, college or training centre.
• a single person or by people to be regarded as forming a single household;
• not more than six residents living together as a single household where care is provided for residents;
• or not more than six residents living together as a single household where no care is provided to residents (other than a use within Class C4).

A material change of use from class C3 to C2 amounts to development requiring planning permission. There is therefore a potential requirement for planning permission to use a dwelling house as a children’s home.

The starting point is to first establish as a matter of fact and degree, whether such a use would constitute a change of use from C3 to C2.

The issue largely centres on whether or not the children are in themselves capable of living together as a single household.

Class C3 (b) of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order as amended refers to “use as a dwelling house by not more than six residents living together as a single household, (including a household where care is provided for residents).” If a children’s home was being run on this basis, with children being looked after by a permanent occupant of the dwelling, there would be no requirement for planning permission.

However, the matter is less clear when the care is based on shift patterns. In the North Devon District Council [2003] case Justice Collins made the point that children “need to be looked after. They cannot run a house. They cannot be expected to deal with all the matters that go to running a home … children are regarded as needing fulltime care from an adult, someone to look after them, someone to run their lives for them and someone to make sure that the household operates as it should.” The North Devon judgement confirms that it is unrealistic to expect children to look after themselves in a single household. It also clarified that carers who provided 24 hour care but were not resident could not be regarded as living together in a household.

The concept of living together as a household means that a proper functioning household must exist and children and carer must reside in the premises. In such circumstances, the use cannot therefore be considered to fall within Class C3 (b). A children’s home run on shift patterns could not be considered to fall within Class C3 (a), because clearly, this is not occupation of a dwelling house by a single person or people living together as a family.

Children’s homes based on shift patterns would not be considered to fall into these criteria either. Following an assessment of case law and an Inspector’s decision of 2010 at Stockport, use of premises as a children’s home will generally be held to fall within Class C2 of the Order (Residential institutions).

Planning Permission

If planning permission is required, what are the issues?

• The key issues relate to the impact on the amenity of nearby occupiers. Relevant factors will include the movements to and from the premises associated with such a use, including shift patterns, the need for visitors on a regular basis (including the emergency services).
• The internal fitting out of the premises with fire alarms, lockable doors etc would also be factors suggesting that a material change of use may have taken place.
• If the premises in question provides for sufficient parking, outdoor space and the amenity effects on neighbouring dwellings are capable of being mitigated, it is the case that these developments would normally be appropriate uses, in planning terms, in residential areas.
• Similarly, if the surrounding area is not mainly characterised by single family dwellings, it may well be the case that such a use could continue with little quantifiable impact subject to there being no increased concerns in other areas such as to highway safety. Conclusions The issue of whether or not a material change of use has occurred will ultimately be a matter of fact and degree in each individual case.

The key issues are however the numbers of residents involved, whether or not staff work shift patterns or have a permanent residence at the site and the materiality in planning terms of any change of use. The starting point will be to consider:

• The number of residents involved and how the operation is to be conducted, for example whether or not staff are employed and if shift patterns are in operation or whether staff are permanently resident. If the number of residents is not more than six and the staff live in full time then this is consistent with a C3 use.
• By contrast, where the staff working shift patterns and are not full-time residents this is consistent with C2 use.

Ultimately it will remain a matter of planning judgement but this should be the start of a sequence of considerations to help establish whether or not a change in the character of a dwelling-house has occurred, for example, through increased coming and goings and disturbance.

Check list for registering a children’s home

Check List:

• Application form SC1 (Provider completes).
• The documents listed in the appendix  for each relevant individual connected to your application.
• Statement of purpose.
• Location risk assessment.
• Children’s guide.
• Application fee.
• Copy of a certificate of insurance or written confirmation that insurance will be provided, for example a letter of intention and a quote for the provision of insurance.
• Copy of planning permission granted, a certificate of lawfulness, a copy of a planning application or evidence that planning permission is not required.
• Financial Bank reference.
• Business plan.
• Cash-flow forecast.
• Last two annual reports, including, where applicable, reports for the holding company and subsidiaries for that holding company.
• Last two annual accounts or Bank reference.
• Missing child policy.
• Accident and missing resident procedure.
• Safeguarding policy.
• Behaviour management policy (including restraint).
• Prevention of bullying policy.
• Complaint’s procedure.
• Equalities policy.

Fitness of Property (once you have obtained planning/exemption from planning):

• Property must meet ‘fire regulations’ – get a fire risk assessment completed.
• Health and safety Risk assessment.
• Legionellae’s assessment and certificate.
• PAT testing on electrical items.
• Gas safe certificate.
• Electrical certificate.
• Asbestos survey to be undertaken.
• Proof of lease (3 to 5 minimum) / If you own the property proof to show that it can operate as Childrens’ home from the lender.
• Fire alarm to be fitted and signed off.
• You may want to consider fitting door alarms to children’s bedrooms.
• The property must be fully furnished.
• Declaration and consent form (SC2).
• Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service certificate.
• Health declaration booklet.
• Fit person questionnaire (this is not required as part of your initial application, your inspector will request this).

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes a good property for a children’s home?

This is dependent on the size of the children’s home you want to open. As a new provider, we would recommend no more than a ‘three to four bedded children’s home’. This would mean you will need a minimum of 4 to 5 bed property.  Ideally with a kitchen/diner or separate dining room, a good size lounge and another room for staff office.  Having two bathrooms is also advantageous. Property needs a good-sized garden to the rear and ample parking for staff or visitor vehicles (parking should not be on the road).

Where should I locate my children’s home?

One of the key factors to consider when locating your property/children’s home is STAFFING. The ability to recruit an experienced and qualified registered manager and staff team is vital to your future success. Further considerations, need to be:

• The type of young person you want to care for (EBD, LD, Complex Health needs etc.)
• Whether it’s a city or rural location you initially want
• Property prices; whether you are buying or leasing
• Level of competition – other children’s homes
• Where your placements will come from.

Do I need planning permission even if I only want a 3-bed provision?

The simple answer is YES .

Ofsted ask for proof of planning consent, or evidence showing you do not need it, this normally a letter from the planning officer.

What is the minimum period of the lease required?

You should look at a minimum of 5 to 10 years (with appropriate break clauses). Ofsted would have concerns for shorter leases. Don’t forget you are building a stable long-term future for the children and young people, some of whom may be with you for a number of years. Please get legal advice on all lease arrangements. Generally, leases tend to be full maintaining leases.

Can I register more than one home under the same manager?

There is a new ruling which came out in 2021; that allows you to register up to 6 beds in more than one property at the same time under one manager. The properties must be registered together or specific request to Ofsted can be made if registration is separate. The risk of course is, if one property gets declined registration, they all will. Secondly, finding a manager to undertake multiple registration will be extremely difficult, given the national shortage of residential managers.

What happens if I own the property?

If you own the property, and want to set it up to be Childrens home:

• If there is no mortgage, it straight forwards lease agreement with the children’s home company, so you will act as the landlord and the children’s home company will be the tenant.
• If there is a mortgage, Ofsted will want to see the mortgage terms and conditions, which need to stipulate that you have consent to let from the lender to ‘company’ namely, the children’s home. A word of caution; buy to let mortgages, HMO mortgages and residential mortgages, will NOT allow you to let to a company. Consent must be sought from the lender beforehand.

What are the stages of Ofsted Application and Registration process?

Four stages for registration, takes up to 16 weeks:

Stage 1 – Ofsted SC1 (Provider) and SC2 (Manager and Responsible Individual) application submissions

Stage 2: – Verification process;

• Provider – Application, ID’s, address check, DBS, employment references, local authority checks, health declaration, credit check and financial viability checks.
• Manager and RI; Application, ID’s, address check, DBS, employment references, local authority checks, health declaration, and credit check.

Stage 3 – Property inspection and Interview of Manager and RI.

Stage 4 – Decision time (within 28 days).

What staffing structure will I need for opening my home?

This will be dependent on the Registered Manager and RI you employ. They will bring their current rota systems and shift patterns with them to deploy in your home.  Secondly, it will be dependent on the nature of young person you will be looking after and the availability of sleeping in rooms for staff within the property. As a provider, discuss different shift patterns / rota’s, make sure you can afford it in salaries; work out the cost/benefit implications beforehand.

What are the typical rates of pay for Responsible Individual, Registered Manager and Residential Support Workers?

In recent times, management costs have become very expensive:

• Responsible Individual – if on a day rate (part time consultancy basis) around £350 to £600 per day. If employed £45k to £60k.
• Registered Manager – depending on where you are in the country and on the size of the provision – £45k to £55k.
• RSW – if qualified and experienced £24k pa; unqualified £20k. Again, this depends on location and size of home.

Where do I advertise for my job vacancy?

• https://kaynrecruitment.com/
• https://www.care-2-recruit.co.uk/
• https://www.hamptonsresourcing.com/
• https://www.compass-group.co.uk/jobs/
• https://www.charecruitment.com/
• https://degreesix.co.uk/

You talk about needing £100k to setup a children’s home; is this right?

The £100k can be broken into the following areas (assuming you have a property with planning permission):

• Up to £20k – to undertake health and safety and fire safety work; including fire doors / frames, fire alarm, smoke alarm etc.
• Up to £20k – to furnish the property
• Up to £30k – for salaries (for manager and RI) / professional fees including Ofsted fee / training during the registration process
• Up to £10k – for systems / IT equipment / contracts
• Up to £20k – contingency monies (insurances, vehicle, unforeseen expenses).

Don’t forget you will also need up to £35k to cover your first month’s expenses/salaries, once you get registration; since local authorities pay 30 days in arrears.

I hear people are making ridiculous amounts of money from children’s homes, is this right?

As with any business, it is a lot of hard work and commitment. There is no such thing as easy money in any business and this certainly true in children’s residential care. The fee for placement set by your business is going to depend on the nature of young person you place in the home and the skill set of your manager and staff team. THIS IS NOT A QUICK RICH BUSINESS. If money is the sole motivation for opening this business, please do not come into it. We are dealing with young people’s lives, who through no fault of their own, end up in care. If you want to make a real difference, this may be for you. It is a long-term commitment and not for the faint hearted.

Do I need a background in care or social work to open a children’s home?

We work with people from all walks of life, including Lawyers, Doctors, Pharmacist, Property Developers, Retailers and Investors. The one thing they all have in common, is the commitment to make a real difference to the lives of young people.

What training do I need to book for staff before I open?

All mandatory training must be in place for staff before your doors open to take placements. And for that matter, you must have recruited a staff team for at least one child to be placed in the home; who must be trained and inducted prior to Ofsted coming out to inspect your home. Some training courses have to be done face to face including safeguarding, restraint, fire safety, ligature etc.  other training can be done online. You do not need to worry about this, this is something your manager and RI will sort out.

If I am recruiting experienced care staff; what qualifications do they need to have?

• Manager – Level 5 in Leadership and Management
• Care Staff – NVQ / QFC level 3 or 4 Diploma Children and Young People Work Force

Be careful to check the qualifications of those who say they have the equivalent qualification; make sure you check this with reputable training provider. Your staff files will be checked in detail by Ofsted.

What documents will Ofsted ask for when they are ready to inspect the property and undertake interviews?

• Children’s guide
• Copy of lease / Property title deeds
• C2 Planning permission
• All health and safety and fire documentation
• Insurance certificate
• Staff recruitment files
• Financial forecast
• Business plan
• Legionella’s report
• Asbestos survey / report
• Bank reference
• Mandatory Policies

What is the situation of having CCTV on the premises?

External it is permissible – however, your policy for CCTV must be robust.

What IT equipment will I need in the home?

You will need PC’s/laptops for staff (up to 4) and PCr/laptop for young people (to undertake educational work on). Use an IT company, they will also network the system for you, source appropriate equipment and make sure all safety protection elements are setup. As well getting you the right licenses for the software i.e. Microsoft.

What insurance requirement will I need and when should the insurance start?

You will need specialist insurance for running a children’s home. There are a number of companies and brokers out there; we work with at least 3. All our clients will be provided with a list to get a quote.

Do I need to allocate a room for education in the home?

Ideally Yes.

If you are looking at the whole of the market for your referrals and placements. Not all your children will come from the host local authority your home is based in but further afield. Generally, it will take a few weeks for them to get an education place. During this period some form of education must be provided to the young person; up to 16 hours per week. We generally talk about a 12-week period; where a tutor will come to the home to provide some level of educational input and this is funded by the local authority virtual school. Young People also like to use it to support their personal studies or getting help from staff members around education.

I’m a qualified social worker – can I be the manager or responsible individual of my home?

• For a Registered Manager, it is a must they have a Level 5 qualification in leadership and management or be working towards it; and at least 2 years’ experience working within a children’s home or equivalent, and at least one of these 2 years in a supervisory or management role.
• For a Responsible Individual – experience and knowledge of the children’s home operation and sector, an understanding of the regulations and standards. The RI will have oversight of the home and supervise the manager; therefore, they must have knowledge and understanding of processes and procedures involved in running a children’s home.

Individuals that lack experience and knowledge, will not make it through the Ofsted interview process.

Are there children home management software’s we can buy?

Yes, there are number of these on the market. They will charge a one-off fee for each home and an on-going monthly fee. Why use them? Simple, because everything is recorded online, you will have access to it and can make sure things are being done. It also reduces your business risk, should you need to get part with a member of staff or manager; and therefore, you are not tied to their paper systems.

• https://www.clearcaresolutions.co.uk/
• https://sue.solutions/
• https://mentorsoftware.co.uk/

Where do we go for our HR and Health Safety support?

You will need HR / employment support, including, employment contracts, staff policy dveleopmenet / handbook and on-going support for HR issues. A number of companies specialize in the children’s home sector, it may be worth talking to them. They tend to charge a monthly fee.

• https://www.peninsulagrouplimited.com/
• https://www.brighthr.com/
• https://www.mentorink.com/
• https://croner.co.uk/

T: +44 (0)753 989 3138 | E: [email protected]

Kayn Consultants Limited, Athena House, Wellington Road, Telford TF2 8AJ. Registered in England No: 10160699. © Copyright 2022, Kayn Consultants Limited.

Children’s Home Business Plan and Financial Forecast Templates

£ 82.99

Introducing our Children’s Home Business Plan and Financial Forecast Templates, explicitly designed for providers seeking registration with Ofsted. These meticulously crafted resources provide everything you need to develop a robust Business Plan and accurate Financial Forecast, ensuring compliance with Ofsted requirements and increasing your chances of successful registration.

Our Children’s Home Business Plan Template offers a structured framework that guides you through showcasing your vision, mission, and operational strategies. This template covers all essential components required by Ofsted, from background information to marketing plans and operating procedures. It includes example text, providing a valuable reference and inspiration to effectively communicate your organisation’s unique strengths and service offerings. Customise the template easily and create an effective business plan that stands out.

The Financial Forecast is a completed Excel format with an example of 12 months of financial planning ready to adapt to your figures, income and outgoings.

Instant download on purchase.

Description

Our Children’s Home Business Plan Template offers a structured framework that guides you through showcasing your vision, mission, and operational strategies. This template covers all essential components required by Ofsted registration, from background information to marketing plans and operational procedures. It includes example text, providing a valuable reference and inspiration to effectively communicate your organisation’s unique strengths and service offerings. Customise the template easily and create an effective business plan that stands out.

In addition to the business plan, our Financial Forecast Template enables you to accurately project income, expenses, and cash flow for your Children’s Home. This template ensures you can demonstrate the financial sustainability of your organisation.

Presenting a professionally designed Business Plan and accurate Financial Forecast enhances your chances of successful registration with Ofsted. Save time and effort with our meticulously crafted templates designed to meet Ofsted’s expectations. Customise the content to reflect your organisation’s details, and utilise the example text to convey your strengths effectively. Invest in our Children’s Home Business Plan and Financial Forecast Templates today and confidently embark on becoming a Children’s Home Provider.

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Child Day Care Services Business Plan

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Kid's Community College

Executive summary executive summary is a brief introduction to your business plan. it describes your business, the problem that it solves, your target market, and financial highlights.">.

Kid’s Community College® aims to prepare its students to excel as young leaders of tomorrow by combining an exclusive collegiate-based curriculum tailored specifically for children with enhanced, first class child care services. Unlike our competitors, we offer advanced technology programs, after-school tutoring, and activities such as arts and crafts, dance, theatre and gymnastics, all in one location.

Kid’s Community College is a privately held corporation run by its owner, Timothy Bernard Kilpatrick, Sr. Mr. Kilpatrick has 17 years of Executive Management (VP) and Budgeting experience, and extensive experience with budgeting methodologies and strategic planning, including the Balanced Scorecard approach. His advanced degree (and interest) in computer science is the driving force behind our technology component. He will be supported in daily operations by an industry consultant, a campus director, and a VP of educational operations, all with extensive experience in child care fields.

With inflation continuing to rise each year, the typical American family now requires dual or supplemental incomes. This trend has created a need for quality child care services. The population growth rate in the Riverview area of Hillsborough County is now over 14.6%, leading us to anticipate expanding market potential for this industry in our local area. Price, service, certification and reputation are critical success factors in the child care services industry. Kid’s Community College® will compete well in our market by offering competitive prices, high-quality child care services, and leading-edge educational programs with certified, college-educated instructors, and by maintaining an excellent reputation with parents and the community we serve.

This is a daycare business plan for Kid’s Community College®, which will focus on two subdivisions: ‘Lake St. Charles’ and ‘The Villages of Lake St. Charles,’ which are new upscale community developments within a 2 square mile radius, boasting over 900 new homes. Our target customers are dual-income, middle-class families who value the quality of education and child care we provide for their children, ages 4 months to 12 years.

We will open for business starting with an initial enrollment of 13 students. We project healthy revenues by the end of the first year, and expect to nearly triple that by the end of Year 3. Our biggest operating expenses will be compensation at industry standard rates for our highly-qualified personnel, and rent on our facilities, improved for our purposes during the start-up period. We would like to grow into four campuses, eventually, but growth is planned conservatively, to be financed from existing cash flow as we go. We anticipate a net profit beginning in our second year.

To these ends, we are putting significant investment in the business, and are seeking a matching amount in the form of an SBA loan.

“Some of the best years in life are the time spent as a child and later our collegiate years…” As working adults in a fast paced society, we sometimes forget just how precious and  fleeting those years are.

With that in mind, imagine an alternative to traditional infant, day and after school care that not only met your child care needs, but also provided an activity based learning environment that mirrors those used at colleges, universities and vocational centers around the nation.  A college community of professional care givers with the credentials to not only enhance your child’s early social and motor skills, but to also teach them advanced studies in the arts and sciences found at institutions of higher learning.  A collegiate-based curriculum tailored specifically for children, taught in a fun, nurturing care giving environment.

Now imagine this at a cost less than that of the combination of conventional day care and specific interest based children programs.

Kid’s Community College® is a start-up comprehensive community college exclusively for kids ages 4 months to 5 years and 1st through 5th grades.  The College dedicates its efforts and resources toward ensuring top-rated care giving services coupled with a high-quality activity based learning environment tailored for children in these age groups.  The College will respond to the needs of its parents and students with excellent care-giving and instruction, an advanced curriculum, flexible programs, local community involvement and business partnerships.

The College has a strong commitment to accessibility and diversity.  Its open door policy embraces all who desire to provide a better quality of care, preparedness and education for their children.  The College works to provide affordable, first-class care giving and education by providing a broad range of integrated programs and services and innovative learning approaches.

The College is committed to taking a leadership role in child care services, higher learning, community services and promoting cultural diversity.  Kid’s Community College® directs its activities towards student success.

• Sales increasing to almost double first year sales by the end of Year 2.
• Maintain a high raw gross margin by the end of Year 1.
• Open second campus by the end of Year 1.
• Begin franchise effort by end of Year 3.

Keys to Success

The keys to success for KCC are:

• Marketing: differentiating KCC’s care giving and educational services from traditional daycare offerings and interest activity programs.
• Service quality: care giving and educational programs provided by degreed and certified educators, child care workers, tutors and subject matter industry professionals in a technologically advanced first-class collegiate environment.
• Reputation: maintaining a highly regarded reputation for excellence in care giving, education and community involvement and being the employer of choice in our market for child care and educational talent.
• Profitability: controlling costs and managing budgets in accordance with company goals, adhering to strategic business plans for growth and expansion and reinvesting in the business and its employees.

Company Summary company overview ) is an overview of the most important points about your company—your history, management team, location, mission statement and legal structure.">

Kid’s Community College® – Lake St. Charles Campus will be located in Riverview, FL.  The College will employ six fundamentals that will serve as the driving force for the services offered:

• Premier Care Giving Services
• An Activity Based, Children Structured Collegiate Curriculum
• Advanced Technology and Developmental Programs
• Trademarked General and “Continuing” Education Mentoring and Tutoring 
• Learning Services
• Community Advancement and Involvement

The Lake St. Charles campus is a newly constructed, 3,600 square foot facility in the Lake St. Charles Medical Plaza and will be developed meeting strict KCC design standards, under close supervision of Hillsborough County child care Licensing.

Start-up Summary

The college founder and president, Mr. Kilpatrick, will oversee fiscal responsibility, employing an independent CPA for financial oversight.  A Campus Director will be hired to handle day-to-day operations of the facility and will work collaboratively with the silent partners and other campus personnel to ensure a successful business venture.

As reflected in the table below, the estimated start-up costs for KCC will be $39,450.  These costs will be financed solely by the owners’ personal cash funds and optional credit lines.  An anticipated $60,000 SBA guaranteed 5-year loan will be used as working capital.  Future expansion, growth and franchising strategy will be self-financed.

Company Locations and Facilities

Kid’s Community College® will begin with one location – a newly constructed 3,600 square foot campus in Riverview, FL located near the entrance of the upscale Lake St. Charles subdivision.  The campus is in the Lake St. Charles Medical Professional center and will boast separate halls for arts and crafts, theatre and dance, information technology, library and quiet study, tutoring, infant care and a cafeteria.  The play area will be adjacent to the campus and will be securely fenced and furnished with appropriate playground equipment and facilities. 

Three additional campuses are planned in the rural Tampa marketplace over the next four years.  Franchise start-ups will be offered in the Orlando, Miami and Jacksonville marketplace after 2 years of successful operation.

Company Ownership

Kid’s Community College® is a privately-held proprietorship owned in majority by its founder and president, Timothy Bernard Kilpatrick, Sr.  There are also two silent partners, neither of whom owns more than 10%, but will be active participants in daily operations, management decisions and consulting, though they do not own a financial stake in the company.

Once the operation reaches its anticipated growth and profitability goals, the college plans to franchise and will re-register as a limited liability company or as a corporation, whichever will better suit the future business needs. 

Kid’s Community College® offers upscale child care services and an advanced collegiate based curriculum designed for kids ages 4 months to 5 years and 1st through 5th grades.  Normal operating hours will be 6:45am to 6:30pm, Monday through Friday – with observance of all major legal holidays.  Early drop-off service will be offered as needed. 

KCC exists to provide Premier child care services that are aimed at enhancing traditional day care methodologies and integrating extracurricular interests (such as arts and crafts, dance, theatre and gymnastics) into one comprehensive program.  Our activity based collegiate curriculum is specifically tailored for children and mirrors the arts and sciences taught at colleges, universities and vocational schools around the nation.  We offer state-of-the-art technology programs in leading-edge facilities which help prepare students for the technology age in which they live.  Our general and “continuing” education programs help mentor and tutor students through “main school” homework assignments and provide a base of understanding and interaction to ensure success in future educational endeavors.  Finally, our developmental programs reinforce basic social, listening, independence and motor skills and prepare students for future related interaction.

All of our learning and child care services employ technology, partnerships, professional services and other activities that support and promote higher learning.

In addition to the extensive services and curriculum offered, each campus will also offer weekend specialty classes for children and adults and planned family activities in the community it serves.  KCC will also offer children birthday party hosting services, providing great activities for kids and an easy experience for parents.  Activity instructors will be assigned for these events and will lead the activities, ensuring a memorable celebration. 

Service Description

Upon its opening, Kid’s Community College® will offer four basic services in the Lake St. Charles community:

• Full-time Child Day Care
• Part-time/After School Care (including drop-off and pick-up)
• After School Tutoring
• Drop-In Care

Prior to opening, the college will have a two-month enrollment drive.  Based on the market reaction to the drive, these services may be altered to meet the needs of the community.  The college will always remain nimble enough to respond to the needs of the community in which it serves.

Competitive Comparison

The child care industry as a whole is saturated.  However, based on US Census 2000 data, Hillsborough County Child Care Services provider listings and Hillsborough County building permit records, the city of Riverview, Florida itself is growing and has few licensed child care facilities.  Kid’s Community College® intends to fill this local market need.

The Lake St. Charles and ‘The Villages of Lake St. Charles’ subdivisions have 800 and 100 single family homes respectively. There are only two other child care facilities in the neighborhood. One is in the immediate area, a church based facility and the other is 2 miles away, a facility hosted by a local martial arts academy.  There are also three family child caregivers listed in the area, but none in the immediate community.  Kid’s Community College® will differentiate itself from its local competitors by offering an alternative to these traditional day care approaches. 

The Kid’s Community College® market strategy is based on providing an activity based learning environment that is used in many major colleges, universities and vocational centers around the nation. We will offer a community of professional caregivers with the credentials to not only enhance a child’s early social and motor skills, but to also teach them advanced studies in the arts and sciences found at institutions of higher learning.

Kid’s Community College® will be located in a new medical arts plaza, which has already shown a need and interest for child care services. The center currently has a pediatrics office and fitness center with clientele that has inquired about child care services. By forming collaborative partnerships with these businesses and becoming an active voice in the Lake St. Charles community, the college will position itself as the market share leader in child care services, development and educational offerings.

Sales Literature

A copy of the Kid’s Community College® informational brochure is attached in an appendix at the end of this document.

Fulfillment

The key fulfillment and delivery of services will be provided by the campus director, licensed campus instructors and staff workers. The real core value is the professional strength and industry expertise of the founder and silent partners, staff experience and certifications, education and hard work (in that order).

We will turn to qualified professionals for freelance back-up in tutoring and educational support, which will enhance the core values provided to the clients.

Since the company founder has an extensive Information Technology background, it’s only natural that Kid’s Community College® will employ and maintain the latest technology to enhance its curriculum, office management systems, payment processing and record keeping.

Future Services

Three additional campuses are planned in the rural Tampa marketplace over the next four years. Franchise start-ups will be offered in the Orlando, Miami and Jacksonville marketplace after 2 years of successful operation.

Market Analysis Summary how to do a market analysis for your business plan.">

Kid’s Community College® offers services which are vitally important in today’s fast paced, dual-income world. As an increasing number of families have become dependent on two incomes, the need for quality child care has skyrocketed. According to Florida Business Statistics, 84.6% of licensed child care facilities succeed and make a profit in their 1st year of operation.  Nationally, this number is 66.7%. 

There is no doubt, in the Riverview, FL area, that there is room and a need for Kid’s Community College®.  Market demographics to support this statement can be found below.

Market Segmentation

Kid’s Community College® has a focus on meeting the local community need for child care services within the 10-mile radius of Riverview.  Students will be taken in flexibly on either a full-time or part-time basis.

Full-Time Working Couples

The college will establish a significantly large, full-time, regular client base in order to establish the healthy, consistent revenue base which will ensure stability of the business.  Customer and community relations are extremely important, as it is imperative to keep the parents pleased in order to keep their children in the college.

After School Care

Another large segment of the college’s business will be in the after school care market.  This client base will provide a higher profit for the college since instructor-to-student ratios are higher, and the students require more educational services, which are the primary focus of the college.  By offering tutoring, and advanced studies in technology, theatre, arts and sciences, the college will attract these profitable business clients, producing significant supplemental revenues.

Part-Time Workers/Drop-Ins

Part-time workers and Drop-Ins from the fitness center and locals businesses will comprise less than 1% of the revenues.  While this market is not a primary focus, sufficient flexibility to handle this market is important to the local ‘word-of-mouth’  marketing strategy.

Target Market Segment Strategy

The target market for Kid’s Community College® is full-time working couples. Referral marketing, direct-mail campaigns and community activity days will be the primary types of marketing strategies utilized. Maintaining and enhancing its reputation with families and in the community will be crucial in obtaining the planned market share growth of this target market.

Market Growth

According to US Census 2000 data, the population growth rate for Hillsborough county is approximately 2%, which is reflected in the market analysis summary. However, the Riverview area of Hillsborough County is experiencing a residential construction boom, yielding well over a 14.6% growth. This is supported by data obtained from the Hillsborough County Building Permits office and is included in the appendix of this plan. This suggests that more families continue to move into the Riverview area, thus becoming potential customers.

In our market analysis, we suggest a modest 6% yearly growth in the number of potential customers.

Market Needs

With inflation continuing to rise each year, the typical American family now requires dual or supplemental incomes. This trend has created a need for quality child care services. We do not see this model changing in the foreseeable future. In fact, based on the growth in the Riverview area, specifically the new Lake St. Charles and Village of Lake St. Charles communities, we expect the need to increase.

Market Trends

Currently there are more family caregivers than licensed child care facilities nationwide. However, this business model can’t keep up with the needs of the growing child care industry. In the family care giver paradigm, space is limited and quality of care is questionable – in many cases viewed as only slightly higher quality than babysitter services.

Service Business Analysis

Kid’s Community College® is in the child care services industry, which includes several models:

• Licensed Child Care Facilities: Business facilities that offer child daycare services.
• Family Child Care Homes: Individuals that offer child daycare services in their homes.
• Specific Interest Based Programs: Businesses that offer specialized instruction such as gymnastics, martial arts and athletics.
• Church Child Care Facilities: Religious organizations that offer child daycare services in their communities.

Competition and Buying Patterns

Price, service, certification and reputation are critical success factors in the child care services industry. Kid’s Community College® will compete well in our market by offering competitive prices, high-quality child care services, and leading-edge educational programs with certified, college-educated instructors, and by maintaining an excellent reputation with parents and the community in which we serve.

Main Competitors

• Weaknesses: May not appeal to customers of different religious beliefs. Unlicensed facility.  Non-accredited. 
• Weaknesses: Location – outside of middle-income market. Non-educational offering.  Building condition – prone to constant flooding. 
• Family Child Care Homes:
• Weaknesses: Capacity – only allowed a certain number of children. Non-professional stigma. 

Business Participants

• Specific Interest Based Programs: Martial Arts America
• Church Child Care Facilities: Christian Day Academy (not licensed).

Strategy and Implementation Summary

Kid’s Community College® will focus on two subdivisions: ‘Lake St. Charles’ and ‘The Villages of Lake St. Charles,’ which are new upscale community developments within a 2 square mile radius and boast over 900 new homes. 

The target customers are dual income, middle-class families who value the quality of education and child care provided for their children ages 4 months to 12 years.

Value Proposition

Kid’s Community College’s® value proposition is quite clear and quite easily distinguished from others in the market. We offer uniquely premium child care services, as measured by the curriculum and activities offered, experience and educational level of the instructors, community involvement and community college theme. 

Competitive Edge

We start with a critical competitive edge: there is no competitor in our market that is offering our concept, quality of educational program and child care services. Our educational approach is unique and we have a resource with over 25 years of child care expertise and over 17 years of technology savvy. Our positioning on these points is very hard to match, but only if we maintain the focus in our strategy, marketing, business development, and fulfillment. We should be aware that the tendency to dilute this expertise with bargain shopping could weaken the importance of our competitive edge, but we must continue to bolster our value proposition.

Marketing Strategy

Marketing in the child care industry depends largely on reputation and referral. At Kid’s Community College® that reputation will start within our community bolstered by our involved commitment to those we serve. 

Promotion Strategy

We will depend on client referrals, community exposure and direct mail campaigns as our main way to reach new clients.  As we change strategies, however, we need to change the way we promote ourselves:

1.  Advertising –We’ll be developing our core positioning message: “A community college for kids!” to differentiate our service from the competition.  We will be using direct mail campaigns, pre-enrollment drives, and local community newspaper advertising to launch the initial campaign. 

2.  Sales Brochure –Our theme and curriculum will help sell the college to prospective clients. 

3.  Direct Mail –We will send quarterly direct mail campaigns to the housing developments in a 10-mile radius of the campus.  We will also offer monthly calendars for parents and the Lake St. Charles community, noting weekend family days and other open house approaches. 

4.  Community Involvement –We will be active in the Lake St. Charles community, sponsoring events at the community center for families and residents.

Marketing Programs

Catered open houses, parent survival days/nights, clubhouse pool parties and weekend movie matinees are but a few approaches we will utilize to reach out to our community.  We will also develop and maintain partnerships with local businesses that cater to the needs of children. 

Our pre-opening effort will include an application fee waiver, free children ID cards, T-shirts and a community block party sponsored and hosted by Kid’s Community College®.

Positioning Statement

For families who value the importance of higher education and quality child care services, Kid’s Community College® offers a great alternative to traditional child care services and specific interest based programs. Unlike those programs, KCC combines child care services with a modified collegiate level curriculum, just for kids!

Pricing Strategy

Kid’s Community College® must charge appropriately for the high-end, high-quality educational and care giving services we offer. Our revenue structure has to support our cost structure, so the salaries we pay to assure quality services must be balanced by the revenue we charge. 

We will be price competitive in the market we serve; however, we will not subscribe to the “low price leader” concept. The quality of our service will support the prices we charge.

Sales Strategy

Kid’s Community College® will sell its community college theme, services and offerings, separating itself from traditional daycare-only offerings.

We will be a one-stop shop for child care services, advanced learning and specialized program offerings.  We will also be active in the community, building a solid reputation with parents and the community.  By succeeding in these areas, we expect to begin seeing an operational net profit in month nine of the 1st year, while increasing enrollment by 32% monthly for the first 8 months and gradually thereafter, until our maximum allowed capacity is reached.

Sales Forecast

The following table and chart give a run-down on forecasted sales.  A detailed spreadsheet is also included in the appendix of this business plan. 

For the first eight months of operation, Kid’s Community College® has assumed a conservative enrollment due to the fact that school, aftercare and child care placement has already taken place for the school year and most parents will be comfortable with their current arrangements.  Consequently, we expect initial enrollment to be far less than anticipated future year levels. 

A sales increase of approximately 32% each month is expected until the start of the next school term, in August.  While this forecasted  increase seems large by industry standards, it is a good estimate based on initial enrollment.  Going into years 2 and 3, we expect that our presence will be known, convenience factor considered and we will then be a considered as a choice in August 2003.  In fiscal years 2004 and 2005, 80% and 90% of full enrollment is assumed respectively.

We expect to be open for business on January 1, 2003, starting with an initial enrollment of 13 students:

7 Full-time students at $115 each per week.  6 After-school students at $60 each per week and Drop-in revenue of approximately $100 per month. 

Sales Programs

Sales programs will include incentives for obtaining quarterly financial and enrollment goals, probationary period completion, passing county inspections and maintaining perfect attendance. 

Customer service awards will be provided for those employees who best exemplify the mission of Kid’s Community College® and exceed customers’ expectations. 

The accompanying table highlights important start-up milestones, with dates, completion status, responsible parties and budgets for each.  The milestone schedule indicates our emphasis on planning for implementation. 

What the table doesn’t show is the commitment behind it.  Our business plan includes complete provisions for plan-vs.-actual analysis, and we will hold monthly follow-up meetings to discuss the variance and course corrections. 

Strategic Alliances

As mentioned previously, Kid’s Community College® will form professional alliances with Impact Fitness to offer Drop-In child care services while parents work out.  We will also partner with Family Pediatrics to provide referrals of their existing customers.  A discounted rate will be offered in both cases.

Web Plan Summary

The Kid’s Community College® website will be the virtual business card and portfolio for the college, as well as its online “home.”

It will showcase the campus, curriculum and activity calendar for the school.  It will also provide for an Internet background of the instructors, online projects posted by the students, the campus newsletter and online enrollment. 

The Kid’s Community College® website will be simple, yet classy and well designed, but at the same time, in keeping with the latest trends in user interface design.  A site that is too flashy, or tries to use too much of the latest technology can be over-done, and may not be supported by all browsers. 

The key to the website strategy will be presenting a very well designed and informative Web presence that will market the Kid’s Community College® image, service offerings and community commitment.

Website Marketing Strategy

The Kid’s Community College® website will embody the mission of the college.  It will not only offer visitors the opportunity to “look around” the campus, but it will give them a good idea of the level of quality and service they can come to expect from the college.

Mostly informative in nature, the website will be a digital representation of our physical self. 

Development Requirements

The Kid’s Community College® website will be developed by the college founder, Timothy B. Kilpatrick, Sr., who has over 17 years of Information Technology experience.  Formation Technologies will host the site.

The site will be developed using Macromedia Dreamweaver 4, which will allow for support outside of Mr. Kilpatrick’s involvement.  The initial maintenance of the site will be done by Mr. Kilpatrick. 

Management Summary management summary will include information about who's on your team and why they're the right people for the job, as well as your future hiring plans.">

The opening management team of Kid’s Community College® will consist of the founder, a silent partner, a campus director and administrative assistant.

As the college grows, gradual investments in the instructional staff will be made over the next 3 years – beginning in June 2003 or as otherwise dictated by enrollment.

Organizational Structure

Kid’s Community College® depends on the founder, silent partner, Campus Director and VP of Education Operations for management in the following roles:

Management Team

Owner/President – Timothy B.  Kilpatrick, Sr.  The Owner/President will have overall fiscal responsibility, ensuring that the business is financially sound and attains its planned goals. 

• 17 years Executive Management (VP) and Budgeting experience
• Advanced degree in Computer Science
• Proven leadership and employee development ability
• Extensive experience with budgeting methodologies and strategic planning, including the Balanced Scorecard approach.

Industry Consultant – Carolyn Steverson.  The Industry Consultant will be relied upon for her industry expertise, providing valuable insight to rules, regulations and governmental programs that may benefit the college.

• 25 Year owner of Fat Albert Day Care Center
• Licensed child care facility owner
• Vast knowledge of Hillsborough County Child Care Licensing requirements and government supplemental programs

Campus Director – Candice Harris.  The Campus Director will be responsible for daily operations, curriculum oversight and management of all instructors, caregivers and tutors.

• B.S.  Degree in Education
• 2 years facilities administration/support experience with the University of South Florida
• 2+ years Regional Operations Manager
• 5+ years managerial/supervisory experience
• 3+ years grant writing, technical writing, workflow and process documentation experience

VP of Education Operations – Nitika Steverson-Kilpatrick

• Collegiate-level Public Relations education
• 5+ years customer service experience
• 8+ years child care industry experience (her mother owns Fat Albert Daycare)
• Extensive theatre and dance background

Management Team Gaps

The present team requires Child Care Development Associate credentials to support our value proposition and preparation for 2004 Florida child care requirements.  Currently, the Campus Director and Industry Consultant are the only members of the management team who have these credentials.

The Owner/President and VP of Education Operations will be enrolling in January 2003 to complete the six-month course required to obtain these credentials.  Education for these two can’t begin in this area until that time since it is a requirement that the college be open for business before the course work can begin.  Long-term, all full-time instructors will be required by the college (not the State) to obtain this credential.

Regarding financial administration, we will retain a strong CPA to help the owner guard cash flow.  While the owner is well versed in the worries of cash flow, he also has the sense to listen to reason and deal with constraints, as guided by the CPA.

Personnel Plan

The following table summarizes our personnel expenditures for the first three years, with compensation increasing from approximately $57K the first year to about $113K in the third.  We believe this plan is a fair compromise between fairness and expedience, and meets the commitment of our mission statement. 

The yearly figures in the second and third year are assumptions for the Lake St. Charles campus only.  The numbers reflect 100% enrollment, a full staff of instructors and a 5% payroll increase each year – which will include tuition reimbursement, pay increases, vacation pay, bonuses and state required certifications.

Financial Plan investor-ready personnel plan .">

• Adequate start-up capital is assumed, along with an SBA 5-year guaranteed loan.

Important Assumptions

The Kid’s Community College® financial plan depends on important assumptions, most of which are shown in the following table as annual assumptions.  The monthly assumptions are included in the appendices.  From the beginning, it is recognized that total enrollment is critical, which is a factor that must be influenced immediately.  Interest rates, tax rates, and personnel burden are based on conservative assumptions. 

The most important underlying assumption is that there is a strong need for the business in the Lake St. Charles community. 

Key Financial Indicators

The following benchmark chart indicates the key financial indicators for the first three years.  We foresee a gradual growth in sales (enrollment) and operating expenses into the second and third year.

It is projected that the raw gross margin will remain stable for the first three years since expenses are relatively indirect in the service based course work industry.  Operating expenses increase gradually as enrollment increases.

Enrollment is very important.  We must maintain an average weekly enrollment of 34 students for fixed cost coverage. 

Break-even Analysis

For the break-even analysis, start-up monthly running costs assumptions are shown in the the table below, including a three person payroll, rent, utilities and an estimation of other running costs.  Payroll, at median market averages, was presented previously in the Personnel table. 

Based on these assumptions, the chart below shows the enrollment of students per month needed to break-even.  This represents about 46% of our allowable monthly enrollment based on state and county course work guidelines.

Projected Profit and Loss

Our projected profit and loss is shown on the following table, with sales increasing from the first year to the third. 

In years two and three, we are projecting full enrollment regarding cost of sales and gross margin.  The investment return in these years supports the goal of opening another campus at the end of the second year and begin the franchise offering by the end of the third year.  Profit from the additional campuses and income from franchising are not included in this business plan. 

The detailed monthly projections are included in the appendices. 

Projected Cash Flow

The following cash flow projections show the annual amounts only, significant for the first year mainly in the amounts projected in cash sales and payables. 

Cash flow projections are critical to the success of Kid’s Community College®.  The monthly cash flow is shown in the illustration, with one bar representing the cash flow per month and the other the monthly cash balance.  The annual cash flow figures are included here and the more important detailed monthly numbers are included in the appendices. 

Projected Balance Sheet

The balance sheet in the following table shows managed but sufficient growth of net worth, and a gradually sufficient healthy financial position.  The monthly estimates are included in the appendices.

Business Ratios

The following table shows the projected businesses ratios for our industry: Child Day Care services, SIC code 8351. Kid’s Community College® expects to maintain healthy ratios for profitability, risk, and return.

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A Sample Foster Care Group Home Business Plan Template

A group home is a community-based, long-term facility for specific types of residents (juveniles) who cannot live with their families due to behavioral issues. It is important to state that some group homes treat the mentally ill and the disabled.

Available statistics show that there are now about 7,629 group homes (orphanages and foster homes inclusive) in the United States as of 2022, an increase of 1 percent from 2020. The data also shows that California has 754 group homes ( orphanages and foster homes inclusive), Florida has 296 group homes (orphanages and foster homes inclusive) and New York has 284 group homes (orphanages and foster homes inclusive). These are the States with the most number of group homes in the United States of America.

Steps on How to Write a Foster Group Home Business Plan

1. executive summary.

Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC will be based in Espanola, New Mexico. The organization will be committed to serving a small number of teens who will reside in a family-like setting with trained staff and effective programs.

We will house between 4 to 12 children per time in a family setting where they can make full use of community resources, including employment, health care, education, and recreational opportunities. Daniel Young is the founder and CEO of Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC.

Company Profile

A. our services.

Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC will provide a wide range of services that revolves around providing therapy, 24-hour supervision, and support to troubled teens in a home-like setting. We will also provide psychiatric services to emotionally disturbed children.

b. Nature of the Business

Our Group Home facility will operate as a nonprofit organization. We will source finance from donor organizations, private individuals, and relevant government agencies.

c. The Industry

Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC will operate under the orphanages and group homes industry.

d. Mission Statement

Our mission is to provide safe and secured group home facilities to meet the needs of children subjected to abuse and of course to also cater to children with emotional, intellectual, physical, medical, and/or behavioral issues

e. Vision Statement

Our vision of to become the number one group home facility in the whole of New Mexico.

f. Our Tagline (Slogan)

Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC – The Family That Cares!

g. Legal Structure of the Business (LLC, C Corp, S Corp, LLP)

Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC will be formed as a nonprofit corporation at the state level and we will apply for 501(c)(3) tax exemption at the federal level.

h. Our Organizational Structure

• Head of Group Home (President)
• House Manager (Administrator)
• Nurse’s Aides
• Teachers, Caregivers/Rehab Counselors
• Account Officer
• Front Desk Officer
• Security Guards

i. Ownership/Shareholder Structure and Board Members

• Daniel Young (Owner and Chairman/Chief Executive Officer) 51 Percent Shares
• David Young (Board Member) 14 Percent Shares
• Chow Lee (Board Member) 10 Percent Shares
• Pedro Philips (Board Member) 10 Percent Shares
• Monica Tyson (Board Member and Sectary) 10 Percent Shares.

SWOT Analysis

A. strength.

• Ideal Location for group home facility
• Highly Experienced and Qualified Employees and Management
• Access to Pool of Donor Organizations
• Highly Secured and Clean Facility
• Highly structured programs are aimed at helping teens live comfortably as though they are with their families.

b. Weakness

• Budget Limitations
• Lack of full-fledged educational structure
• Inability to initially run and manage the organization without donations and grants
• Operating from a leased facility (restriction to fully modify the facility to suit our style and taste)
• Inability to retain our highly experienced and qualified employees longer than we want

c. Opportunities

• The demand from individuals aged 15 and under is expected to remain high because the majority of orphanages and group homes cater to children in this age bracket regardless of external circumstances
• Government funding for Medicare and Medicaid and private donations are anticipated to increase.
• The orphanages and group homes industry is projected to reverse its decline trend and increase in the coming years.
• We have a pool of finance from donor organizations, individuals, and relevant government agencies.

i. How Big is the Industry?

The orphanages and group homes industry is worth over $8 billion in the United States and there are about 9,623 licensed and registered correctional facilities and Group Homes with a workforce of about 124,872 scattered all across the United States.

ii. Is the Industry Growing or Declining?

Available statistics point to the fact that the industry is presently not growing and revenue for the industry has been adjusted from an increase to a decline of 8.1 percent in 2020 due to declining federal funding and donations. Since many operators are nonprofit, orphanages and group homes rely on federal funding and private donations. Since unemployment and consumer spending is anticipated to decline in 2020, leading to fewer donations, profit is set to decline.

Please note that in the coming year (2022), the revenue for the industry is anticipated to decline slightly, but as the economy recovers and COVID-19 (coronavirus) cases subsequently drop in line with the nationwide vaccination rollout, industry revenue will likely increase.

iii. What are the Future Trends in the Industry

The orphanages and group homes industry is changing, and players in the industry are improvising. No doubt, specialized treatment, technology, and social media will change the landscape of the industry going forward.

iv. Are There Existing Niches in the Industry? If YES, List them

Yes, there are niche ideas in the orphanages and group homes industry, and here are some of them;

• Residential treatment facilities.
• Group Homes and intermediate care facilities.
• Foster care and family support for children.
• Supportive community options for adults with disabilities.
• Group options for seniors with disabilities.

v. Can You Sell a Franchise of your Business in the Future?

Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC has plans to sell franchises in the nearest future and we will target major cities with high children abandonment rates in the United States of America.

• Lack of support from stakeholders and the government
• Unfavorable government policy and regulations.
• Community resistance
• Liability problems
• Reduction in abusive homes and teenage pregnancies

i. Who are the Major Competitors?

• BrightSpring Health Service
• VQ National Ltd.
• Childhelp USA.
• Assurant Care Homes – Minnesota Group Homes
• Karen’s Board & Care
• Dean’s Group Home
• Los Angeles Ronald McDonald House
• The Brambles (Group Home for Adults with Disabilities)
• Verywell Mind (Group Homes for Troubled Teens)

ii. Is There a Franchise for Group Home? If YES, List at least 20 of them and their cost

No, there is no known group home franchise currently.

iii. Are There Policies, Regulations, or Zoning Laws Affecting Group Homes?

Yes, there are county or state regulations or zoning laws for Group Homes. The law in the United States states that before a non-medical home care facility such as a group home can commence operation, there should be at least six residents and at least one trained caregiver there 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. So also, a standard group home is expected to have a house manager, night manager, weekend activity coordinator, and 2 or more caregivers depending on the size of the facility.

Marketing Plan

A. who is your target audience.

i. Age Range

Our target market is for children and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 15 years

ii. Level of Educational

We don’t have any restriction on the level of education of those we will accommodate in our group home.

iii. Income Level

We don’t have any cap on the income level of those who we will accommodate in our group home. Besides, most people who are admitted to group homes have no source of income.

iv. Ethnicity

There is no restriction when it comes to the ethnicity of the people we will welcome into our group home.

v. Language

There is no restriction when it comes to the language spoken by the people we will welcome into our group home, but we will prefer people that speak English and Spanish.

vi. Geographical Location

Anybody from any geographical location will be welcomed in our group home.

vii. Lifestyle

Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC will not restrict any child from accessing our facility and services based on their lifestyle, culture, or race.

b. Advertising and Promotion Strategies

• Host Themed Events That Catch Attention.
• Tap Into Text Marketing.
• Use FOMO to Run Photo Promotions.
• Share Your Events in Local Groups and Pages.
• Turn Your Social Media Channels Into a Resource
• Develop Your Business Directory Profiles
• Build Relationships With Other Nonprofits and related organizations in our Area

i. Traditional Marketing Strategies

• Marketing through Direct Mail.
• Print Media Marketing – Newspapers & Magazines.
• Broadcast Marketing -Television & Radio Channels.
• OOH Marketing – Public Transits like Buses and Trains, Billboards, Street shows, and Cabs.
• Leverage direct sales, direct mail (postcards, brochures, letters, fliers), tradeshows, print advertising (magazines, newspapers, coupon books, billboards), referral (also known as word-of-mouth marketing), radio, and television.

ii. Digital Marketing Strategies

• Social Media Marketing Platforms.
• Influencer Marketing.
• Email Marketing.
• Content Marketing.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Marketing.
• Affiliate Marketing
• Mobile Marketing.

iii. Social Media Marketing Plan

• Start using chatbots.
• Create a personalized experience for our teens (housemates).
• Create an efficient content marketing strategy.
• Create a community for our donors and volunteers.
• Gear up our profiles with a diverse content strategy.
• Use brand advocates.
• Create profiles on the relevant social media channels.
• Run cross-channel campaigns.

c. Pricing Strategy

When working out our pricing strategy, Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC will make sure it covers upkeep, medications, premium, economy or value, and full rehab package for each child.

Our pricing strategy will reflect;

• Cost-Based Pricing
• Value-Based Pricing
• Competition-Based Pricing.

Sales and Distribution Plan

A. sales channels.

Our channel sales strategy will involve using partners and third parties—such as referral partners, affiliate partners, religious organizations, nonprofit organizations, and charity to help refer abusive and abandoned children to us.

Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC will also leverage the 4 Ps of marketing which are place, price, product, and promotion. By carefully integrating these marketing strategies into a marketing mix, we can have a visible, in-demand service that is competitively priced.

b. Inventory Strategy

The fact that we will need educational materials, toiletries, medications, and foodstuffs means that Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC will operate an inventory strategy that is based on a day-to-day methodology for ordering, maintaining, and processing items in our warehouse. We will develop our strategy with the same thoroughness and attention to detail as we would if we were creating an overall strategy for the business.

c. Payment Options for Customers

Here are the payment options that Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC will make available to her donors and contributors;

• Payment via bank transfer
• Payment with cash
• Payment via credit cards
• Payment via online bank transfer
• Payment via check
• Payment via mobile money transfer

d. Return Policy, Incentives, and Guarantees

At Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC, we offer services, and the nature of services we offer does not accommodate return policy, but we will guarantee our housemates that great transformation will occur in their lives if they follow our program.

e. Customer Support Strategy

Our customer support strategy will involve seeking customer feedback. This will help us provide excellent customer service to our housemates and donors, it will help us to first understand their needs, experiences, and pain points.

We will work with an effective CRM software to be able to achieve this. We will work towards strengthening our Customer Service Team and also Leverage Multi-Channel Servicing as part of our customer support strategy.

Operational Plan

Our operational plan will cover capacity planning, location planning, layout planning, quality planning, and methods planning.

We plan to expand our revenue by 25 percent in the second year and the plan will include a marketing, sales, and operations component. The operations component of the plan would include attracting grants that will enable us boost our service offering.

a. What Happens During a Typical Day at a Group Home?

• The facility is open for the day
• The facility is cleaned and prepared for the day’s activities
• Housemates are welcomed and prepped for the day
• Housemates are provided with educational programs that will help them to properly integrate back into society, learn new skills and morals.
• House chores are carried out at different intervals during the day
• The facility is closed for the day and housemates go back to their rooms to get it arranged and then go to bed.

b. Production Process (If Any)

There is no production process when it comes to a group home.

c. Service Procedure (If Any)

There is no service procedure when it comes to a group home.

d. The Supply Chain

Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC will rely on social workers, counselors, religious organizations, and government agencies to refer children to us. Also, we have been able to establish business relationships with wholesale supplies of educational materials, toiletries, medications, foodstuffs et al.

e. Sources of Income

Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC will make money from;

• Contributions ffrom partners and donors
• Grants from government agencies and charity organizations
• Community support.

The cost to operate a group home varies and it will range from about $65,000 to over $100,000 annually.

Financial Plan

A. amount needed to start your group home.

Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC would need an estimate of $550,000 to successfully set up our group home in the United States of America. Please note that this amount includes the salaries of all staff for the first month of operation.

b. What are the Cost Involved?

• Business Registration Fees – $750.
• Legal expenses for obtaining licenses and permits – $7,300.
• Marketing, Branding and Promotions – $5,000.
• Business Consultant Fee – $2,500.
• Insurance – $5,400.
• Rent/Lease – $200,000.
• Other start-up expenses including, satellite TV subscriptions, stationery ($500), and phone and utility deposits ($2,800).
• Operational Cost (salaries of employees, payments of bills et al) – $40,000
• start-up inventory – $15,000
• Store Equipment (cash register, security, ventilation, signage) – $4,750
• Furnishing and Equipping – $80,000
• Website: $600
• Miscellaneous: $2,000

c. Do You Need to Build a Facility? If YES, How Much Will It Cost?

Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC will not build a new facility for our group home; we intend to start with a long-term lease and after 5 years, we will start the process of acquiring our own facility.

d. What are the Ongoing Expenses for Running a Group Home?

• Cost of stocking up supplies such as educational materials, medications, toiletries, beddings et al
• Cost of food supplies and ingredients
• Utility bills (gas, internet, phone bills, signage and sewage et al)
• Salaries of employees

e. What is the Average Salary of your Staff? List the Job Position and their proposed salary based on industry rate and your startup capital

• Head of Group Home (President) – $45,000 Per Annum
• House Manager (Administrator) – $36,034 Per Annum
• Nurse’s Aides – $29,660 Per Annum
• Teachers, Caregivers/Rehab Counselors – $32,878 Per Annum
• Fundraiser – $36,500 Per Annum and based on target
• Account Officer – $35,000 Per Annum
• Front Desk Officer – $28,000 Per Annum
• Cleaners – $22,000 Per Annum
• Security Guard – $22,000 Per Annum

f. How Do You Get Funding to Start a Group Home

• Raising money from personal savings and sale of personal stocks and properties
• Pitching our business idea and applying for business grants and seed funding from, government, and donor organizations
• Source for soft loans from our family members and our friends.

Financial Projection

A. how much should you charge for your service.

At Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC it is important to note that we will make our facility free of charge since we hope to attract enough grants and funds from donors.

b. Sales Forecast?

• First Fiscal Year (FY1): $350,000
• Second Fiscal Year (FY2): $475,000
• Third Fiscal Year (FY3): $550,000

c. Estimated Profit You Will Make a Year?

Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC will operate as a nonprofit organization.

d. Profit Margin of a Group Home 

Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC is not designed to make profits hence we don’t have a profit margin for our services.

Growth Plan

A. how do you intend to grow and expand .

Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC will grow by first opening other outlets in key cities in the United States of America within the first five years, and then will start selling franchises from the sixth year.

b. Where do you intend to expand to and why? (Geographical locations)

Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC plans to expand first to Chicago, IL, and then to Cleveland, OH, Detroit, MI, Atlanta, GA, and Baltimore, MD. The reason we intend to expand to these geographical locations is that available statistics show that the cities listed above have the highest juvenile delinquencies in the United States.

As a matter of fact, according to the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority’s most recent annual report, almost 300,000 youths live in poverty in Chicago’s Cook County. Over 26,000 crimes against youths have been reported and over 31,000 youths in Cook County have been arrested for criminal offenses.

The founder of Golden Generation® Group Home Facility, LLC plans to exit the business via merger and acquisition. We intend to merge with an international charity organization that has a world spread so that the organization can be placed under a trusted hand when the founder retires.

The goal of combining two or more charitable organizations that are into group homes is to try and achieve synergy – where the whole (the new organization) is greater than the sum of its parts (the former two separate entities).

More on Group Home

7 Business Plan Templates for Kids (Free Printables!)

By: Author Amanda L. Grossman

Posted on Last updated: January 5, 2023

Download one of these (mostly) free business plan templates for kids to help your child focus on a business idea.

What do super soakers, Apple computers, and Nike shoes all have in common?

They all started as a business plan.

A business plan template for kids is great for two reasons:

• Your child can play around with it and get familiar with what's required (even if they never start the business)
• It helps kids focus on just one business idea at time, and to see if they should move forward with it

No matter which category your own child falls into – just playing with business plans, or they have an actual business idea – I’ve got just the free business plan template for you.

Honestly? I wish my own parents would’ve given me one of these when, as a kid, my childhood friend and I had come up with our first kid business idea: selling bean bags. So, good on you for getting your kids involved with business plans so early in life!

Best Business Plan Templates for Kids

Use one of the business plan templates for kids below with one of these 16 kid business ideas .

OR, help them to use one of their original ideas sending sparks in their brain. You can use these 3 kid business plan examples for help with filling it out.

1. Solid Gold Biz Plan

I’ve been in business for 7 years and I’ve made about every mistake in the book.

Probably one of the biggest? Was that I didn't sit down to write a proper business plan (or, ANY business plan) until I was several years into blogging. 

Because of this, I created a free business plan template for kids and teens (on Page 6 of this free printable), so that they practice how to do it right, from the beginning! 

What makes my free Solid Gold Biz Plan different is that it starts your child thinking about the problem that they want to solve – because ultimately, that is the purpose of creating a product or a service. To solve a specific problem for people.

It then goes on to ask them simple questions that will focus them in on what it takes to plan out a business idea.

For example, I raise the question of how much it will cost to not only create the product/service, but to also deliver it and maintain it. These are sometimes costs forgotten costs when creating a business plan.

2. BizKids’ Guide to Writing a Business Plan

This free business plan guide for kids includes sections for your idea, your marketing (and what makes your product unique), your startup costs, and an area for pricing so that you can make sure you’ll make a profit.

At the end is a one-page summary where your child can write up their answers from the previous pages all in the same place. Great for tacking up on the wall!

3. Teen Entrepreneur Toolbox

Anthony ONeal partnered up with Dave Ramsey to create the  Teen Entrepreneur Toolbox , a kid’s entrepreneur kit and small business guide for teens.

In other words, it’s so much more than just a business template for kids!

The entrepreneur kit includes the following:

• Access to Free Entrepreneur Toolbox app
• Teen Portfolio Book
• DVD of Anthony’s Training Video
• Parent’s Guide Book
• Pack of Thank You Cards
• Deck of Conversation Starter Cards about Starting a Business
• Goal Tracker Poster

Here's my full review of the Teen Entrepreneur Toolbox .

4. Home Sweet Road’s My Business Plan

Check out this business plan for kids, which asks kids questions like what makes their idea unique, whether or not their idea is a product or service, and who their customers will be.

5. Proverbial Home Maker’s Family Business Plan Guide

This is such a fun guide that you can fill out with your child, teen, tween, or even the whole family. It includes family business ideas, a sales ledger, inventory worksheet, and much more.

Business Plan Examples

You may be wondering where you can find business plan examples to show your kids or teens.

For starters, you should look right at home. Are you a small business owner?

Then you’ll definitely want my free Take Your Child to Work Day printables – it’s got a section for you to fill in about your own business, which is a perfect business plan example to discuss with your child.

You can also find two business plan examples on the Small Business Administration’s site (scroll down until you see red buttons to Rebecca’s example business plan, and Andrew’s plan).

They’re not entirely kid-friendly, but can give lots of ideas for the kind of information and research to put into a business plan.

Business Plan Activity Worksheets

Check out these free PDF Shark Tank worksheets for students . Students or kids can work through coming up with their own business idea, create an advertisement for it, and a scoring card to judge the business ideas.

You’ll find a free 30-minute Small Business Administration course for young entrepreneurs meant for teens that you can use with your students (or have your child go through).

Hint: In Objective 3, it goes over how to create a business plan.

Are you an educator? Great – you can get free entrepreneur curriculum for Grades 1 – 12, with lots of worksheets, from the Venture Lab .

Further resources include:

• Teen Business Video Lessons
• EverFI’s Entrepreneurial Expedition
• FEE’s Course on the Entrepreneur’s Role in Creating Value
• Business Plan Note Taker (lots of great prompts to create a business plan with)

Grab 23 more entrepreneur lesson plans here.

I hope you've found some business template for kid resources that interest you? Below, you'll find other related kid entrepreneurship articles that will help your kids, teens, and students learn about the entrepreneur career path. 

Related Kid Entrepreneurship Resources

• 27 Youth Entrepreneur Awards and Scholarships
• 5 Kid Entrepreneur Kits
• 14 Kid Entrepreneur Books
• 11 Best Business Simulation Games for Kids
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Business plan 2020-24 - refresh 2023-24.

You can download our Business Plan 2023-24  (PDF) or read the text version on this page.

Business Plan contents

01 Introduction 02 About Achieving for Children 03 Our vision and values 04 Our business plan   05 Our ambition 06 Our strategic priorities to 2024 07 Delivering our strategic priorities in 2022-23 08 Our financial plan

01 Introduction

We are delighted to introduce Achieving more for Children - our business plan for 2020-24. This is an ambitious plan that builds on our success over our first five years of operating, and explains how we will achieve even more for children and young people so that they have the best start in life and are able to have safe, happy, healthy and successful childhoods. 

It sets out the projects that the company will deliver over the next four years to meet these aims. A number of these projects will be delivered across Kingston, Richmond, and Windsor and Maidenhead because they meet a common need. However, some have been designed to meet specific local challenges and circumstances or to reflect the priorities of each individual council. The business plan does not include our day-to-day business and we will of course continue to maintain our attention on providing those early help, education, health and social care services that many families rely on every day. 

The programmes in the business plan are based on our conviction that to maintain the quality of our services and achieve the best possible outcomes for children, young people and families within the resources we have available, we must truly focus our work on six important priorities: 

• building resilience in families
• creating inclusive local provision to meet increasing need
• investing in a skilled and flexible workforce
• developing our business and delivery models
• implementing smarter and more agile working practices
• striving to deliver excellent value for money in all that we do 

Our plan builds on our achievements over the last five years including:

• achieving an Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ judgement for our children’s social care support services in Kingston and a ‘Good’ judgement in Richmond and in Windsor and Maidenhead. 
• achieving a positive Joint Targeted Area Inspection (JTAI) of the multi-agency response to the identification of initial need and risk in Windsor and Maidenhead in May 2022, which focused on our ‘front door’, including our Single Point of Access. 
• developing our own local residential provision, including supported accommodation for care leavers, short break care for children and young people with disabilities, a new residential children’s home, and a new short break care overnight centre for children and young people with SEND. 
• securing over £7 million from the Department for Education as part of the Partners in Practice initiative to develop innovative ways of supporting children and young people on the edge of care. 
• implementing the Signs of Safety model across all our services, which has enabled practitioners to better work in partnership with children and families, building on their family strengths to promote their safety and wellbeing.
• becoming a national leader in the delivery of the Troubled Families programme, with over 650 vulnerable families being given the additional support they need to improve the care and support they provide to their children. 
• establishing an independent fostering agency (IFA) across all boroughs which has been judged good, and has now been operating effectively for almost three years and has led to an increase in the number of approved fostering households.
• achieving ‘Good' inspection ratings of our Youth Offending Services in Kingston and Richmond, and Windsor and Maidenhead which demonstrates our high quality support to those young people who are involved in criminal activity.
• launching the new Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Register in Kingston and Richmond to capture the details of more children and young people with SEND to encourage greater engagement with families. All those that sign up receive a Disability Awareness Card, which was designed in collaboration with children and parents, and provides proof of a child’s disability.
• In October 2019, Ofsted revisited our SEND services in Windsor and Maidenhead and confirmed that we were making good progress against six of the eight areas identified as requiring improvement. 
• In October 2022, Ofsted revisited our SEND services in Kingston and confirmed we were making sufficient progress against our Written Statement of Action, and as a result, the formal quarterly support and challenge visits from the Department for Education and NHS England will come to an end. 
• receiving a ‘good’ rating across all areas following the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection of our Health Visiting and School Nursing Service in Windsor and Maidenhead in November 2022. 

All three of our owning councils face challenging financial settlements which means that the company must operate within its budget, including the delivery of planned efficiency savings. At the same time, the need for our services is increasing, predominantly in relation to our need to support children and young people with SEND, and to deliver our responsibilities for children in care and those leaving care. We are also seeing a sustained increase in our referrals into our SPA teams across both operational areas. 

Our business plan must focus on ensuring the company is able to better manage demand, meet needs, deliver required cost savings and achieve longer-term financial sustainability, balanced with a drive to maintain the quality of those services and support innovation and creative solutions to our challenges. As such, one of our key areas for development will be establishing local placement sufficiency and agreeing a model for the delivery of local placements. 

Since the business plan was developed, we have experienced the COVID-19 pandemic which has had a significant impact on our service delivery. This impact is likely to continue for some time and may result in future changes to our priority projects over the coming years. More positively, it has also provided us with many learning opportunities such as the benefits of hybrid working for our workforce, and improved participation of children and young people receiving our support through online engagement. 

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02 About Achieving for Children 

Achieving for Children (AfC) was created as a community interest company in 2014 by the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames to deliver all their children’s services. In 2017, the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead became a third owner of the company. We now deliver services to more than 120,000 children and young people. We work closely with our local authority owners and local strategic partners, such as schools, the police, health services and voluntary sector organisations, to ensure that the services we provide are relevant and responsive to the differing needs of children and young people in the three local areas, and support the delivery of each council’s local strategic priorities. 

Where it makes sense to scale-up and deliver services across all three areas, this will be done to achieve better outcomes for children and young people and deliver better value for money. Our initial seven year contract with Kingston and Richmond councils came to an end in March 2021. We are delighted that the councils have jointly agreed to extend our contract for a further five years until March 2026. We also have a seven-year contract with the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead which ends in 2024, with an option to extend for a further five years. 

We deliver the full range of children’s services for the three councils. Our service offer is based on strong universal provision delivered through our children’s centres and youth centres. This is offered alongside targeted early help that provides support to families at the earliest opportunity to prevent children’s and young people’s needs escalating and to facilitate family resilience. We expanded our universal services with the addition of health visiting and school nursing when Windsor and Maidenhead joined the company. These public health services complement our specialist nursing and therapy services for children with disabilities and complex health needs. 

Our statutory offer includes child protection, children in need, support for children in care and leaving care, youth justice and services for children with special educational needs and disabilities. Our final service area is the support we provide to early years settings and schools to deliver high quality teaching and learning. This includes planning school places, school admissions, advice on school improvement and targeted support for vulnerable pupils. To support the delivery of these services, we employ just over 1,100 professionals from a wide variety of disciplines, including social work, teaching, nursing, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and clinical psychology. Our performance and the quality of our early help, health and social care services are good and this has been recognised by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission in their service and regulatory inspections. Inspection outcomes for special educational needs services are less positive and are an area for continued improvement. 

Service benefits Achieving for Children has a single organisational focus on services for children, young people and their families. A single organisation working across three local authorities brings operational efficiency and service resilience through a flexible workforce that is skilled and able to manage peaks in demands for services. Our larger scale means that specialist expertise, which may have been lost or unaffordable in a single local authority, can be retained and developed.  The joint company model provides increased opportunities for employee engagement and empowerment, enabling cost-efficient decisions to be taken by practitioners working directly with families and reducing the need for more intensive work and interventions further down the line.  The service benefits for Achieving for Children are best seen in three areas. First, our investment in systemic family therapy to complement social work interventions when working with families with the most complex needs. Second, our Virtual School where our larger scale has enabled us to retain specialist practitioners focused on improving educational outcomes and destinations for children in care. Third, the development of a company-wide independent fostering agency to lead on the recruitment and retention of a highly-skilled pool of local foster carers. The agency was graded as ‘Good’ by Ofsted at its initial regulatory inspection in 2019.

Most of our funding comes from contracts with the local authorities that own us and commission us to deliver their children’s services. The annual value of these contracts is £163 million. In addition, the company manages the allocation of over £413 million in Dedicated Schools Grant to early years providers and schools. Since 2015, there has been a significant financial pressure on the high needs block of the Dedicated Schools Grant in Kingston and Richmond due to increasing need and complexity of need and the associated costs of school placements for children with special educational needs and disabilities. This is a national trend, which is beginning to also become evident in Windsor and Maidenhead in terms of a deficit position. 

There has similarly been an increase in children in need of social care support and becoming looked after. Again, this follows a national trend and is placing significant financial pressure on the three local authorities. One contributing factor to this increased cost has been a lack of local provision to meet the increasing numbers of children needing support and to meet their complexity of needs, leading to a reliance on external and independent provision which is often at a much higher cost. 

Financial benefits Our company model is designed to be flexible enough to respond to the individual priorities of each of our owning councils, but also to deliver jointly across the two or three partners where this improves outcomes and increases efficiency, resilience and cost effectiveness.  We have a shared support service operating model which delivers efficiencies and resilience from a single approach to business services. This model has reduced central costs by just over £3 million since the company was established.  There have also been financial efficiencies from a more stable workforce and a reduced reliance on more expensive locum and agency workers. This has been achieved through improved recruitment and retention schemes and the increased opportunities for career development and progression available in a larger organisation.  The pandemic has had a significant impact on workforce stability and so this remains a key area of focus for us, particularly in frontline roles that are proving hard to recruit to.  We have increased our purchasing power for placements for children in care, care leavers and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. We have invested in developing our own residential provision for children in care and supported accommodation for care leavers to help meet their needs locally at a lower cost. We opened Green Leas, a 17-bed unit offering 24-hours supported accommodation in Kingston in 2017, and opened Hope House, our first children’s home, in March 2020.  Overall, we have reduced the costs of delivering services for the councils by £12 million since 2014, and in Windsor and Maidenhead we are in the lowest 10% of costs per head of the child age population when benchmarked nationally.

One of the reasons Achieving for Children was established as a community interest company was to benefit from increasing our commercial and income-generation opportunities whilst maintaining our social focus on giving children the best start and improving their life chances. In our first five years, we have successfully diversified our income by providing a consultancy offer to local authorities which are considering alternative delivery models, or which require support to improve the effectiveness and impact of their children’s services. 

We have provided in-depth support to eight local authorities in England since 2014 and, as a result of this success, we were named as a Partner in Practice by the Department for Education in 2018 and have successfully provided improvement support to a further five local authorities. We have recently taken on responsibility for the Berkshire-wide Sensory Consortium Service, which includes the management of 40 qualified teachers for visually and hearing impaired children and young people. The service provides sensory impairment support across Windsor and Maidenhead, Slough, Bracknell Forest, Wokingham, Reading and West Berkshire. 

Since 2014, we have also generated income from traded services, trusts and foundations, fundraising and corporate partnerships. This has enabled us to innovate our service offer and implement creative solutions to meet families’ needs. Over the next four years, we intend to focus our commercial efforts on this activity and reduce our consultancy offer, as this is considered a more sustainable approach for the company.

Commercial benefits and business development  As a community interest company, Achieving for Children is able to trade its services to other local authorities and public bodies, through management consultancy and the provision of services under contract, to create a surplus for reinvestment in frontline services for children, young people and their families. It also has the potential to expand the range of services provided by the company and to access funding opportunities that are not open to local authorities, such as charitable trusts and foundations and corporate sponsorship, that can be used to fund or supplement funding for non-statutory services.  Since 2014, we have generated £5 million in traded services with schools and from our improvement consultancy offer to 12 local authorities.  We have secured more than £10 million in grant funding to develop our services, including substantial funding from the Department for Education to develop innovative solutions for children experiencing domestic violence, substance misuse and parental mental health issues. This has resulted in the development of a nationally-recognised service which provides a multi-disciplinary approach to building family resilience to prevent children requiring child protection interventions or needing to come into care. To make sure we take advantage of opportunities, a business development strategy has been developed to sit alongside this overarching business plan. The Achieving for Children Business Development Strategy outlines the organisation’s objective to further develop as a specialist children's services provider and commissioner over the next five years. It outlines a structured approach to identifying, evaluating and agreeing which opportunities are right for Achieving for Children and our owning councils.  At the heart of the strategy is an ambition to improve the lives of children and young people by providing affordable and outstanding children's services support to the young people of Kingston, Richmond, and Windsor and Maidenhead. Services may be extended to other organisations supporting children outside of our three boroughs where there are clear ethical, financial or developmental benefits.  You can read the strategy here .

Our leading performance 

Ofsted rates our children’s social care services in Kingston as ‘Outstanding’ and as ‘Good’ in Richmond and in Windsor and Maidenhead. 

91% of families have improved the care they provide to their children following intensive support from the Strengthening Families service. The service has provided support to 265 families experiencing domestic violence, substance misuse and parental mental health concerns. 

More than 1,000 children with disabilities receive short break care, including overnight respite care, from Achieving for Children. 96% of parents and carers rate the care and activities that their children receive as good or better. 

More than 10,000 young people each year regularly use our youth services to take part in positive activities that develop their interests and talents. More than 1,500 young people complete their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award each year, delivering over 45,000 hours of volunteering to their local communities, with a social value of more than £475,000. 

Since AfC was created in 2014, we have delivered 9,074 additional school places, including expanding SEND provision in mainstream schools and co-developing five new free schools. This means that more of our children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities are now educated within their local communities. 

98% of education, health and care plans (EHCPs) are completed within the statutory timescale of 20 weeks from the request for assessment. This places our services among the best in the country for the timeliness of assessments and plans for children with SEND. 

We support 165 schools to deliver high quality teaching and learning. 91% of schools across our three boroughs are judged to be ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted, including 97% in Windsor and Maidenhead, and are at the top of the school league tables for progress and attainment at all key stages. 

89% of children and young people report improved mental health and emotional wellbeing following support from our emotional health services. Our services include art therapy, clinical psychology and systemic family therapy. 

More than 13,000 families attend one of our children’s centres each year for health appointments, to access local childcare, and to attend activities that help their children get ready for school. 77% of children achieve a good level of development in their first year at school, which is well above the national average at 72%. 

03 Our vision and values

Our vision .

Our vision is to provide children and their families with the support and services they need to live safe, happy, healthy and successful lives.

At Achieving for Children we champion children and families, putting their wellbeing and education first. As a social enterprise, we take the values of public service and combine them with a business approach to deliver our social aims. We have the independence and flexibility to tailor innovative solutions to the needs of children and their families, whilst maintaining our focus on delivering priorities for each of the councils that owns the company. 

How we work

We put children and young people first: we are passionate about ensuring the best possible outcomes for children and young people – and this drives everything that we do.

We embrace diversity and champion inclusion: we are committed to valuing difference and diversity in our workforce and in the children and families we work with, so that their identities are promoted and their individual needs are met.

We are resourceful, adaptable and dependable: we find and create solutions that work well for children and their families. We build our reputation based on our professionalism, our dedication, our flexibility, and by always delivering what we promise.

We nurture strong, responsive and caring relationships: we build strong and productive partnerships with children, young people, parents, carers and communities so that we can listen and learn from one another.

We lead and support partnerships to meet the needs of children and families: we build strong and effective partnerships with our owning councils, other statutory services, schools, education providers, local businesses, as well as organisations in the voluntary and community sector. 

We value and invest in our staff to deliver innovative and quality services: we know that our employees are our most important asset – they make our ambitions a reality. We recruit and retain the best people, value their experience and expertise, and support their professional development and personal growth.

We will work with our own councils to deliver the most effective solutions for them: we understand the requirements of each council that commissions us to deliver their children’s services, and work closely with elected members and corporate leaders to help deliver their plans and priorities. 

Trust : We are reliable, others can count on us to undertake tasks and deliver on what was agreed – we will do what we said we would do. We will encourage open and honest communication, and model clear and fair professional boundaries.

Respect : We will listen to and value other people’s perspectives and differences. We will show empathy and humility in the way we communicate.

Empower : We help others to realise their ability and potential, and show emotional intelligence in our approach. We show appropriate and respectful use of the power given to us in our jobs or positions and we use this to encourage and enable others.

04 Our business plan

What is the business plan.

Achieving More for Children - the business plan for Achieving for Children for 2020 to 2024 is the company’s most important strategic document. It articulates our vision for the company together with the most important outcomes that we want to achieve for children in partnership with our owning councils and local strategic partners. It also sets out our objectives for what we want the company to be and how we will change and develop in order to deliver these outcomes. Against each of our strategic outcomes, the business plan sets out priority activities that we will focus on delivering over the next four years. These are the key priorities that will enable us to deliver our vision. Each priority includes targets and milestones so that the three councils, our partners, stakeholders, young people and families can hold us to account. The intention of our business plan is not to capture everything we do as a company. It is a high-level strategic document which provides a clear framework for decision-making about our services and how we prioritise and allocate our resources. 

How we have developed our business plan

The priorities in our business plan are based on a sound understanding of the local needs in each of the three local authority areas. We have developed a strong evidence base for our plan using demographic trends, performance data and the needs analyses produced by the councils in their joint strategic needs assessments to better understand local needs, alongside more qualitative feedback about the effectiveness and impact of our services. 

To make sense of all of this information, we held a Big Conversation in 2019. This involved a series of listening events with children, young people, parents, carers, partner organisations in the statutory and voluntary sectors, the councils and our own employees. These conversations enabled us to hear about those issues that are most pressing and that should be our highest priority, as well as identifying creative solutions and potential areas for innovation. The Big Conversation also enabled us to make sure that our plan is aligned with the strategic priorities of our owning councils in their corporate plans and with our strategic partners, including the local health and care plans developed by the clinical commissioning groups. 

How we will measure our progress

We will monitor progress in two ways. Firstly, by being clear about our priority activities, when we expect these to be delivered and monitoring our progress against those delivery plans. We report on progress with the implementation of our business plan through our quarterly project and financial monitoring which goes to the AfC Board and senior leaders across the organisation. We also produce an annual report and impact report each year which set out our key achievements over the previous 12 months. 

Secondly, we monitor progress through a set of key performance indicators and quality measures that are reported as part of our contractual arrangements. These have been set by the councils as part of our contracts with them and by our board of directors to ensure the continual development of the company and the services it delivers. There is regular monitoring and scrutiny of our performance by the councils and the board of directors, with progress against the key performance indicators reported publicly to each of the owning councils. All the success measures that we have used in this plan are reported to the councils and published as part of our quarterly contract monitoring. 

Annual review

Each year the business plan priority areas will be reviewed and updated. The annual review will be reported to the councils in public meetings. The annual review will provide a self-assessment of our progress at implementing our priorities in the previous year, as well as refreshing our priorities and activities for the year ahead.

For 2022-23, as part of the refresh of the business plan, we have reviewed our priority projects. Some new projects have been added and some existing projects have been amended slightly to reflect new circumstances. In addition, a number of projects have now been removed from the business plan. These are set out below. 

Across the whole organisation

Priority: stronger families.

Project : Ensure Achieving for Children is able to effectively respond to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic by continuing to keep our children and young people safe, ensuring our families feel supported, and helping our staff to adapt to new working arrangements.

Removed because:  This has been completed. We managed to minimise the disruption to our services caused by COVID-19 by adopting a flexible and pragmatic approach to service delivery. Children, young people and families continued to receive high quality services, either face-to-face or virtually, and our staff have fed back that they felt supported throughout the pandemic.

Our service delivery has now returned to normal, with best practice identified during COVID-19 implemented, such as communicating with children in care virtually. 

A new hybrid approach to working arrangements has been established across the organisation. Staff have been supported to adapt to this change and are supported to operate effectively in this way, with the necessary IT equipment and systems support available as required. 

We are in the process of reviewing our office accommodation, and rationalising it so that it better meets the needs of hybrid working and supports our owning Councils to achieve their efficiency targets. This is now considered part of our business as usual activity. 

Priority: Successful organisation

Project: Develop and implement a more formalised approach to business development through a new Business Development Strategy and Business Development Plan. This will include the development and implementation of a revised fundraising strategy that brings in grants and other income to support the delivery of innovative new services that promote positive outcomes for the most vulnerable children and young people.

Removed because: 

This has been completed. The new formalised approach to business development is now in place and the Business Development Strategy has been published alongside the business plan on our website. Our strategic vision, as set out in the strategy, is to: 

Develop cost effective approaches to support children and young people with a particular focus on more affordable, high quality, local placement options.

Innovate to improve services and support children to achieve better outcomes. We will be pioneers in the digital development space with a focus on improving efficiency and using technology to better engage with young people and partners. 

The vision is supported by a number of key principles that will underpin our activity in this area. It focuses our approach to business development into three areas: the sufficiency strategy, best practice approaches, and grants and research; and sets out how we will monitor our impact. 

Project:  Take opportunities to expand the company, should they present themselves, by finding a children’s services partner for Windsor and Maidenhead that would enable service effectiveness, operational efficiency and resilience, and longer-term financial sustainability. Any expansion will be subject to decision by the owning councils. 

Removed because:  For the remainder of the business plan, we will not be prioritising the expansion of the company, and as such, we have removed this project. It may be revisited in the longer-term. 

Priority: Smarter working

Project: Implement digital strategies and solutions to improve the operational efficiency of frontline and corporate support services, maximising the time available to practitioners for working directly with children and young people.

Our digital activity has now become business as usual, led by our Digital Transformation Team. We effectively integrate digital technology into many areas of our business, which has enabled us to change how we operate and deliver value. This work is driven by our Digital, Data and IT Strategy 2021-24. 

As part of our recent digital activity we have: 

• Established our Digital Ambassadors scheme across Achieving for Children. The Digital Ambassadors provide a range of support including training to new starters, supporting sessions on both new and existing systems, hosting Google Suite question and answer drop-in sessions and providing 1:1 support. 
• Utilised Robotic Process Automation (RPA) which can help with repetitive and lower-value work, like logging into applications and systems, moving files and folders, extracting, copying, and inserting data, filling in forms, and completing routine analyses and reports freeing up staff to do more high value tasks. We have rolled our RPA in our Single Point of Access to process online referrals into our Liquid Logic case management system; and in our School Admissions team to verify the addresses submitted on school place applications against information held in council tax records.
• Undertaken a project to establish a Digital Customer Platform (DCP) which will be a one-stop-shop for the public to carry out online transactions with our services. Individuals will have their own accounts on the system where they can view all of their interactions with us via the self-service portal. The DCP is a tool used to help facilitate the needs and requirements of both our services and their service users using modern technology.

Project:  Develop and implement an Achieving for Children Environment Strategy that sets out our commitment to taking proactive steps to minimise the environmental impact of our activities, which will enable us to support our owning councils in their efforts to address the climate change emergency.

Removed because:  We have developed our Environment Strategy, which is published on our website, and which sets out our environmental commitments as an organisation. It sets out that we are committed to taking proactive steps to minimise the environmental impact of our activities. We will seek to deliver children’s services in an environmentally-friendly way by identifying areas of change which will result in fewer carbon emissions. We work closely with our owning Councils in the hope that through our actions, we will contribute to our boroughs’ efforts in creating a sustainable and biodiverse environment for future generations to enjoy. The strategy sets out an action plan which is monitored regularly by the Environment Task Force, chaired by the Chief Operating and Finance Officer, which has been established to drive forward our activity. 

As part of the implementation of our strategy, we have taken part in a range of environmental activities including World Earth Day, the Big Plastic Count, the Climate Marathon, and Non Disposable Cup Day. We have also worked closely with our Youth Councils, and will continue to do so to ensure we maintain momentum. 

In Kingston and Richmond and Windsor & Maidenhead

Priority: stronger families: .

Project:  Embed the strengthened approach to the quality assurance of frontline services so that they continue to effectively safeguard children and young people and promote their wellbeing and achievement. This will include strengthening the multi-agency focus on quality assuring EHCPs for children and young people with SEND. 

Removed because:  Our quality assurance framework for our frontline services is now well-established across both operational areas and is supporting our frontline staff to effectively safeguard children and young people and promote their wellbeing and achievement. The framework includes: 

• Quantitative data, performance and intelligence including: weekly summary reports; monthly data sets presented at the Performance, Quality and Innovation Board; service, team and worker level data; quality checklists; monthly performance reports to the AfC Board and the owning Councils; and annual end of year performance reporting. 
• Qualitative data and audits including: Practice Week; reports from services and teams; impact audit and thematic reviews including with our multi agency partners; direct observation of practice; appreciative evaluation; case and learning reviews; and seven minute learnings. 
• Children’s, families’ and carers’ voices including: participation activities; impact audits; online family survey; feedback at child protection conferences and child looked after reviews; HaveMySay; focus groups; Corporate Parenting Board; Children in Care Council; complaints and compliments; Special Educational Needs and Disabilities participation team. 
• Practitioners’ voices and input including: annual staff survey; principal social worker and head of practice learning; exit interviews; feedback to the Director of Children’s Services and senior leaders; drop-in sessions; Signs of Safety practice lead sessions; and annual professional development scheme. 

Where necessary we have strengthened those areas requiring additional focus. For example, in Kingston and Richmond we have increased the SEND participation resource to enable us to more effectively capture feedback from the families we support and build stronger and more robust relationships with parents.

Priority: Positive futures

Project: Review and reconfigure the future delivery of health services in line with the development of the new integrated care services. This will include establishing an operating model that promotes high quality and integrated services to support children and young people to maximise their independence, resilience and health outcomes, and reviewing our health staff offer to support a permanent and stable workforce. 

Given the recent national change from Clinical Commissioning Groups to Integrated Care Boards/ Systems  (ICB/S), and the need for this to embed and become fully established, this project is no longer considered an immediate priority for the remainder of the business plan.

However, we will continue to deliver health services in partnership with the ICB and other health colleagues, with a strong focus on improving the quality of services and ensuring they are as integrated as possible to support better outcomes for children, young people and their families. 

As part of our wider Achieving for Children recruitment and retention project, which is ongoing, we will be targeting recruitment in our health services with the aim of establishing a more permanent and stable workforce. This is necessary in light of national recruitment challenges, particularly in relation to therapy services. 

Our commitment to equality and diversity 

Within Achieving for Children, we have recognised the need to strengthen our equality and diversity practice and better understand our workforce and the issues that impact them. To support this, we have established the staff-led Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Board which includes senior managers and staff from across the organisation.

The board’s purpose is to drive our equality and diversity change agenda, in line with our organisational values. Its aim is to support staff to understand differences and behave respectfully to each other so that people want to work and stay working in the company and so that Achieving for Children can respond to the different needs of service users. The board helps with the implementation of our equality and diversity action plan which aims to promote, improve and sustain equality, diversity and inclusion across the organisation.

The plan was developed based on responses to our equality and diversity staff survey. We will continue to seek the views of staff and provide a range of engagement mechanisms to ensure we hear their voice and learn from their experiences. For example, we have recently established three employee networks, which represent different characteristic groups from across Achieving for Children. 

Along with colleagues in Richmond and Wandsworth, we were also part of the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) pilot, which was based on a successful programme implemented in the NHS to improve the experiences of staff from minoritised ethnic groups. As part of the pilot, we collated data on staff from ethnic minority backgrounds in relation to areas such as recruitment, training, promotion and turnover, and used this to create an action plan to address the issues we identified. Following the successful completion of the pilot, we will continue to report on the data and the action plan annually. The project is aligned to the work of the EDI Board and will be overseen by EDI Board members. 

Our commitment to the environment

As an organisation we are committed to taking proactive steps to minimise the environmental impact of our activities. In 2021-22 we developed our first environment strategy, which sets out this commitment. We seek to deliver children’s services in an environmentally-friendly way, through identifying areas of change which will result in fewer carbon emissions. We work with Kingston, Richmond, and Windsor and Maidenhead councils to contribute to our boroughs’ efforts in creating a sustainable and biodiverse environment. 

We have identified six key areas where we can focus on having an impact. 

• Staff awareness and engagement
• Waste and recycling 
• Energy efficiency and biodiversity
• Travel and transport
• Commissioning and procurement 
• Young people’s participation

Alongside the environment strategy, we have developed an action plan which will support our aims in reducing our carbon footprint and take forward the key priorities identified under each theme. The action plan is overseen by an environment taskforce, coordinated by the Strategy, Policy and Programmes team. Where possible, it will capture how impact will be measured.

The action plan is presented to the Achieving for Children Board of Directors and is regularly scrutinised by the Kingston and Richmond, and Windsor and Maidenhead youth councils.

The strategy itself can be found here: https://www.achievingforchildren.org.uk/pages/about-us/reports-and-documents/environment-strategy 

This work has now been incorporated into our business as usual activity.

05 Our ambition 

By 2024, Achieving for Children will be a strong and financially stable organisation. Children’s services throughout England are facing unprecedented financial challenges, predominantly because of the need to support more children and an increase in the complexity and longevity of their needs. This relates to services for children in need of help and protection, children in care and leaving care, unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, and children with special educational needs and disabilities. It is placing significant pressure on the three councils’ revenue budgets and, in the case of support for children with special educational needs and disabilities in Kingston and Richmond, is building a substantial in-year and cumulative financial deficit because the allocated government grant is insufficient to meet the increasing need. 

We will meet this challenge by having a relentless focus on outcomes for children and young people based on local needs and priorities. Delivering our vision to give children the best start in life and improve their life chances is not just a job for Achieving for Children, but is a shared responsibility with the wider public and voluntary sector. By 2024, Achieving for Children will be characterised by its strong and meaningful relationships with our partner organisations and our whole-system approach to improving services and outcomes for children and young people. We will have strengthened relationships with parents and carers, and our service offer will be shaped by them and by the direct involvement of children and young people. The co-production of effective solutions to local priorities, including the financial challenges, will be evident in our successful delivery of this business plan, as well as our response to emerging issues.

We will have invested in integrated services and joint commissioning with our partners, bringing together our collective ideas, talent and resources to better meet the needs of children and young people, especially those with the most complex needs. This will most be evident in our delivery of children’s health services where we will have strengthened our integrated health services for children with disabilities, and we will have expanded our offer to include health visiting and public health nursing in schools. 

We will focus our early help services on building resilience in families so that they are better able to help, support and protect their children without the need for statutory interventions. Our services will consistently use reflective, collaborative and strengths-based approaches to working with the whole family so that parents are able to make positive and lasting changes to the care they provide to their children. This means maintaining strong universal services, such as youth services, and investing in targeted early help services based on evidence-based interventions that are proven to work in supporting sustained change in families. 

We aim to have consistently good quality services that support children and young people to live safe, happy, healthy and successful lives.

By 2024, our social care services will be judged to be ‘Good’ quality by Ofsted in their inspection of local authority children’s services or the subsequent inspection framework. Local area inspections of services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and for youth justice services will also have positive outcomes, as will inspections of our health services by the Care Quality Commission. 

We will have clear action plans in place to address any ‘written statement of action’ in relation to our special education needs or disabilities services and will be able to demonstrate progress implementing these actions. Most importantly, satisfaction with our services for children, young people and parents will also be high. We will consistently get the basics right for families in terms of good quality assessments, plans, interventions and support packages that are regularly reviewed, and use evidence of what works coupled with effective risk management that support children and young people to remain at home with their families as much as possible. 

By 2024, we will have successfully invested in local provision so that children and young people can stay closer to their families and support networks, and benefit from our local offer of integrated education, health and care services. We will have met the increasing demand for school places and have maintained local choice for children and young people by working with the government to create more free schools and by having permanently expanded ‘Good’ and ‘Outstanding’ local schools. 

We will have invested in inclusive education so that more children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities can be educated in local mainstream schools. We will have also opened more local special schools with a specific focus on autistic spectrum conditions, speech, language and communication needs, and social, emotional and mental health needs. 

In the next four years, we will also have increased the number of foster care families, opened our own residential children’s homes and increased our range of supported accommodation for care leavers. We will have joined up this support to provide holistic support to children in care and on the edge of care. All our services will be focused on promoting independence and developing the skills that young people will need in adulthood.

Achieving our vision for children and young people is reliant on a skilled, motivated and stable workforce. So, by 2024, we will be recognised as an employer of choice for professionals working with children and young people. We will have reduced the number of vacant posts and agency workers in our organisation, reduced our annual voluntary turnover, and increased our employee satisfaction rates to above 90%. Our frontline employees will be able to spend the large majority of their time working directly with children and families because we have lean, streamlined business processes and have invested in new technology and digital solutions that enable more agile and smarter working. This will include bringing in-house those support services that will enable us to provide better and more cost-efficient services for children and their families.

We will have strengthened our commissioning practices to foster innovation and achieve higher quality services at a lower cost and will have a well established sufficiency model that supports local and good quality care and support for young people in all three of our boroughs. We will remain open to opportunities to bring onboard a partner local authority to work alongside our services in Windsor and Maidenhead. 

06 Our strategic priorities to 2024

Based on our vision and ambitions, we have identified six strategic priorities for our business plan for the next four years. 

Strategic priority: Stronger families 

What will we achieve for children and young people.

We will have a relentless focus on safeguarding children and young people across all our services. The services we deliver will be high quality and will protect and promote the wellbeing of children and young people by promoting family resilience. We will work collaboratively with our key partners to ensure we are able to realise the benefits of joint working to support our children, young people and families. 

Why is this important?

Ensuring children and young people are safe from harm is our core business. We want to build resilience in our families and communities so that they are better able to help, support and protect children without the need for statutory intervention. As part of this, we want to ensure our relationships with key partners are strong and that our families really benefit from collaboration and joined-up working. 

Strategic priority: Positive futures 

We will invest and work collaboratively to improve our local education, health and care offer to children and young people so that they have access to high quality services, are able to stay close to their families and friends, achieve well and develop their skills for independence. 

t is crucial that we provide the right support at the right time. This will enable us to help children and young people to develop their independence and prepare for adulthood. Putting in place local provision means children and young people can stay close to their families and essential support networks and they can benefit from our integrated services giving them the best chance for a positive future.

Strategic priority: Excellent workforce

Our workforce will be experienced, talented, empowered and motivated to deliver the best possible services and outcomes for children and young people. We will invest in the recruitment, retention and development of our workforce and reward their achievements. 

Feedback from children, young people and families always emphasises the importance of a consistent, skilled and motivated workforce. We want to make AfC a place where people want to come and work and a company that they are proud to tell their family and friends that they work for. 

Strategic priority: Financial stability

The services we deliver will provide excellent value for money and we are trusted by our commissioning councils to deliver the best possible services within the agreed contract price, including the efficient delivery of our financial savings plans. 

Given the financial context, nationally and locally, it is essential that we are focused on delivering efficient, cost-effective and financially sustainable services so we are able to support those most in need.

Strategic priority: Successful organisation

We will secure the sustainabilIty of the community interest company through contract renewal, business development, fundraising and good growth, so that we are able to reinvest in the services we deliver directly to children and their families. 

As the needs of young people and our owning councils change we will develop and adapt our business and delivery models to ensure we continue to meet their needs and offer value for money.

Strategic priority: Smarter working 

Our business processes will be efficient, cost-effective and supportive to frontline practitioners so that they are able to spend as much time as possible working directly with children, young people and their families to improve outcomes for them. 

Better business processes and effective use of new digital technologies will allow our workforce to reduce the amount of time they spend on unnecessary paperwork and bureaucracy, freeing them up to spend more time with the children, young people and families we support.

07 Delivering our strategic priorities in 2023-24

Achieving more for children across our whole organisation, strategic priority: positive futures, priority project.

Implement the Sufficiency Strategy to increase capacity in local foster care, residential care and supported accommodation, and work with other local authorities pan-London and pan-Berkshire to improve commissioning arrangements for placements that cannot be delivered from local, in-house provision. 

Associate Director for Provider Services

How will we know we have been successful in 2024?

As an organisation, we will have a clear direction about how much residential support we will deliver ourselves and how much we will commission. To support this, we will have developed a framework that sets out principles of when each approach should be used and we will be in the process of implementing this in both operational areas. 

90% of children and young people will be living locally in high quality care placements close to their friends and family, and will be effectively supported to full independence and adulthood. 

Any additional placement capacity is provided to the market with income generated from the commercial strategy for residential care reinvested each year into local services for children in care and on the edge of care. 

We will have agreed a delivery model with our owning councils that increases the amount of local accommodation and will have a clear roadmap that shows what provision will open when in each of our boroughs.

We will have supported the development of at least one new residential children’s home and two new supported accommodation units for care leavers leading to 60% of children in care and young people leaving care being in local care placements. 

Strengthen the quality and effectiveness of services delivered by the independent fostering agency (IFA), so that it supports the recruitment, training, development and retention of more foster carers and enables more children and young people to benefit from in-house family-based care.

Our IFA will be judged as ‘Good’ by Ofsted. We will have increased our number of foster carers by 100 families so that more children and young people are able to benefit from family-based care. 

Strengthen the approach to recruitment and retention with a clear, coordinated and focused programme of activity so that we can attract experienced and well-qualified practitioners and managers, retain a permanent workforce, and reduce employee turnover and reliance on a higher-cost agency workforce.

Associate Director for Workforce 

We will have a strong and stable workforce with a voluntary turnover rate below 15% and an agency staff rate below 10%, particularly in our frontline teams. There will be clear career development pathways with more than 75% of our employees saying that Achieving for Children is a good place to work. 

Ensure Achieving for Children is an inclusive and diverse organisation that celebrates differences and that represents the local communities it serves. 

Equality and Diversity Board

We will be moving towards having a workforce that is more reflective of the local community that it services, with established staff equality groups that work alongside the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Board to ensure that Achieving for Children is known for embracing diversity and championing inclusion for our workforce and the children and families that we work with, so that their identities are promoted and their individual needs are met. 

We will be implementing the actions identified in the EDI action plan and participating in the Workforce Race Equality Standard annually. 

Review and strengthen capacity and arrangements for commissioning, procurement and contract management, including the joint commissioning of services with NHS South West London and the Frimley Integrated Commissioning Board, to achieve quality, value and improved outcomes for children, young people and their families. 

Associate Director of Business Development and Strategic Commissioning

A new commissioning framework has been agreed with a focus on joint commissioning, supported by a skilled commissioning team. This will contribute to ensuring that we have robust and comprehensive commissioning arrangements including effective joint commissioning with the Integrated Commissioning Boards. 

Procurement and contract management has been strengthened across the organisation. Placement commissioning is a strength for AfC, embedded into our company culture and supports cost efficient and high quality services and support. 

Strategic priority: Smarter working

Review and put in place strengthened arrangements for support services so that the company has the services it needs to be efficient, effective and deliver excellent value for money. This includes establishing a business partner model within Business Services with our operational areas, with a focus on upskilling colleagues so they are more equipped to undertake basic business service functions. 

Chief Operating and Finance Officer

The company benefits from effective and cost-efficient corporate support services. Employee satisfaction rates with support services are high because 98% of issues and incidents are successfully resolved within agreed timescales. 

HR will be delivered in-house and the review of the IT service level agreement will be complete. We will be taking forward the recommendations from the independent IT and digital review.  

Operational colleagues will be upskilled to take on basic Business Services tasks through the provision of a range of support such as  project management toolkits and guidance, and IT helpdesk systems  Ongoing advice and guidance will be provided to ensure colleagues are fully equipped and comfortable undertaking these tasks. As a result, operational areas will report they are able to undertake these tasks effectively and that they feel supported. 

This will enable resources in Business Services to be targeted where they are most needed and where they provide the best value for money. 

In consultation with children, young people and families, partners and other key stakeholders, develop the new Achieving for Children Business Plan, which will set the direction for the organisation for future years. 

A new business plan will have been developed, ready to launch in April 2024. The plan will have been drafted based on a sound understanding of the local needs in each of the three local authority areas and priorities will be identified based on robust evidence such as inspection reports, data and intelligence, needs analyses, and qualitative feedback that we collect from stakeholders. 

We will gather specific views on the plan from our children, young people and families, our owning Councils, key partners such as schools and the voluntary and community sector, and our employees. This will ensure it reflects local needs accurately. 

The plan will also align with any strategic plans or priorities of key partners such as our owning Councils and health colleagues. 

Achieving more for Children in Kingston

Strategic priority: stronger families.

Implement the Families First safeguarding model by embedding specialist adult practitioners in family social work teams in order to provide a whole-family approach to child protection and ensure that children are able to safely remain within their families.

Director of Children’s Services

The Families First safeguarding model will be established. Internal reviews of practice will evidence that Signs of Safety and systemic approaches are embedded. External reviews and inspections of our services will consistently demonstrate the success of our practice in promoting resilience in families so that children are safe and well cared for. Ofsted will judge our children’s services to be at least good or outstanding in their overall effectiveness. 

Work with statutory partners and voluntary, community and faith sector organisations to strengthen the local early help offer by continuing to develop early help resilience networks and implementing Family Hubs, to build resilience in families so they are better able to protect and meet the needs of children without the need for higher-tier services or ongoing social work support.

Associate Director for Early Help

We have a strong partnership-focused early help offer that provides coherent and coordinated support to families from the right service at the earliest opportunity, led by the early help resilience networks. The development of Family Hubs will be underway with a clear plan for implementation. Universal services and targeted early help services are effective at reducing the need for statutory interventions, meaning that there has been a 20% reduction in child protection planning and the number of children coming into care. 

Review and reconfigure the Leaving Care service to ensure the offer to young people leaving care remains high quality and effectively meets their needs, while the service is well positioned to manage any potential increased demand. 

Director of Children’s Social Care

100% of recommendations from the leaving care review have been implemented, with the newly configured service in place and delivering an excellent offer to young people leaving care that supports them to prepare for adulthood and the transition to independence. 

Deliver the SEND Futures Plan (including the Safety Valve Agreement) to transform the experiences of children and young people with SEND and their families, so that local, high-quality education, health and social care provision meets children’s assessed needs and maximises their independence, whilst also delivering value for money and operating within the available DSG high needs funding.

SEND Programme Director

The needs of most children and young people with SEND are met at the earliest stage in mainstream schools without the need for an EHCP. 75% of children and young people with a plan are educated in local mainstream and special schools with much reduced reliance on independent and non-maintained school provision outside of the borough. The educational needs of children and young people with SEND are met within the funding provided in the Dedicated Schools Grant. 

Services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities are consistently high quality with 75% of parents and carers rating services as good or better. 

Improve the provision of occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, and physiotherapy through the implementation of recommendations identified in the review of therapies across Achieving for Children, NHS South West London and key partners. 

Associate Director for SEND and Associate Director for Health

There is an enhanced local therapies offer which is more accessible and more responsive to growing demand. 75% of parents and carers rate therapies as good or better. The revised staffing model impacts positively on the recruitment and retention of therapists and develops wider expertise across the whole SEND workforce. 

Work with adult care, health and housing providers to improve pathway and transition planning for young people with SEND so that services and support are in place to meet their needs, promote independence and enable a positive experience of early adulthood. 

Associate Director for SEND

All young people with SEND have an effective transition plan in place by the age of 15 that plans for their independence and maximises their opportunities for a positive experience of early adulthood, including planning for their transition to adult social care services where needed. 

A revised transitions protocol has been agreed between Achieving for Children and adult social care services and is embedded across SEND and leaving care services. 

Contribute to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) transformation programme at place and south-west London ICS levels, including by expanding coverage of the Mental Health in Schools Teams to all schools in Kingston and Richmond and by strengthening Tier 2 CAMHS services to reduce the waiting times for assessment and treatment.

Associate Director for Emotional Health

Children and young people are more easily able to access high quality mental health services that have a strong focus on early intervention and prevent issues escalating to higher levels of need. 75% of families will rate mental health services as good or better. 

There are Mental Health in Schools Teams in all schools across Kingston and waiting times for assessment and treatment have been reduced at Tier 2 CAHMS services. 

The priorities in our plan for Kingston are aligned with the Corporate Plan for 2019-23 - Making Kingston Better, Together - in particular strategic outcome 3: healthy, independent and resilient residents, with effective support to those who need it most. We will contribute to the development of the new Kingston Corporate Plan to ensure that the plans continue to align. 

Achieving more for Children in Richmond

Strategic priority: stronger families.

The Families First safeguarding model will be established.  Internal reviews of practice will evidence that Signs of Safety and systemic approaches are embedded. External reviews and inspections of our services will consistently demonstrate the success of our practice in promoting resilience in families so that children are safe and well cared for. Ofsted will judge our children’s services to be at least good or outstanding in their overall effectiveness. 

Strategic priority: Positive futures

Services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities are consistently high quality with 75% of parents and carers rating services as good or better.

The re-inspection of local area SEND services by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission judges that sufficient progress has been made in implementing the written statement of action and that the overall quality of services has improved. 

Improve the provision of occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, and physiotherapy through the implementation of recommendations identified in the review of therapies across Achieving for Children, the CCG and key partners. 

Work with adult care and housing providers to improve pathway and transition planning for young people with SEND so that services and support are in place to meet their needs, promote independence and enable a positive experience of early adulthood. 

Contribute to the CAMHS transformation programme at place and south-west London ICS levels, including by expanding coverage of the Mental Health in Schools Teams to all schools in Kingston and Richmond and by strengthening Tier 2 CAMHS services to reduce the waiting times for assessment and treatment.

Children and young people are easily able to access high quality mental health services that have a strong focus on early intervention and prevent issues escalating to higher levels of need. 75% of families will rate mental health services as good or better. 

There are Mental Health in Schools Teams in all schools across Richmond and waiting times for assessment and treatment have been reduced at Tier 2 CAHMS services. 

The priorities in our plan for Richmond are aligned with the Corporate Plan for 2018-22 - Standing Up for Richmond Residents - in particular the strategic outcome 4: a borough for everyone. We will contribute to the development of the new Richmond Corporate Plan to ensure that the plans continue to align.

Achieving more for Children in Windsor and Maidenhead

Priority project: stronger families.

Establish an intensive support team to work with children on the edge of care to support them to remain with their families where safe to do so, and to work with children in care so that where appropriate they can be reunified with parents or placed in their extended family or community.  As part of this, support foster placements where there are stability issues and step appropriate children down from residential placements to foster placements.

Director for Children’s Social Care

The intensive support team will be well established and operating effectively with evidence of impact. This will include: an increased number of children remaining within their family network; a reduction in the number of children in residential provision; and reduction in the number of children in care overall. 

Priority project: Positive futures

Develop resources to support assessment and early intervention in mainstream early years settings, schools and colleges so that they are equipped to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND who are below the threshold for an education, health and care plan.

Deputy Director for Education

All mainstream early years settings, schools and colleges are observed to confidently and effectively support children and young people with SEND who are below the threshold for an EHCP. An inclusion charter mark has been developed to formalise engagement in this scheme.

Resources to support assessment and early intervention have been developed and put in place. 80% of mainstream early years settings, schools and colleges are observed to confidently and effectively support children and young people with SEND who are below the threshold for an EHCP. 

Work with the ICB and other partners to implement the written statement of action for SEND so that services are high quality and respond better to the needs, views and ambitions of children, young people and their families. 

Monitoring of local area SEND services by the Department for Education judge that services are effective and continue to improve. 60% of parents and carers rate services as ‘Good or better’. 

Develop alternative education provision to better support the educational progress, achievement and wellbeing of children and young people with challenging behaviours who have been permanently excluded or are at risk of exclusion from school.

New alternative education provision has been developed to support the needs of 36 children and young people with challenging behaviours, leading to improved educational progress, attainment and outcomes (no young people are currently excluded from primary school). 

Work with adult care and housing providers to improve pathway and transition planning for young people with SEND and for care leavers so that services and support are in place to meet their needs, promote independence and enable a positive experience of early adulthood. 

Following the implementation of a revised transitions protocol, agreed between Achieving for Children and adult social care services, all young people with SEND have an effective transition plan in place by the age of 15 that plans for their independence and maximises their opportunities for a positive experience of early adulthood, including planning for their transition to adult social care services where needed.

Work to reduce gaps in attainment in reading, writing and mathematics between children in receipt of the Pupil Premium grant and their peers to provide the foundation for all children to achieve well and have positive choices for their future learning. 

The attainment for reading, writing and mathematics (combined) at the end of key stage 2 for pupils in receipt of the Pupil Premium grant is better than the results of the statistical neighbour peer group (summer 2024 results). 

Priority project: Smarter working

Specify, procure and implement a new case management system to replace the existing PARIS system that is used across children’s services with the aim of improving consistency of practice; reducing the administrative burden on staff; automating much of the standard reporting needs; and enabling more effective collaboration with partners, families and children. 

The new case management system is in place and is operating effectively across all areas of the service. Families, children and other partners contribute to the system electronically, improving the knowledge of a given child, with data migration and staff training programmes underway. 

The priorities in our plan for Windsor and Maidenhead are aligned with the Corporate Plan for 2021-2026 - Building a borough of opportunity and innovation.

08 Our financial plan

Achieving for Children’s Medium Term Financial Strategy focuses on achieving financial sustainability over the business plan period and explains how the business plan programmes and business development strategy will help achieve financial sustainability. In setting the medium term budget we have focused on making informed recommendations that align with our commissioning councils’ affordability objectives, as well as making best use of available funds to achieve the best outcomes for children and young people. 

The six business plan principles align with the organisation’s financial objectives through the promotion of family resilience, maximising independence into adulthood through supporting young people to meet their full potential, investment in local borough resources, and focusing on efficient business processes and commissioning. 

The organisation will be following three overarching financial principles over the coming years.

Achieving value for money

All three of Achieving for Children’s commissioning councils have historically received relatively low levels of funding for council services and as a result, services must be delivered at a lower than average cost. Achieving for Children delivers good quality services for a relatively low cost across general fund services. Education services that are funded by the Dedicated Schools Grant are delivered at average cost and the organisation is working proactively towards improving services in line with inspection findings. The programmes detailed in this plan facilitate the improved use of resources.

Maximise resources available to frontline services

Achieving for Children regularly reviews budgets to ensure that resources available to frontline services are maximised and there is a sufficient balance to ensure that frontline services have the infrastructure to ensure they can continue to support children and families. The following aspects are important in achieving this objective:

• adequate needs led budget growth and achievement of savings
• maximise income generation
• periodic review of emerging priority areas
• business plan programmes must facilitate the effective use of resources

Shared budget responsibility

Achieving for Children operates a culture of shared budget responsibility with all staff being responsible for ensuring that every pound spent is maximising positive outcomes for children and young people and is in line with budget control processes. Each of the programmes identified in this business plan will have a project sponsor as well as project management and finance support. Progress against the plan and on the associated spend and savings implications will be monitored on an ongoing basis with the relevant leadership team having overarching oversight. 

The financial implications, in terms of spend and savings will be carefully monitored over the plan period. It is clear that the coming years will be financially challenging for Achieving for Children given the ongoing pressure on wider public sector budgets and national increases in levels of need for children’s services. It is of paramount importance that the organisation continues to work with commissioning partners to ensure a mutual understanding of existing and emerging pressures, and reaches agreement on the level of funding available and how that funding should be prioritised to achieve the best possible outcomes for the children and young people we support. 

The medium term financial plan can be found here .

How to create a childcare or daycare business plan

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Keeping a group of toddlers occupied and writing a strong business plan may be very different tasks, but both take patience, time, and coordinating a few moving pieces.

You bring the child care skills, this guide will help out with the other one, outlining the five key areas to include in an effective child care business plan.

From financial projections to local business marketing strategies , here are the most important sections of a successful daycare business plan.

1. Executive summary

Your childcare business plan will be as functional to your business as a shelf stocked with Curious George. Not only is it an essential document if you’re raising funds for your business, but it’s also a helpful way to organize your thoughts and plans for yourself and to share them with employees.

Start every business plan with a summary to hook whoever’s reading it to learn more about your company and your proposal. Think of it a little like a sales pitch for your business and a preview of everything you lay out inside. Be sure to include:

Contact information – Include your name, number, address, email, and any other relevant contact information so potential partners know how to get in touch.

Business concept – Whether a one-person babysitting service or a 24/7 child care facility, include key details of your business, including staff size, services, a summary of general operations, and the required operating licenses you have or plan to get.

Business structure – List owners, partners, managers, and employees, and explain the structure of your business and how it will run. This should also include your target demographic and basic marketing plans.

Mission – Share your reason for starting a childcare business. For Matt and Anne Evers , owners of the Primrose School of Atascocita in Kingwood, TX, their business is personal: “Since both of our children attend the school it is very easy for us to ask ourselves when making daily decisions, ‘What’s the best choice for the child? What will result in the best outcome for [them]?’”

Keep the executive summary to one or two pages. You’ll have the space to dive deeper into the details of your childcare business in the following sections.

2. Location details

Child care is a local business, which means location, community needs, and demographics are all key in planning your grand opening.

Your business location will likely fall into one of two categories of childcare businesses:

Inside your home – Operating within your home can mean less overhead costs, fewer rental expenses, and more flexibility. To comply with local and state safety regulations, you may be required to renovate or change portions of your home. 

Outside your home – Factor in rent, utilities, and any necessary repairs to the property. Whether renting in a residential neighborhood or purchasing a commercial property, summarize your general knowledge of the building and neighborhood, plus why you plan to operate there in this section.

Since your location is important to your childcare business, include insurance costs, relevant zoning laws, neighborhood information, and applicable details on kitchen and bathroom facilities.

3. Financial layout

An effective business plan will share both a compelling narrative for your idea and the steps you’ll take to make it a success. Your financial planning section should be well-researched with estimates for costs, the funding you’re seeking, and projected growth over the next three or more years. While this section is necessary for investors and partners, it will also give you a working plan to help your childcare business run smoothly and make a profit.

When fleshing out the financial section of your business plan, include details like:

Tax plan – Share your business’s legal structure — commonly C or S corporation, general or limited partnership, sole proprietor, or limited liability company — to plan for taxes.

Insurance – Assess risk, liability, protection, and coverage options to ensure you’ve covered all the necessary bases. 

Budget – Include both costs and projected profit for your child care business accounting for personnel, equipment, supplies, professional fees, and other expenses. Include monthly and annual budgets, as well as a cash-flow forecast.

Detail your plans for fluctuations, which is common for childcare businesses. Take it from Danielle Burns, director of Lil’ Red Barn Academy in Washington whose business experienced an influx of children in the summer of 2021, despite the summer typically being a slower time.

If you run into questions with the financial section of your business plan, consider tapping an accountant for help, especially if they have advised other local businesses in your area.

4. Marketing plan

It’s almost time to spread the word about your services. Building a marketing plan as a neighborhood business is more than catchy slogans and photos of cute kids. In this section, show your understanding of your local market and how your business will support it.

When developing your marketing plan, include:

Market analysis – Summarize the state of childcare in your area: Will you be one of five daycares on the block, or are you opening up within a community that’s lacking in childcare options? Consider neighborhood trends, your competition, and the average cost of child care in your neighborhood. Include information on your target clientele and how you’ll meet their needs to show your business’s potential.

Business niche – Whether you’re focused on a specific age group or specializing in evening care, explain where you fit into the overall childcare industry and how any unique services will distinguish you from the competition.

The 5 P’s: Price, product, promotion, place, and people – You’ll want to make sure you’re offering the right prices and products to the right people in the most effective way possible. Analyze market and demographic data for marketing or advertising plans for your childcare business to reach the right clients for your business.

Start with a free business page on Nextdoor . Set one up for your local business in minutes to instantly unlock a following of your most valuable customers: neighbors. Show up in local searches when neighbors look for childcare options near them, share updates as you open and grow, and build trust in your business with recommendations.  

5. Daily operations

The details of your day-to-day operations are just as important as the big picture ideas and long-term goals you’re setting. Use this section for the details of your services, including information on:

Personnel – List your team along with the goals and responsibilities of each of their roles. Share details of your hiring practices and staff policies, from sick leave to the termination process. 

Structure – Include a schedule for what a typical day at your daycare looks like highlighting what makes your business unique: lunch or nutrition plans, classes and other organized activities, playtime, exercise, and storytime.

Parental policies – The two most important details with parents are how you plan to keep them informed, and what your policies are. Pick-up and drop-off requirements, what happens if they’re late for pick-up, behavioral issues — build an action plan to set expectations when they first enroll their children.

Emergency plans – Include fire escape plans, medical protocol, and other possible contingency plans as part of your daily operational details.

Build a community with Nextdoor

The building blocks of a successful childcare service start with a comprehensive business plan. From there, your business will rely on your local community and how you’re able to meet the needs of the families in your neighborhood to thrive. 

With one in three U.S. households on Nextdoor , neighbors use the app every day to get things done, connect with everyone and everything nearby, and pass along local recommendations. With 50,000 shared each week, make the next recommendation for your child care services with a free business page and a plan to reach local families who need them.

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Home Daycare Business Plan

This page may contain affiliate links. Learn More.

Do you love children? Do you want to do something that really matters? Maybe home daycare for you. Check out this home daycare business plan and see if it’s financially viable. If you want to run a home daycare , start there.

Working from home can be awesome. Being able to stay home with your own children is a blessing too. Being your own boss and setting your own hours and pay are great too. If you love that idea and you are a kind and patient person with lots of empathy for others, home daycare might be a great plan for your life.

For more about how to start a home daycare click here.

For a downloadable printable home daycare business plan worksheet , click here.

Home daycare is going to be growing by leaps and bounds after the year we’ve gone through so far. There is going to be a huge need for daycare since many small businesses folded this year. Home daycare is a special type of business that has fairly low overhead and is customizable to put your own personal spin on what you do.

I don’t agree with most people’s ideas of how to teach kids. I have my own brand of teaching. I march to the beat of my own drum. I’m very passionate about why I choose to teach my kids the way I do and I want to be able to chart my own waters. This isn’t possible with working for someone else.

Giving my kids the very best of me is the number one reason why I love working for myself. I get to study, learn, and do my very best for my families.

Home daycare is fun! There is a lot of hard work, little respect, and lots of messes. But it’s also different every day. You never get bored because you don’t know what you’re going to get. You get to set the tone of your environment. It’s a great place to be.

The first step in starting a home daycare is to find out about how to get licensed of what the rules are for your area. Click on the highlighted text to see more about whether a license is required. Once you determine that, it’s time to do some other research to find out if home daycare is a viable income for your family.

A big part of the cost of providing care will have to do with the regulations you have to follow. Some licenses cost. Some are free. Some states require a substantial expense in getting your home up to code. Some have very few requirements.

Some things you may have to change is fencing, hiring staff, meeting fire regulations, getting medical exams, and acquiring more education, training, or certificates.

Also, consider local zoning laws. Do you rent? Is your landlord okay with a home daycare in their property? Do you own? Is there a homeowner’s association? Do they allow businesses in the neighborhood? It’s important to consider your neighbors for sure.

Daycare business plan

Now that you know if you can open, you need to consider what you can make. Look at existing facilities, homes, and centers in your area. What do they charge? What do they offer? What do you want to offer? Do you plan to have a specialization that you can charge more for?

How many children will you be allowed to keep and of what ages? In Oklahoma, we can keep 7 kids over the age of 2. We can keep 6 kids if 3 are under 2. We can keep 5 if they are all under 2. So, a big determination in how many kids you can keep is what age of children need care in your area and what ages you will enjoy caring for. I LOVE babies, but I don’t love keeping them 10 hours a day. I like to run and play and do activities. I don’t want to hold an infant all day. So, I don’t keep them. For 20 years, I kept all ages from birth to 12, but over the years, I scaled back.

As I got older, it was more difficult to do everything for everyone, so I changed some of my home daycare rules to suit me better at the age I am now. Believe me, home daycare is far easier when you are 24 than when you are 49. I promise!

Now think of your location. Is it a good area that people will be happy to take their kids to? Or will you have a more difficult time getting clients in that area because of some stigma? In my town, there is an east and west side. For some reason, people think the west side is bad. There are good and bad areas on both sides, but home daycares on the west side always struggle. It’s a stigma, not a real problem. But it does affect business.

When doing your research, find out if there are some gaps in care that many people need. Here there is ALWAYS a big need for very young infant care. None of our centers in town take kids under 10 months. And there are always lots of babies being born. If you wanted to open an infant only facility, it would do well.

You could also specialize in early morning or late-night care. What about weekends? Lots of people here work shift work and they need good care at night. Find out who provides what and what people need. You can look on Facebook and find out what people are asking for. You can ask in a community group or a mom group. You can ask the principle and the electuary school what they have heard.

Is afterschool care with transport from the school a huge need? That could be your niche. Think about providing care during all the school breaks but most of the year only doing it for an hour or two after school? There’s always a great need for that. If you like older kids and like helping them with homework, you could be a godsend to many families.

In our state, we have resource and referral agencies that can provide this information to you all in one place. You can ask if you have anything like that when you contact your licensing agency for regulations in the beginning.

Now to make a specific business plan.

Home daycare salary

How many children will you care for? What will be the minimum and maximum age you’ll take? Will you charge a different price for different ages? What time will you be open? Will you provide all meals for children? Will you provide diapers and wipes? Will you need to hire staff to help you? What about an accountant or bookkeeper? Housekeeper? Lawn service? Think about all the expenses you may have because you’ll be busy working with kids so many hours a day.

Next, you need a name and a philosophy. Potential parents will want to know your ideals and what you stand for. What are your beliefs about providing care? Will you be play-based? Montessori? Nature-based? Have a strict school readiness goal?

You’ll also need policies and a contract . This is a super important step in your business plan. You may be tempted to skip it, but don’t. You will regret it.

Next, you’ll need a budget . You can use this printable business plan to record all the information you’ve collected and figure out what your budget might be. You’ll have to consider start-up expenses and must-have items to work. And you’ll also have to consider the price of every day supplies such as food, replacement toys, repairs, paper products, and so on.

There are other expenses or charges you may not think about such as are listed below.

Charges for families:

• Registration fees
• Waitlist fees
• Supply fees
• Curriculum fees

Expenses for you:

• Construction costs
• Software costs
• Training costs
• Bank charges

Then you’ll have to figure out the income you’ll be making. What will you charge per child and how many children? Figure up your potential earnings and add it to the printable business plan to come up with your home daycare salary.

Check out what home daycare essentials you really need here.  

Home daycare insurance

Don’t forget about home daycare insurance. Obviously, you’ll have to have homeowner’s insurance and auto insurance for your vehicles, but did you know that neither of those covers your business?

Many insurance companies won’t offer it, so you’ll have to look around. If you can’t find any, ask around to other home daycare providers and see if any of them have a suggestion.

Lastly, before you can open, you’ll have to find a way to market your home daycare. Check out these advertising ideas to get you started.

Home daycare website

Don’t forget if you want to make a daycare website to advertise and share information with your clients about what’s going on at daycare, you’ll need to figure in the cost of that as well. You can get wonderful website design help and custom made forms from daycare time solutions here. 

Get your home daycare business plan worksheet here.

Get your home daycare menu planning guide here.

Get your home daycare licensing checklist here.

For a planner made JUST for home daycare providers , this jewel will help you get all of your business organized-AND, it’s gorgeous! There are tons of great provider helps on this site. I wish resources like these ladies have were available when I started. There was no help for home daycare providers back then. But don’t forget to always take care of yourself so you can take care of others!

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Daycare Business Plan

What is a Daycare Business Plan?

A daycare business plan is an equivalent of a roadmap in your business journey. A plan helps you understand what you’re getting yourself into.

It helps you understand the market, figure out where you stand in it, know your target audience better, and formulate better marketing and financial strategies.

Overall, it makes your decision-making process faster and more effective and prevents you from feeling clueless at any point in your business journey.

Moreover, it also helps you get investors and helps your employees and partners understand what your business stands for. It gives the people in your business a feeling that you have a vision and know what you are doing with your business.

Also, you get to set clear goals that give you a direction to work and put your efforts in.

Why is a Daycare Business Plan Important?

Everything you do for your business should add value to it. And here’s how a daycare business plan can add value to your business:

It gives you a sense of direction

There are several ways you can go with each business decision. A business plan helps you understand what would work best for your business then.

Also, it gives a set of tangible goals to look forward to when you work on your business.

It helps you understand your target audience better

Planning your business gives a better form and structure to your research. Which at the end of the day helps you understand your customers better. It also helps you analyze what it means for your business.

Making and upgrading your product or service for your customers serves the biggest purpose at the end of the day.

It helps you understand your competition better

Imagine there’s a popular daycare center in your city and several parents swear by it. Now, this could mean several things for your business.

You’ll have to pick a different location, know the daycare service’s weaknesses and offer better services by working on that area for your business.

You can also pick the things they are doing right, and inculcate the same in your strategies.

A business plan can help you do all of the above and more through a competitive analysis.

It helps you convince your investors

Though making the right prediction is difficult, having a rough idea of your business’s sales and financial potential is important to get investors on board.

Investors want to know the scalability of your business before they invest in it. A good and realistic prediction of returns makes it easier to convince investors.

And a business plan can help you make realistic financial predictions.

It keeps you updated with the latest business trends

A business plan is a living document that grows alongside your business. It also helps you have a foresight of changing trends and act on time for getting the best results for your business.

This also makes it important for you to keep updating your plan as your business grows.

What does a Daycare Business Plan Look Like?

If you are planning to start a new auto or car repair shop, the first thing you will need is a business plan. Use our sample Daycare Business Plan created using Upmetrics business plan software to start writing your business plan in no time.

Before you start writing your business plan for your new auto repairing shop, spend as much time as you can reading through some examples of Children’s & Pet business plans .

Moreover, business plans come in different forms to fit the current state of your business.

Apart from that, there are a few major sections that should be included in every business plan.

Daycare Business Plan Outline

This is the standard business plan outline which will cover all important sections that you should include in your business plan.

• Executive Summary
• Keys to Success
• Company Summary
• Timothy Bernard Kilpatrick
• Start-up Summary
• Locations and Facilities
• Service Description
• Competitive Comparison
• Sales Literature
• Fulfillment
• Future Services
• Industry Analysis
• Market Segmentation
• Market Analysis
• Market Needs
• Market Trends
• Market Growth
• Business Participants
• Competition and Buying Patterns
• Main Competitors
• Strategy and Implementation Summary
• Value Proposition
• Competitive Edge
• Positioning Statement
• Pricing Strategy
• Promotion Strategy
• Marketing Programs
• Sales Forecast
• Sales Programs
• Strategic Alliances
• Web Plan Summary
• Website Marketing Strategy
• Development Requirements
• Management Summary
• Organizational Structure
• Timothy B. Kilpatrick
• Carolyn Steverson
• Candice Harris
• Management Team Gaps
• Personnel Plan
• Projected Profit and Loss
• Projected Cash Flow
• Projected Balance Sheet

What to Include in Your Daycare Business Plan?

A good daycare business plan consists of a certain number of well-defined sections, the following sections can help you in writing an excellent business plan.

1. Executive Summary

The executive summary section is one of the most important sections of your business plan because it not only forms the first section of your business plan but also acts as a pitch for potential investors who can provide you with funds for your daycare business.

It consists of your company’s vision and mission, its USP, objectives, and also expected revenues.

Writing the executive summary section of your plan at the very end, so you can sum up your plan properly is a good tip to remember.

2. Services

In this section, you should give out a clear idea of what your services are and whom it caters to. You should define your target market, your niche, the area your services will be extended to, etc.

As a daycare center, you should have a clear idea of the age group you will cater to, what is the preferred location of your target audience, how you come off as a service to your customers, and so on.

3. Market Analysis

Market analysis can be of great help to any business, it can help you understand what you are getting yourself into, who your competitors are, what your client base expects out of you, and where you stand in the current market situation.

Hence, market analysis immensely improves your understanding of the industry you are getting into. In the case of a daycare center knowing the best practices of childcare that exist in the market can be of great help.

4. Web Plan

In today’s internet-based world, most busy parents looking for a daycare center online. Hence, having a strong and reliable web presence is crucial to the success of your daycare business. Thus, including a web strategy in your business plan is necessary.

Always remember, as a daycare service coming off as a trustworthy and reliable institution is crucial for your business to work.

5. Management and Organizational Structure

Having a well-structured management system is especially crucial for a daycare service. It not only helps your business run smoother, but it also makes you look more responsible and reliable in front of the parents or the primary caregivers.

In this section, you should include the structure of your organization, details about people on various levels in your company, a solid system for tracking everyone’s work and progress, the areas your team is excelling at, and the areas your team is lagging in.

6. Financial Plan

One of the chief reasons for several daycare services running out of business is poorly managed finances or running out of funds to keep going.

Planning your finances in the early stages of your business saves you from encountering such a problem later on.

Hence, planning your finances is mandatory while writing a business plan.

Download a sample daycare business plan

Need help writing your business plan from scratch? Here you go;  download our free daycare business plan pdf  to start.

It’s a modern business plan template specifically designed for your daycare business. Use the example business plan as a guide for writing your own.

The Quickest Way to turn a Business Idea into a Business Plan

Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.

Daycare Business Plan Summary

In conclusion, apart from having a good image as an organization, a well-managed team, a clearly defined niche, thorough research of the market and an excellent financial plan is crucial to the success of a daycare business.

After getting started with Upmetrics , you can copy this sample daycare business plan into your business plan and modify the required information and download your daycare business plan pdf or doc file.

It’s the fastest and easiest way to start writing your business plan.

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Everything You Need To Know

Home Daycare Business Plan

Sure, starting a home daycare seems simple enough – it’s just babysitting, right wrong.

Running an in-home daycare is running a business and you need to treat it as such. As a sole proprietorship business, you are liable for the well-being of every single person that sets foot on your property.

As with any new business, you need to have a detailed outline on how it’s going to run. This is known as a business plan. You’ll use it to figure out how you’re going to run your business and more importantly, make money. 

If you haven’t had a chance to check out the  Getting Started Page , go do that now.  You will need to start gathering information about specific licensing requirements for opening a family child care business in your area. Plus, you will want to get started on some of the paperwork for your business license, police records, and first aid. 

GRAB A COFFEE

Because we are going to cover a ton of information, jump to a section, business summary.

Who Are You? | What do you plan on doing? | What is going to make you stand out?

FINANCIAL PLAN

Rates | Start-Up Costs | Record Keeping | Payment Policies | Taxes

OPERATIONS PLAN

Designate Your Home Daycare Area | Develop a Parent Handbook | Schedules | Quality Control Checks | Interviewing Parents

MARKETING PLAN

Your own website | Flyers with tear off tabs | Word of mouth | Social Media | Newspaper Ads | Online Daycare Advertising Sites | Craigslist, Kijiji | Put a sign on your yard 

Let’s get started!

Home daycare business summary.

Start by briefly summarizing the following: who you are, what are you planning to do? What will set you apart from other child care businesses? You will use this summary over and over again during the planning process.

So NO CHEATING! Don’t skip this step.   

Who are you?

Simply state who you are and why you are qualified to open a home daycare. Don’t worry if you think you aren’t qualified. You don’t need a background in early childhood education to run an in home child care business. Chances are you are more qualified than you think, so take a deep breath and just go for it. The following are a few examples:

I am Liz, a stay at home mom of 2.

I am Sally, a preschool teacher taking a break from teaching to stay at home with my kids.

What do you plan on doing?

List the types of services you plan on providing. Think about who your ideal client would be and what services they would need. 

Ask yourself the following questions to identify your ideal client :

What ages of children do you most want to have in your home daycare?

Would you rather have sets of siblings?

Do you only want to take on full time children or do you prefer only part time children?

Take some time to really brainstorm your perfect home daycare situation and then write a summary.

For example:

My ideal clients would be a non-shift worker whose contracted hours are 8-5.  The children would be between ages 1-4.  

My ideal clients are teachers, who do not need care in the summer. The children would be between the ages of 1-4. 

Also think about the services you don’t want to offer. If drop- in care doesn’t work for your family, don’t offer it. You will have moments when you are tempted to change your services for parents, but adjusting services based on individual cases will only hurt your business. Make sure you are very clear on what you want to offer and what you don’t.  

Here are some examples:   

• Provide child care services for children between the ages of 1-5
• Provide Fulltime, part-time, drop in services
• Provide Before and after school child care 
• Provide 24 hour care for shift workers

What is going to make you stand out?

Try to find something that will set your home daycare apart from other comparable businesses in your area. Now don’t go all politician here and make some wild and crazy promises that you won’t be able to keep. It can be as simple as a weekly craft or newsletter. Specializations could include: 

• Do you speak another language?
• Do you have a special talent?  (Music, Art)
• Will you provide transportation?
• Will you cater to shift-workers who work odd hours?
• Will provide tons of outdoor time?
• Will you be an allergy friendly house?
• Will you serve only organic food?

We will go over more market research in the following section, but start asking around in local Facebook groups and social media groups for ideas. What are local parents looking for in home daycares?  You might be surprised by their answers. It can be as simple as wanting a home daycare to be open until 6 pm. Or something different like a home daycare that provides pet sitting. 

Now, put it all together in a brief summary. It doesn’t have to be perfect. At this point you can cut out what you don’t want to include or add anything extra you think will make your business stand out.  

Here are a few examples 

I am Liz, a stay at home mom of 2.  Liz’s home daycare is located in the Willowbrook area and provides care for children 1-6 years old.  We spend our days, exploring local parks and making crafts.   

I plan on opening a home daycare in the Berryhill area, with transportation services to Berryhill elementary and Markhill elementary.

Home Daycare Financial Plan 

In this section, we’re going to work out how much money you need to charge your clients in order to turn a profit. Let’s face it, having positive cash flow is kind of the point and if this venture isn’t going to provide you with the extra cash flow you want, what’s the point? And although there aren’t a ton of start-up costs for opening a home daycare, there are operating costs that can cut into your profits. Here we will create a budget for expenses, and touch on tax planning.    

Sure, we would all love to charge the highest rate possible. Who doesn’t want to make a fortune at their home business? but that’s not always feasible. In order to attract clients, you will have to charge rates that are competitive with other child care services in your area. Remember, that being a child care provider is a lot of work. You will be working long hours, with few breaks So, don’t undercharge yourself, either.

So how do you determine what to charge?

Start by conducting some market research about your competitors. 

You don’t need to break out the excel sheet but you should gather details about your other child care providers in your area. Start by calling different home daycares and child care centers to find out their rates and what they offer. After a few, you will start to see a general average rate for your area. 

Then ask yourself, does any daycare stand out more than the others? If so, what makes them unique? Are they charging a premium?  

Now, go back and revisit your business summary. Did you identify something that will make your home daycare stand out?  Did any of the home daycares you called offer something comparable? What were they charging? You may need to expand your research beyond your local area to find a comparable home daycare.  

Types of rates

Your rates should reflect how you plan on running your home daycare. If you haven’t thought about this yet, it’s a good time to start. Ask yourself if you would prefer to have your number of kids on a monthly basis or have a few full-time and a few part-time kids.  

Monthly Rate

Charging a monthly rate is fairly straightforward. This is a set rate for the whole month regardless of how many days are in the month. This rate should be a set amount and not fluctuate.  

Part-time rate 

You can do a few things with part-time rates. Charging a set rate for a certain number of days per week is one option. Another option is charging for a certain number of days per month.

2 days a week is x amount

3 days a week is x amount

Or 10 days per month is x amount

You’re only allowed to have so many kids in your care, so if you plan on taking on part-time kids make sure that it works in a way for you to be able to fill the other days. 

Sally comes three times a week only on Monday/Wednesday/Friday. You can then offer care to another child on only Tuesday/Thursdays. Although this system is more difficult to make work it is possible.   

Margo comes 10 days out of the month. Her parents let you know a month in advance what those 10 days are. With plenty of notice, you can fill those extra spots.   

Frankly if you want to have a steady income, only take on full-time kids. Or only take on 1-2 part-time kids in addition to 1-2 full-time kids.  

If you plan on having a drop-in service, make this your highest per-day rate. Drop-in’s can be a lot of work.  Often these kids are not used to daycares. 

Don’t expect to be at full capacity right away. Budget for 75% to 85%. 

Figure out your break-even point. Is there a minimum amount that you “need” to make it worthwhile for you to run a home daycare. For some, this will be $2,000 or other it will be $500.  

Say you need to make $2000 per month and through your research, the average price for childcare in your area is $750.  

You would need to take on at least 3 full-time kids to make your $2000. 

Desired income + monthly expenses / Your rate = How many kids you need to take on.   

***Important this calculation does not take in consideration that you still need to pay taxes on this and in Canada, you need to pay into the Canadian Pension Plan twice.  (See more on  Using Your Home for Daycare ) If this is a concern for you, adjust these amounts accordingly.  

Now if you are just running a home daycare to make some extra cash, this might not be such a concern to you, but remember your time is still valuable.     

Remember, if you are able to add more value to your services you should be charging more. Also, keep in mind, you should increase your rates every year to keep up with increases in the cost of living.    

Start-Up Costs

Although there are not a ton of start-up costs to running a home daycare, there are a few that will have to come out of your pocket before you can take on your first client. Here is a list of possible startup costs for opening your home daycare:  

• Business license
• Licencing fees (If required)
• First Aid Courses
• Police Checks
• Additional Home Insurance
• Additional Auto Insurance
• Operational Supplies  (Check out The Ultimate List of Home Daycare Supplies)
• Marketing/Advertising costs

Record Keeping  

Record keeping is so important when running a small business. Don’t fall behind on this.  Set aside time each day to record your attendance and some time at the end of the month to update your expenses and income reports. Get a binder or file folder to hold all your important documents.

You should record your attendance daily.  Keep a record of who attended each day, when they were dropped off and picked up. Depending on the type of services you offer the number of hours you work could vary daily or stay the same. Regardless you will need to know this for tax purposes.  

Record every time someone pays you. Use an Excel sheet, an online accounting program or a notebook.  

Let’s face it no one becomes a millionaire running a home daycare. You want to save as much as possible of what you do make.  And one way of doing that is paying less in taxes. Make sure you save your receipts and record all your expenses. The more you can deduct the less tax you will have to pay at the end of the year.    

Here is a list of typical operational expenses for home daycares:

• Supplies for activities
• Curriculum materials 
• Fees (e.g. licensing)
• Maintenance
• Office supplies
• Professional services (e.g.lawyer or accounting)
• Accounting Software
• Supplies (cleaning, kitchen and teaching)
• Telephone and Internet
• Utilities        

Payment Policies

How are you going to make sure you get paid .

You can require payment either monthly, bimonthly or weekly .  Also include how far in advance you want to receive payment. The first of each month is commonly used. However, you can choose to require payment two weeks in advance of services. You can match your payment schedule with the parents’ salary payment and get paid the same day they do.  

Decide how you are going to handle drop-in payments?  Will you require payment in advance? 

Are you planning on charging late fees?  If so, when do you plan on requiring payment.

For example:  

Payment for late fees are required within 24 hours from the occurrence or subject to termination of care

Payment for late fees will be added to next months payment.  

Inform parents what forms of payment you accept, most common are cash and Email Money Transfer (EMT).

You should state that fees are nonrefundable and services are subject to termination if not paid on time.

Develop a system for yourself to ensure you’re on top of getting paid and nothing gets missed. You don’t want to be working for free.  

For example you can make a policy that part-time parents need to have their required hours submitted by the 1st of every month. You can send a reminder email the week before to ensure you have enough time to fill any empty spaces.

You can you also use an application like Waveapp to create recurring invoices, send payment reminders and generate payment statements.  This program is free. 

What if a parent doesn’t pay?  

You need to decide before opening what your policies will be on non-payment. Unexpected bills and extenuating circumstances do come up for parents. However you have to remember you’re running a business here and you deserve to be paid. Simply put: don’t provide services without for free.   

The last thing you want is a big tax bill at the end of the year. Decide on how you plan on address paying your taxes. The easiest way is to put a little away each month in a savings account. You can always set up an automatic transfer, so you don’t forget.

Get a file folder to keep all your receipts in one place.   

Decide whether you are going to do your own taxes or have an accountant file your taxes for you.  If you go the accountant route, look for an accountant who is knowledgeable about home daycares. 

*Keep in mind the legal structure of most home daycares is that of the sole proprietorship. On the tax front, the business’s income and expenses are included in the tax return of the owner. Since the business is not legally separate from its owner, it is not required to file separate tax returns.

  Home Daycare Operations Plan

Your operation plan defines the nitty gritty details how exactly you are going to run your business.  While there are regulations that home daycare have to follow, you have a lot of freedom in how you run your home daycare. You get to choose your hours, days off, policies and even which children you take in.  

Designate your home daycare area

If you have not by now, figure out all the areas of your house you will be using for your home daycare. You should include a dedicated area play area, sleeping area, eating area and bathroom. Calculate the square footage and keep it handy for your taxes.  

Now start addressing your supplies needs for each area.  

You might already have everything you need but check out  The Ultimate List of Home Daycare Supplies . This post goes into detail on everything you possibly can think of to run a home daycare.

Develop a Parent Handbook – Policies and Procedures

If you want your home daycare to run smoothly from day one, you need to figure out your policies and procedures. While this sounds like a daunting task, it will be incredibly helpful when it comes to communicating your expectations with parents.       

A Parent Handbook is an easy way to share your policies and procedures. It’s an informational guide for parents outlining everything you expect from them. What they should expect from you, payment information, behavior policies and emergency information. A handbook sets you up for success by getting everyone on the same page, but it’s up to the parents to read it.

Hours of Operation

What hours do you want to work? 

What days do you want to be open?

Keep in mind the average person works 9-5 Monday through Friday and must commute to and from work. Yet there still is a market for part-time, overnight or even care on weekends.

It’s tempting to change your hours in order to sign a new client. But over time your work- life balance will suffer and you will end up burning yourself out.

Contracted Hours / Days

  You should insist on each child having contracted hours. Contracted hours are the time/days the parents will be dropping off and picking up their child. For example: If you have a part time child that comes on 3 days a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9am to 5pm, you can schedule other part time children around those days to fill your Tuesday and Thursday time slots. If the clients need to change their contracted three days to a different three days, in your contract, specify that you can refuse such changes due to a conflict and have the right to end the contract.  

Contracted hours allow you to schedule activities. You will know approximately when each child will be coming, and you can plan around drop offs and pickups.

While late drop off and picks happen, you want to make sure that the parents know you are serious about open communication. Be sure to ask them, if they are going to late that they call or text you to let you know. You will soon find out that maintaining a schedule and following a routine is important.

Holidays   

What holidays do you want to observe?

It’s widespread practice for clients to pay regular fee for civic holidays. For example, your monthly rate is $800, so you would not give a discount because you’re closed for a holiday.

You can choose to either charge parents for your vacation days or not. But, you must make this completely clear to clients before they sign your contract.  

Be sure to state that if the parent decides to take a holiday or day off and pull their child out of your care for that day, they still pay your full monthly fee. They will not receive a refund or credit.  This is important because often you put out your own money for food beforehand. You don’t want to be losing money because a parent took a Friday off. Your time is valuable and there is a cost to holding a spot for them.        

Some providers also include a few paid personal days in their contract. This is 2-3 days that they would elect to take of during the year the parents would pay for. For example, you want to take next Friday off for a funeral. You would inform your parents that you will be taking a personal day. This would be one of your paid days off. This saves you the hassle of issuing refunds or credits for having to take a day off.

Pickup and Drop off Policies

Nothing is worse that a parent drop off a child early and you’re still in your bathrobe. Or you need to drop your kid off dance class and a parent hasn’t pick up their kid yet.

Most parents are good about picking up their children on time. Unless an emergency arises, you shouldn’t have a problem. But it’s always a good idea to have something written in your handbook about early/late drop offs. This is primarily so that you are not being taken advantage of. The chances that you are going to have to charge a late fee is slim, but it is a good idea to put a monetary value on being late such a $5 fee for every ½ hour the child is in your care past their contracted hours. Most large daycare centers have similar policies and strictly enforce them.  

Once a child is in your care, you are responsible for who you release that child to. You need to have it written in your handbook and contract, who is allowed/ not allowed to pick up a child. It is best to get this in writing, so in the case of a mix up you can prove you have done your due diligence. Specify that you will be asking for photo ID before releasing a child to anyone you have not met in person. 

Restraining Orders   

In the event of a court ordered restraining one parent from a child, you need to have a legal copy of the restraining order and a written note from the custodial parent. Without these items on file you can’t prevent the non-custodial parent from picking up the child. You don’t want to be in the middle of a messy divorce. 

Provider’s Sick Day Policy 

If you need to close on a given day because of illness, you need to decide if you will provide a refund for the day.  Most home daycares do not charge customers for their own sick days. Or have a number of sick days outlined in their contract.  

Illness Policy

You wouldn’t invite someone over to your house that had been up vomiting all night, so don’t do it with your home daycare. Parents will test you on your illness policy, but you need to stand firm. You may have to remind parents that bringing a sick child into a dayhome spreads the illness to not only the other children in your care, but also yourself, potentially rendering you unable to care for their child.  

Specify the symptoms you consider a child to be too sick to attend. Make a list of symptoms, then specify when a child is safe to return. Generally, a child should be well enough to take part in normal everyday activities.

What are you going to do when sickness develops during the day?

Outline what you expect parents to do. For example, will you call them and expect them to come pick up their child immediately? 

Ask parents to let you know as soon as possible if their child won’t be attending due to illness or for any other reason. This will allow activities to carry on as scheduled and help you know how many children you need to prepare meals for.

Medicine Policy and Procedure

Get parents to provide written consent before you administer any type of medicine. Parents should label all medicine with the child’s name, dose and dosage times before you administer anything. You should specify that you won’t administer any medicine not complying with the policy. 

Example of medicine policy:

Prior to administering any type of medicine to your child(ren), I require written consent by a parent. All medicine must be properly stored in a container labeled with the child’s name, dosage and times to be administered.  Medicine supplied in unmarked, unlabeled containers and/or without written consent will not be administered.   

Medical Emergencies

Minor bumps and scratches are inevitable. You should specify how will you handle minor injuries. Will you administer first aid, then let the parent know at the end of the day what happened? Or will you call the parents right away?

What are you going to do in case of an emergency injury or illness? Specify who is responsible for the cost of any emergency medical treatment/ transportation. 

Emergency Plan and Evacuation Plan

Provide parents with your emergency plan.  Where you are going to be and how to contact you.  What evacuation sites you are going to be at incase of fire, earthquake, flooding etc.

Behavior policy

  Give a brief summary of how you are going to handle children’s behavior. For example, do you plan on using the “time-out” method?  If a behavioral issue continues without resolve, how do you plan on handling such situations? Think about at what point would you want to end a contract over a behavioral issue.  It’s unfair to the other children in your home daycare if you spend your whole time dealing with one child.

Clothing Policy

Clothing can become a big issue if you don’t specify what you expect. Make sure parents know that you want children to be dress in comfy clothing that can get dirty. You don’t want to be responsible for any stained or ruined clothing. Older children should be able to operate their clothing themselves, without your help. Insist on at least one spare change of clothes regardless of the child’s age. You want to keep children happy and comfortable. Younger children should have at least two changes of clothing (including socks).  

Kindly remind parents that if outdoor apparel is not supplied, then everyone has to stay inside.   Often this can happen in winter time because of a lack of snow pants, hats or mitts. You can suggest that parents leave an extra set at your house to prevent this from happening.  

Meals and Snacks

Provide parents with a schedule of meals and snacks. Inform them if they drop off after a scheduled meal time, you expect the child to have eaten. You don’t have time to supply meals on demand.

Are you going to allow a child to bring food from home? Often parents will sneak snacks into a kid’s backpack,  in case their kid gets hungry. But this can cause conflict between kids and issues for you if another child that has allergies.  For special occasions like birthdays, you can decide on a case to case basis if you are going to allow special treats from home.   

What are your procedures for storing breast milk? Put in place a procedure for yourself, so that you never run out of breast milk or formula.  An example of this would be that you require to have at least half a can of formula on hand at all times. Are you going to be responsible for sanitizing the bottles? or do you expect parents to supply sanitized bottles every day. 

Food Allergies

You need to decide if you will allow children with food allergies to attend your home daycare.  

Can you guarantee your home daycare is safe from allergies? 

Are you comfortable administering an EpiPen? 

Decide which food allergies you will allow.  An allergy to mangos is a lot easier to deal with than a peanut allergy.  Also specify any allergies where parents need to supply the food. Such as in the case of a gluten allergy, you can ask the parents to supply bread, dry pasta or crackers.  Specially foods can be expensive, and you don’t want to blow your whole food budget on one child. 

Potty Training Policies

At one point in your home daycare career, you are going to have to assist with potty training. The key word here is “assist” with potty training.  Communicate with parents that it’s not your job to potty train their child. If they have a method that has been working for them, then you’ll try to continue with that method.  However, their child must wear clothing at all times and you’re unable to follow a strict timed potty schedule. (ex. taking a child to the potty every ½ hour). Children need to be able to pull down and up their pants themselves. Suggest “User friendly” clothing, such as shorts and pants with elastic waist.  Kindly mention if you run out of dry clothing, that you will be calling and expecting them to drop off more. 

Termination Policy

Decide on how much notice you need from a parent before they can terminate their contract. Two weeks’ notice is common, but some home daycares require a month notice.

Outline reasons to parents why you would to end a contract.

Here are some suggestions,

• Failure to provide payment for services
• Routinely late picking up their child
• Failure to complete the required forms
• Lack of parental cooperation
• Failure of child to adjust to the home daycare after a reasonable amount of time
• Physical or verbal abuse of any person or property
• Lack of compliance with handbook policies and procedures
• Serious illness of a child

Other policies and procedures you may want to consider including:

Indoor activities  

What activities are you planning to engage in, circle time, reading, singing.  Give parents a brief summary of daily activities you plan on doing.  

Outdoor activities

How much outdoor time are you planning on having?  Include what your weather limits are. How hot or cold do you consider to be unsafe to play outside?

Napping / Quiet time procedures

Give parents a brief outline of how you are going to handle napping/quiet time.  Do you require all kids to nap? If not, what do you expect from children during quiet time.  Remember this is probably the only time you will get a break during the day. 

Are parents responsible for bringing their own Pack and Play or are you providing beds?

Immunizations Policy

Consider if you need all children to be immunized/or not to attend your home daycare. This is a personal preference. 

Transportation  

Many home daycares provide before and after care for school aged children.  This sometimes includes transportation to and from school in their own vehicles.  Also, some home daycares offer field trips to local attractions such as a library, park or zoo. If this is something you want to provide consider the following:

Do you have a vehicle that could adequately fit all the children?

Do parents need to provide car seats?

What schools are you willing to provide transportation to?

Who is going to pay for admission to attractions?

House rules

Providing a set of house rules is a wonderful way to express your expectations of a child’s behavior.  For example: you expect no jumping/climbing on couches.  

Toys from home

Are you going to allow toys from home? Often these items cause fights among the other children.  An exception to this should be a comfort toy/blanket for napping. 

Two-week trial period

You can choose to implement a two-week trial period for both parties. This allows adequate time for a child to adjust to your home daycare.  At the end of the two weeks, either party can terminate the contract for whatever reason they see fit. Trial periods allows you to see how a child fits into your home daycare dynamic. 

While you can run a home daycare without a schedule, you will save yourself a ton of grief if you have at least a guideline of activities.  You can also include this in your parent handbook to give parents an idea of your daily activities.   

Kids thrive on routines and while you don’t have to have a strict routine, a schedule can help children navigate their day and ease the transition from one activity to the next.  For example, they will get to know that after lunch they go for nap.

Start by setting a time for breakfast, lunch, and snack time s.  Then think about naptime and activities. 

Quality control checks (Cleaning)

Kids are sticky, messy and germy but in a good way. Don’t forget, this is not only your place of work, but also your home and the last thing you want is to be sick all the time. If you take a sick day, you most likely are not getting paid so you should be motivated not to take too many. While you don’t have too much control over what kind of germs enter your home, you can control the spread of it.  

Put in place a cleaning routine. Just like any public washroom, keep a cleaning checklist.  There will be things that you have to do everyday. And other things you will only have to do once a week. Make your checklist as detailed or not as you feel like. 

Items to include:

Bathroom,  Floors,  Bedding &  Toys

Interviewing Parents

The interview process can be a bit scary when you first start out.  But remember you’re also interviewing them too.  

Never commit to taking on a child full time until you have met them.      

For any new prospective client, suggest a “meet and greet.” What is a meet and greet?

A meet and greet is an opportunity for prospective parents to come into your home and check out the space.  It gives parents time to ask you any questions and voice any concerns they may have. A meet and greet also gives you a chance to observe a child’s behaviour and ask them any questions you may have. Such as is your child a bitter? Has the child ever been in a home daycare before.  If so, why did you leave the last home daycare.   

Don’t be afraid to say “no” to a parent if you don’t think their child would be a good fit. You’re better off to be honest and up front. One child can completely change the dynamic of your home daycare and cause you and the other children in your care undue stress.  If you are unsure, then suggest a two week trial period before committing to a contract. Revisit the section of your business summary where you outlined who your ideal client would be. Be picky.  

Now, it’s time to get your first client.  

Home Daycare Marketing Plan

When starting a home daycare business, you don’t just sit there waiting for families to knock on your door. You need to get your name out there.   

If you’re just getting started, marketing your services may not be your strongest skill. Thankfully, there are many ways you can easily advertise your home daycare business.

Here are some ideas for home daycare advertising to give potential customers a better sense of your services.

Your own website

This is perhaps the most inexpensive way of reaching out to parents. A website should introduce your daycare by highlighting the basic information like name, size, location, and the age range you accept. Secondly, you should come up with a business name and logo that stands out from other family daycare services. Obviously, the website should sum up the services you offer.  And you can even outline your policies and procedures. Also list some features like meal/snack options, size of your space, outdoor play setup, fencing, and more. Besides that, you should include short endorsements from past customers so that parents can know their children will be under constant supervision.   

Flyers with tear-off tabs

This is the easiest home daycare marketing strategy. You should make colorful flyers (red, yellow or blue) that show the contact number, email, and services offered. Needless to say, they should be child-friendly – include some pictures of smiling happy children or clip art. It’s worth mentioning that you should not list the price on the flyers. This is because you want the parents to choose a family daycare based on the services, not price.  Flyers work best when they are posted in locations most likely to reach your target market. Where do parents frequent that they may see your ad? The best place to distribute them is in community centers, coffee shops, and libraries.

Word of mouth

Tell everyone about your new venture. You can notify your neighbors, family, co-workers, and friends. And if you already have clients, ask them to recommend a friend.

Social media

The strategy you use on your social media marketing should reach families looking for daycare centers. You should make Facebook page for special announcements, reminders and examples of fun activities. Most parents will appreciate a platform where they can see and share photos of their kids activities. But keep in mind not all parents what to have their kids faces on social media.  Make sure you have a photo release form signed before posting any child’s face.

Other social media platforms you can use include Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest.

Newspaper Ads

You should include information like your approximate location, opening and closing hours, and anything else that makes your business special. For best results, you may want to place your ads on smaller local papers rather than a big display ad. Of course, it pays huge dividends if you place an ad in the childcare section. It’s important that you inquire on the details allowed, but don’t forget to include the brand name and contact information.

Online daycare advertising sites

Online advertising sites make it easy for parents to search for services in a specific area. They give information on who you are and the services you offer.  Most advertising sites charge a fee to post. If you choose to use one of these sites, always emphasize on any information that makes your business stand out from the competition. And include photographs to showcase your home daycare to prospective clients.

Craigslist, Kijiji

This type of site is commonly referred to as the “hunter’s dream” – you’ll find everything you want here. Even better, you can list your childcare websites. There is a separate section for baby-sitters and daycare providers.

Put a sign on your yard

This will help potential clients know who you are and what you have to offer. All the parents living close to you will be aware of your daycare and will probably mention the same to other parents. These signs can be customized to suit your needs. Be sure to include your business name and contact information.

The above advertising methods will give you an opportunity to toot your own horn. As you embark on the journey, highlight everything that makes your business different from the competition. For best results, do some research to understand the services your competitors are offering. Be creative with your marketing strategies, and you’ll have a full house in no time.

How to Write a Business Plan for Daycare and Preschool

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Writing a daycare or preschool business plan is a big task, but due diligence and hard work will help you understand what you’ll need to launch and run a daycare or preschool successfully.

What do daycare investors want?

Your local government will have rules and regulations you’ll need to follow as a small business owner and childcare provider. Start by reviewing the childcare licensing guidelines for your state and city. Once you’re clear on licensing guidelines, you’re ready to start writing your childcare business plan.

The purpose of a business plan is to help secure funding. You’ll likely need financing to launch your preschool or daycare, especially if you want to avoid the monthly repayment of a loan. 

Investors provide businesses with money in exchange for partial ownership. As a result, they expect a larger return on their initial investment. Because many investors work in business, they prefer to invest in an established company.

Most investors look for:

Industry background and experience

Financial performance and promise.

Investors want to make money. Therefore, they are more inclined to work with experienced entrepreneurs and business owners to guarantee a return on their investment. 

This might sound discouraging for those with little experience or without a business management background, but the opportunity doesn’t end there. You could consider bringing on a partner with a business background. Additionally, many investors act as a source of business advice. 

You need to demonstrate that your business will make money. Investors will likely want to see signs of business growth before they give you money. 

Additionally, investors will want to know about your financial stability. Questions an investor might ask are:

• What do you plan to do with the money?
• Has your business been up or down in recent years?
• Is your company losing money? Are there signs of growth for the future?
• How do you plan to repay your investment?

Of course, every investor is different, so they’ll consider various factors. While experience and financial promise are at the top of the list for most investors, they might also look for uniqueness, business readiness, an effective business model, and more.

Writing a daycare business plan

We’ve discussed licensing and investors. Now, you’re ready to begin the framework of your business plan for daycares and preschools. Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

Business description

Needs assessment, insurance policies, operating policies and procedures, marketing strategy.

Start with the basics: what does your daycare do? Detailing the service you’re offering will help you create a clear business plan. Next, you might want to write some goals or even a mission statement outlining your purpose and motivation.

Start by looking at general daycare or preschool industry trends, then narrow your scope to the preschools or daycares in your local area. Next, you’ll need to figure out who your target customers are and confirm that there is a need for a business like yours in your community. 

Are there a lot of young families in your neighborhood? Are you located somewhere convenient for commuting parents? Does your business offer a specific service that your competitors don’t, like early check-in or extended hours? 

Also, check out the competition. Research the existing daycare or preschool options in your community. Look at current preschool or daycare business plan samples. What makes your daycare or preschool unique? 

Developing detailed budgets will help you run your small business. You’ll need to compare your current cash flow and expenditures to determine whether you’ll make a profit.

Build a budget for unexpected costs. For example, how many children do you need to serve to be able to pay your bills and stay afloat? Child Care Aware of America offers some terrific budgeting resources for this process.

Depending on the type and size of your preschool, you’ll need insurance policies of several different types, including liability, property, workers’ compensation, and business insurance. Check the licensing requirements for guidance in building this part of your preschool business plan.

Create a comprehensive handbook for families and staff that includes you center's policies and procedures. For instance, you'll need to develop an emergency plan , daycare sick policy , and other safety protocols according to your local childcare licensing requirements. 

Your staff handbook will be a helpful resource your employees can reference and include all your employment policies including work and pay schedules, benefits, and information about professional growth and development. You can also include information on your center's philosophy and curriculum, classroom procedures, and expectations for working with children and families.

Your marketing strategy is the key to attracting customers. Decide what type of advertising you will use in front of potential customers. For example, list your school in local directories and participate in parenting and kid-friendly community events. Run a social media campaign focusing on your target population.

Another big part of childcare business marketing is differentiating yourself from other preschools. These days adopting daycare software is a surefire way to attract families with young children. A tool like brightwheel's center management feature will streamline your center's admission process, record keeping, and reporting, saving you up to 20 hours per month. 

You can also use brightwheel for recording and tracking daily events and activities, and sending real-time updates to families throughout the day. It also offers secure, digital check-in/check-out and a paperless billing system. This is a great way to keep your families looped in on daily activities and handle all of your administrative tasks in one place.

Your business is ready!

Writing a business plan can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be. Once you secure the proper licensing, use the information in this article to guide you through creating a solid daycare business plan that drives investors and financing to your business.

These are just the basics to get you started. For further information, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s website has detailed instructions on creating each necessary part of a successful business plan. 

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A list of everything you need to start an early education program.

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12 Reasons Not To Give Your Home to Your Children When You Die

Posted: December 29, 2023 | Last updated: March 19, 2024

Deciding what to do with your home after you pass away is a significant decision. While leaving your home to your children might seem like a natural choice, there are several reasons why this might not be the best option. Here are 12 things you need to consider first:

Potential Family Conflict

Leaving a home to several of your children can lead to disagreements about what to do with the property. They might start to argue over whether to sell, keep, or rent out the house, potentially straining family relationships. If you have more than one child, put a plan in place that will protect not only the value of your home, but protect the family bond between your children.

Financial Burden of Maintenance

Owning a home comes with ongoing maintenance costs and property taxes. If your children are not financially prepared for these expenses, the house can become a financial burden rather than a blessing. Talk to your kids about potential pitfalls and what to do if the worst should happen. They’ll thank you for it in the end.

Unequal Distribution of Assets

If one child gets the home and others receive less valuable assets, it can lead to feelings of unfairness and resentment among siblings, causing much damage to the family bond. You should always ensure that your children are being treated fairly, and maybe even have a talk about what they can expect once you’re gone. If one child takes care of you during old age, it may of course be fair to leave a larger inheritance to that child as a thank you.

Complicating Your Child’s Divorce Proceedings

Believe it or not, your child is going through a divorce, and inheriting your home could actually complicate their divorce proceedings. The house might be considered in the division of assets, potentially leading to legal challenges. So keep this in mind when drawing up your will.

Impact on Your Child’s Tax Burden

Inheriting a property can increase your child’s tax burden, particularly if the value of the home has appreciated significantly since you purchased it. Consider your children’s finances before making any big decisions and maybe include them in your thoughts so that you’re all on the same page.

Limiting Your Child’s Mobility

Owning a home may limit your child’s mobility for job opportunities or personal preferences. They might feel obliged to stay in the area because of the house. Ask them if they intend on staying at the house or if they have plans to sell. Their answer may also influence your decision.

Risk of Debt or Liens Against the Property

If your child has debts or financial issues, creditors could place liens on the property, putting the home at risk. You don’t want to complicate things further for your children, so ensure that you only leave your house to your kids if there is no considerable debt to be paid.

Ineligibility for Certain Assistance Programs

Owning a home could make your child ineligible for certain types of financial assistance or benefits, depending on their individual circumstances. It’s important that you are aware of their financial situation before leaving any large estate in their name.

The Burden of a Large Asset

Managing a large asset like a house can be overwhelming, especially if your child lacks experience in real estate or property management. It’s best to hire a lawyer to go through the specifics of taking over a large asset, so make sure you have covered this in your will. You’d want to ensure the house you leave behind is being managed in the best way possible.

Potential for Market Depreciation

The real estate market can be unpredictable. If the market value of the house depreciates, it might not be the financial asset you hoped to provide for your child. Do some research before deciding whether you want to leave the house in your will. It may also be wise to sell beforehand, ensuring that your children won’t have to deal with such big complicated transactions.

Impact on Your Child’s Estate Planning

Inheriting your home will affect your child’s estate planning. They will need to consider what to do with the property in their own estate plan, which can be a complex and difficult decision. Seek advice from a professional so that both you and your child have a full understanding of what to expect if they were to inherit.

Personal Attachments and Memories

While a home is full of memories, it might also be difficult for your child to repurpose or sell it due to emotional attachments, which could hinder them from making practical decisions about the property. Your child might feel guilty about selling the home they grew up in, so if you want to relieve them of this burden, tell them. On the other hand, if you do not want your children to sell, ensure you communicate this as well.

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4 reasons Private College 529 Plan is a wise investment for your child's future

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• Savvy parents and grandparents are investing in higher education for their kids.  
• Private College 529 Plan locks in today's tuition rates, saving big on future costs and giving flexibility with school choice. 
• Contributions are secure with the same federal tax benefits as any 529 plan.

What is the best gift you can give your children or grandchildren? While they may argue it's the hottest toy or technology on the market, forward-thinking parents and grandparents know that a good education will benefit their children's lives well into the future. 

LaShanda A. has been saving for her nine-year-old daughter's higher education since kindergarten for just that reason. "My parents grew up in a time when Black people were denied access to many educational opportunities. They always told my brother and me that education is the one thing people can't take away from you — once you have it, it's yours," she said.

"For the career choices that my wife and I made, higher education was very important," said former banker Ben S., adding that he wants his three boys — ages 10, 12, and 14 — to have the same opportunities.

Both LaShanda and Ben have been saving for their children's higher education using Private College 529 Plan. Here's why it might be the perfect fit for your family too.

1. You can lock in current tuition rates to protect against tuition inflation

Ben was drawn to Private College 529 Plan to help him hedge against tuition inflation, given tuition for private colleges in the US has increased 38% over the past decade, according to data from the College Board.

Most state 529 plans are essentially investment accounts, so growth is tied to the markets, but there can also be market loss. Private College 529 Plan allows you to prepay for a portion of tuition now, securing current tuition rates and potentially saving thousands of dollars in the long run. 

LaShanda agreed that the certainty of knowing how much her daughter's tuition would cost was the number one factor in choosing this plan. "No one knows what tuition rates will be in 12 years," she said, adding that the peace of mind is better than any ROI.

2. Your child will be able to look at colleges across the country

Unlike 529 prepaid plans offered by a handful of states, which can have residency requirements or limit use to in-state schools, you can open a Private College 529 account from any state and use your prepaid tuition at nearly 300 private colleges across the country. 

The colleges in the plan range from large research universities to small liberal arts schools, including household names like Stanford, MIT, and Princeton. With so many colleges in the plan, there are options for every academic interest. And when you save in the plan, you don't need to pick a school; you're saving for all of them.

"There's a good mix of top-tier schools in the network," Ben said. "My oldest is starting to get interested in colleges, and a lot of the schools he's excited about are on the list." 

LaShanda shared that seeing her alma mater, Spelman College, on the list of participants confirmed this was the right investment approach for them. "I know if Spelman is partnering with someone, then it's a reputable company," she said, hoping her daughter will also choose to attend Spelman.

3. You can save in a way that works for you while setting your child up for financial freedom 

Private College 529 Plan offers many ways to contribute based on your financial situation, from one-time lump sums to recurring deposits over multiple years.

LaShanda loves how easy it was to set a savings target and schedule monthly deposits to hit the mark by the time her daughter graduates high school. She and her husband both graduated debt-free, and they're determined to provide the same for their daughter by prepaying her entire tuition. It's their way of giving her a head start in life, allowing them to concentrate on their future plans. 

"We have plans to retire when she goes off to college," LaShanda said. "We'll know that this is taken care of, and we can use our money for other things at that point."

Plus, there are plenty of tax benefits that can make investing in Private College 529 Plan a smart move for your kids and yourself. It's a great way to shield your investment growth from taxes: While you can't deduct contributions from your federal taxes, you don't have to pay annual taxes on earnings and withdrawals remain tax-free as long as they are used on qualified educational expenses. 

If you live in one of these nine tax-parity states, you can save in any 529 plan and still get state tax benefits: Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Private College 529 Plan can also be a powerful tool for grandparents and families thinking about estate planning — contributions are considered an exclusion gift, so they are exempt from federal estate tax, qualify for the annual gift tax exclusion, and can be superfunded — meaning you can combine 5 years of annual exclusions into one gift — to dramatically reduce the taxable value of your estate. 

And new this year, distributions from 529 plans owned by family other than parents are not reported on the FAFSA. This means grandparents in particular can have a major impact on their grandchildren's college savings.

4. You have flexibility with your savings

You may have ideas about where your children or grandchildren will go to college, but it's impossible to know for sure. Luckily, even if your kids don't end up going to a school participating in Private College 529 Plan, there are plenty of other ways you can invest the money toward your family's future. 

For instance, you can easily change the beneficiary to a different family member. Ben, who has accounts for each of his three children, explained that if his eldest attends a partner school, he'd allocate funds from all three accounts. 

Moreover, your prepaid tuition is guaranteed for 30 years, so it could even be held for the next generation. You can also roll your funds into another 529 plan or take a refund. And starting this year, unused funds in a 529 plan can be rolled into a Roth IRA for the beneficiary's retirement.

"I think it's the best of both worlds — we can lock in the tuition, but my daughter also has flexibility," LaShanda said. 

Learn more about setting your child up for success with Private College 529 Plan.

Rollovers to other 529 plans, refunds, and Roth IRA rollovers are subject to Private College 529 Plan refund value which is calculated as total contributions adjusted for net investment returns subject to a maximum annual increase of 2% per year or a maximum loss of 2% per year (0% loss after July 1st, 2024), compounded annually.

*Family opens a Private College 529 Plan account for their 8-year-old child and contributes one lump sum with tuition increases of 4% per year. When you save with Private College 529 Plan, you purchase tuition at then-current rates for each college in the plan.

This post was created by Insider Studios with Private College 529 Plan.

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How Tesla Planted the Seeds for Its Own Potential Downfall

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