The Co-operative Childcare is part of The Midcounties Co-operative, the second largest independent co-operative in the UK. We have 470 sites spanning 8 different businesses - Food Retail, Pharmacy, Travel, Funeral, Post Offices, Employee Benefits, Energy and of course Childcare.

Our vision is
“To be a successful consumer co-operative business working towards creating a better, fairer world and to enhance the lives of our colleagues, members, customers and the communities we serve”

We are different from other businesses because:

• We are owned and controlled by our members
• Our Board of Directors is elected by and from the membership
• All colleagues are encouraged to be members
• We re-invest a percentage of our profits in the communities we serve
• Members are rewarded for doing business with us through a share of the profits
• Our members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others
• We are part of a global movement bound by our Co-operative Values and Principles

We have been operating 6 Co-operative Childcare nurseries in Oxford, Swindon and Gloucestershire for a number of years and towards the end of 2010 completed an agreement to combine our nurseries with those of the Buffer Bear group. Buffer Bear has 23 nurseries mainly in the North, Thames Valley and the South East, with sites stretching from Newcastle to Southampton and will be rebranded as Co-operative Childcare during the summer of 2011.

Our Chief Executive Ben Reid hailed it as ‘a tremendous step forward’ for the Society in the expansion and development of a co-operative childcare service, as well as being significant for the Co-operative Movement as a whole.

Ben said:
“We have been looking to expand our nurseries group for some time and are delighted to have reached this agreement with Buffer Bear, which has ethical values very similar to our own. “We have gained considerable experience running our six nurseries and have used that time to develop a co-operative model for the provision of childcare. From our experience in childcare it is clear parents and carers place a high level of trust in the co-operative approach to nursery care and early years learning”

To learn more about our values and why they are significant when making one of the most important decisions of all….who to trust with the care of your child, click here