Educational premises: children's day nurseries

Most children's day nurseries in the UK provide day care services for 38, 50 or 52 weeks of the year, primarily for children from birth to five years. Full day care is defined as facilities that provide day care for children under eight years old for a continuous period of four hours or more in any day, in premises that are not domestic premises. This section focuses on day nurseries (defined as ‘group providers’). Operation is governed by the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework, which is mandatory for all group and school-based early years providers in England from 1 January 2024.

The vast majority of day nursery businesses trade for the length of the working day, ordinarily between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday, albeit some do offer early evening, overnight and weekend care. Children's day nurseries in the UK are highly regulated.  There is separate mandatory guidance for early years providers/day nurseries for settings in Scotland and Wales.

Factors affecting valuation include the property, the business, financial performance and the market. .

This section is maintained by Courteney Donaldson of Christie + Co.

Document template: Children's day nursery valuation checklist

RICS standards: RICS Red Book Global Standards: VPGA 4 Valuation of individual trade related properties