Home from Home wins National Award!

Please see below the article written by Sussex Downs College all about our recent award!

‘Home from Home Nursery win national award’

award 2During the National Apprenticeship week, 3-7 March 2014, CACHE (Council for Awards in Care, Health and Education) announced their chosen business for ‘Apprentice Employer of the year 2014’. Rachel Byrne, from the Sussex Downs College Work Based Learning team nominated the Hove based ‘Home from Home nursery’ towards the award, being one of the businesses her team work closely with, delivering a range of childcare qualifications to their staff and apprentices. Although they didn’t win first place, they were recognised as being in the top three runners up, which is a great achievement in itself!

Regional Development Executive for CACHE Phillip Girling who came to present the award to the home on the 2nd April, explained that this is the inaugural year for the Cache awards and that the winners and runners up had been chosen based on the outstanding levels of support offered to their staff. He also explained the changes that will be coming in with Early Years qualifications, outlining ‘there is a move for awarding bodies to work more closely with employees to ensure that the qualifications being offered are what is wanted and needed’

Proprietor Nicola Law who has run the business for 14 years explained her focus as being on investing in her staff and creating a rich learning environment, stating ‘I believe that if you empower your staff, you have happy staff and you then have happy children’. Sussex Downs Assessor Rachel Byrne added ‘What you feel when you walk into Home from Home is a warm, family environment and this is a happy place to be’.

The Nursery were also awarded with the ‘New Employer Award’ at the annual Sussex Downs College Apprenticeship Awards which took place during National Apprenticeship Week 3/14.