Catriona Nason

The founder of Daycare Doctor, Catriona Nason, bought her own Centre in London with in 2001 with a small bank loan. After many years of hard work she developed a highly successful day nursery with a long waiting list. In 2003, Catriona sold her centre for a six figure sum.  Since selling her own Centre she went onto work as a consultant helping providers with their existing or new daycare centres.

“When I first started as a day nursery owner I knew very little about management. I had to learn on the job. There was little help in those days and I had to experience many setbacks before I finally felt the nursery was offering the highest possible care and education. I knew retention of good qualified staff was key to the success of the centre and to the highest possible outcomes for the children and I focussed a lot of energy on developing my team through training, mentoring, ongoing development and mutual respect.”

“One thing led to another and I went on to become Vice Chair of the Early Years Development & Childcare Partnership in Richmond. This work enabled me to get close to many other providers, to talk with them about their frustrations and needs, and very soon I was the listening ear at the end of the phone for a number of colleagues. I enjoyed helping other providers with their challenges and very much believed in a close co-operation between professionals working in the early years field.”

“Before the days of free training I would invite other day nursery staff to join us for our training evenings. This was good for all of us as we shared and reflected on practice.  My experience since, as a consultant, has confirmed my belief that sometimes we need external help to achieve excellence, and sometimes we just need support that we can rely on, and by that I also mean confidentiality. I also know that I could have saved myself years of hard slog and difficulties if I had access to a service like Daycare Doctor when I first started.  This was my motivation for creating such a service. I hope we can help you.”