Childcare Provider Reports Strong Growth One Year After £400k expansion with support from Bank of Ireland

 

 

Twelve months after investing £400k to expand, Helping Hands Day Care Ltd, based in Lisburn, has grown over the last year at its new childcare facility in Ballycastle, providing much-needed early years provision in the local area and creating 12 new jobs, with more expected as demand in the area continues to grow.

The investment, made possible with support from Bank of Ireland, enabled husband and wife team Norman and Deborah Murton to extensively renovate the former Barnish High School premises, located just 2 miles from Ballycastle, to create a facility for high-quality wraparound childcare for children aged from 3 months to 12 years of age.

Deborah Murton, co-owner Helping Hands Day Care said:

“We are delighted to see the success of our Ballycastle site. Our quality childcare provision has been in demand from day one – as we support working families across the local area. We have grown rapidly in our first year starting with a single child to now having on average 30 children per day, and with the scale of our investment, further places are still available so we invite local families to get in touch.

With our wealth of experience in running our Lisburn nursery, we have been excited to bring our ethos of making every child feel individual and valued to Ballycastle.”

Key features of the 6,000 sq. ft premises set in an acre site include large outdoor spaces with both grassed areas and tarmacked playground for play in all weathers. A large gymnasium enabling free play even in poor weather along with a variety of stimulating resources including wet play and sand play.

Two managers on site have 20+ years’ experience in childcare and the business has also employed 12 staff from the local area. Training up to management level ensures staff are qualified to provide the best possible daycare while also enabling professional development and fulfilling longer-term local career goals.

Norman Murton co-owner Helping Hands Day care added:

“The last twelve months have exceeded all our expectations. The former school premises was too good an opportunity to miss, and it is an approach and business model that has worked very well for us.

Bank of Ireland supported us in our launch in Lisburn and they saw our vision for Ballycastle and have done everything they can to enable us to make a success of this opportunity. We are excited to see our brand expand into new areas of Northern Ireland and we’re of course open to more opportunities should they arise.”

Greg Liddle, Business Manager, Bank of Ireland said:

“We are delighted to continue our journey with Helping Hands Daycare. The success the business has seen over the last twelve months demonstrates the importance of high quality childcare provision locally, making an enormous difference to families and contributing to the local area’s economic vitality. We wish Norman, Deborah and the team continued success with the business and look forward to supporting their continued growth.”

Further information on business support from Bank of Ireland UK is available at: Bank of Ireland UK Business