Happy Days for Bluestone
WITH their fifth day-care centre now open, these are certainly
Happy Days for a Milford-based childcare company.
Owned and managed by Debbie Forrest and Helen Mathias, Happy
Days Childcare Ltd recently opened their fifth site, at the
Bluestone holiday village near Narberth.
The new facility provides day-care for the children of Bluestone
staff and guests, and is also open to the public. The Bluestone
contract means Happy Days has grown from one centre to five in just
two years, and the company now employs 50 staff.
It’s a far cry from 1991, when Debbie and Helen started Happy Days
as a playgroup in a church hall.
“I always knew I wanted to work in childcare” says Debbie. “I
just knew it.”
Ironically, however, for someone who has carved out such a
successful career in childcare, Debbie was originally unsuccessful
in an application to study for a NNEB, so went to work in admin for
Milford Haven Port Authority. There she stayed for 10 years.
Helen, meanwhile, did get on to the NNEB course, and then went to
work as a nanny in London for several years.
After their own children came along, the ladies realised that
the level of playgroup and day nursery provision in the area did
not really meet the demand. Specifically, the common requirement
for a several days – or even a term’s – worth of advance payment
precluded many potential takers.
“I remember thinking ‘I’d love my children to go to playgroup
one day a week, if I could just pay at the time, not in advance.’ I
mentioned this to Helen, and then we just started talking” says
Debbie.
From that initial conversation, it took 12 months for the ladies
to open the first Happy Days - a playgroup in a Milford church
hall. That ran successfully from 1991 to 1996, but regulation
changes made the business unviable.
Debbie and Helen then took over the Kaleidoscope Centre (now
Phoenix Bowl) on Milford Docks, and created Pirate Pete’s play
area. They ran the premises for five years, staging conferences,
exhibitions and balls alongside the usual day-today-business.
“That was a real learning curve for us” recalls Helen, “and
during that period, we kept getting parents coming in and asking
about Happy Days, so we realised there was still a need there for
full day care. “It took us about a year to decide we wanted to open
a nursery again, and another year to find the premises.”
In 1999, Debbie and Helen opened the 78-place Happy Days day
care centre at Havens Head, off Milford Docks. The growth – new
centres in Crymych, Fishguard, Haverfordwest and at Bluestone – has
all come in the last two years.
“We opened Crymych in August 2006 and Fishguard in February 2007.
We were content and exhausted, and we said ‘that’s enough’. Then we
had a phone call from someone who ran a nursery in Haverfordwest,
saying ‘I’m selling – do you want to buy?’
“It needed a lot of investment, but we opened it – a 25 place
nursery in Castle High – and once again, we were content and
exhausted. Then, we got the call from Debbie [Rainbow, Bluestone
Director of Human Resources]. “We were enthused by the thought of
being part of such an exciting project, and the thought of what
it’s going to do for Pembrokeshire - and we realised: ‘This is too
good an opportunity to miss.’”
The Bluestone crèche now offers 36 places for children from less
than a year old right up to 11 years old and takes full advantage
of the Bluestone activities to keep the children entertained.
Though the pressures of management have taken them away from the
front line, Debbie and Helen do get the occasional reminder of the
joys of working with children.
“I’m so busy these days with administration and managing the
business that I don’t really have much direct interaction with the
children any more” Debbie says, “but I was up in the Crymych
nursery the other day and a child sneezed in my face, so that was
blast from the past.”