Little Jimmy’s Preschool Caring for the Community’s Children
Little Jimmy’s Preschool in Clacton on Sea discusses the joys and challenges of running a community nursery, and how support from business support organisation Backing Essex Business funded by the North East Economic Board (NEEB) helped them to access vital grant funding to develop their offering and given them the confidence to continue their mission to provide affordable childcare to underserved areas of Essex.
Known as Little Jimmy’s since 2010 (But established since 1968) The not-for-profit preschool is run by mother and daughter team Pam Welsh and Amber Coldron. A non-denominational setting for 2-5 year olds, offering two locations ‘St James’ and ‘Cann Hall’ and employing 21 members of staff, it sets itself apart from its competitors, by being truly focused on its families and the wellbeing and enjoyment of the children that attend.
“Our ethos is we make childcare affordable, making it as accessible as possible for all. By supporting our parents, we can help them get back into work, support their mental health, support the children, and give them a safe enabling environment. We are very family focused, the most important thing to us is to help, we aren’t about profit, we’re about the community.”
Amber Coldron, Nursery Manager - Cann Hall
The Primary Purpose
Amber and Pam’s commitment to helping families in underserved communities has been clear from the very start, as is the community support they have around them. As a not for profit, they rely heavily on fundraising to keep things going, and to provide the improvements and new equipment they wish to offer the children that attend. At the St James’s setting they recently raised over £4,000 through a hosted fete where the local community and businesses purchased stalls and donated raffle prizes. This fantastic result led to the creation of a brand-new sensory garden with a large sandpit, sensory path of lavender and pampas grass, vegetable patches and imagination train…giving the children the opportunity to experience different sensations, smells, and colours. Located in a very central part of Clacton on Sea, many of the children who attend live in flats or homes without garden space, so it became an important objective for Little Jimmy’s to provide a captivating outside area for the children to enjoy.
It's heartwarming to discover that the managements commitment to their families doesn’t stop with the childcare provision. Amber applies for food vouchers for all of her parents, and also operates a food collection that families who are experiences tough times can help themselves to. She prides herself on being approachable, a listening ear and support that parents can turn to when they aren’t sure where else to go.
““I have a really good relationship with all my parents. A lot of parents since COVID don’t really know where to turn to, don’t know who their health visitor is, or have the confidence to talk to other families. It’s so rewarding that the parents feel safe and confident to pop by and ask for a chat, supporting them is always my number one priority.
Everyone’s struggling whether you are working or on benefits, whether you’re a single mum, or in a relationship. I apply for the food vouchers for all because you never know who needs the help. The feedback we’ve had from that is that they’re very thankful and very grateful because the families that you think, Oh, they’re okay, they’re working, are actually the ones coming back to me saying that really helped.””
The nursery was also delighted to receive commendation from Public Health recently for being the only nursery setting In Essex to brush the children’s teeth. Another example of their overall commitment to the children’s heath and wellbeing.
Expansion and Exploration
2022 saw the expansion of the pre-school, with the opening of a new site ‘Cann Hall’ and the personal development of Nursery Manager Amber Coldron. Childcare wasn’t something Amber had originally envisioned for her future, but personal circumstances led her to working at the Nursery initially as a cleaner, and then working hard for her qualifications, leading to the position she is in now. Whilst it may not have been her lifelong ambition, her caring and nurturing nature shines through, and it’s clear that it has become her calling to help others.
““Seeing the change in the Children once they join us is so rewarding. We have some children with so much separation anxiety, but seeing them slowly building that confidence and then hearing parents say “ Oh, they don’t do this at home” and commenting about over the weeks and months they have been coming how much their behaviour has improved… it’s what makes it all worthwhile.”
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Cann Hall in just a few short months from opening is already at capacity, with a waiting list of children as young as 8 months wanting to join the Little Jimmy’s family. April 2024 will see a change to the government funding for Childcare, providing working parents access to 15 hours funding from 2 years old, which previously was only for families receiving financial aid. From September 2024 working parents will be able to access 15 hours of funding from when their children are 9 months old, which has resulted in an influx of enquiries with parents concerned they will be unable to secure their child a nursery space going forward.
Whilst an excellent incentive to support parents looking to return to work, this has put even more pressure on nursery settings to expand and recruit to accommodate additional children.
Assembling the building blocks
With a cost-of-living crisis in full swing, and being a community run business, Little Jimmy’s reached a point where donations and fundraising had started to slow. Unlike many of the profit-led childcare provisions, they didn’t have a dedicated person who could look at funding opportunities and write funding applications, it was reliant on Amber whose workload was already heavy and whom didn’t have the experience of writing applications like these and what they should include. She wanted to be able to continue to improve the nursery and make it even better for the children, but she needed money to be able to do that.
Answering an advert within an email, Amber attended an event by a local marketing consultant which then saw her introduced to Robert Laurie from Business support organisation Backing Essex Business. Backing Essex Business deliver a support programme jointly with the North Essex Economic Board (NEEB) that gives businesses in Braintree, Maldon, Colchester, Chelmsford, and Tendring districts access to fully funded business advice and workshops to help them access finance and get their businesses where they want to be. This programme is funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
““Robert helped me with some grant applications, particularly on how to word them. He came to the setting, met us both and told us what would make us stand out from the rest and what we needed. He also went through some things on the financial side like our cash flow. He’s a lovely gentleman and was so helpful. Having his help gave us the ability to think – you know what, we might get noticed. We don’t have the money to pay for someone to come in and find all these grants and spend the time writing the applications, but with his help it felt possible. For any queries I had, he’s been there, a professional friend at the end of the phone or email, he’s been the support we needed in our time of need.””
Growing Up
Looking forward to the future, Amber and Pam hope to be able to continue to look after their local community and expand that out to other underserved communities within Essex. They are exploring the potential of increasing their age group to offer facilities for under twos and would also like to look at other small towns in their area who have experienced a loss of local childcare provision, alienating parents without transport that would need to travel to other nearby towns. Regardless of how big they grow, they are however conscious to keep their family roots and values that saw them taking on Little Jimmy’s in the first place.
““I don’t want to get too big because I think when you get too big, you lose that family feel, but if I can get a few more nurseries in different areas across Essex, areas I know that could really use that affordable childcare then that would be great. I would love to be able to help as many people as I can, but for now we need to focus on our existing two nurseries, protecting their future and ensuring they can access the funding that they need and deserve.””
Rated as ‘Good’ by Ofsted and receiving regular enquiries from parents and potential staff, it is clear that Little Jimmy’s has the support and hearts of the local community, who all appreciate what it does and want it to succeed. Having its fair share of knockbacks along the way, from thefts, long sales processes and of course COVID, nothing has stopped the team from dedicating themselves to their goal of enriching the lives of the local children in Clacton on Sea. Now reaping the benefits of a brand new wet pour playground following local investment and successful grant applications, we are sure we will be seeing much more of Little Jimmy’s in years to come.
To find out more about Little Jimmy’s, and how to support them you can visit their website on https://littlejimmys.co.uk/
““I can’t thank Backing Essex Business and Robert enough. It was great to have someone to shine a light on the business and show there is a path forward, this is what we’re going to do, and how I can help you. Being a small business you sort of feel a bit left in the dark because we’re not a big brand or chain of nurseries. We felt a bit lost, unsure what’s next for us, but having their support has helped us gain confidence in our business and helped us grow.””
Little Jimmy’s PreSchool was supported under a project undertaken with Backing Essex Business and the North Essex Economic Board (NEEB). The Board is a partnership of local authorities in the area: Braintree, Maldon, and Tendring district councils, Colchester Borough Council, Chelmsford City Council and Essex County Council.
This project is funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a central pillar of the UK government's Levelling Up agenda and provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills. For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus
