History

Riverside Childcare is owned by Catherine Sutherland, who is a Sick Children's Nurse and Midwife. She trained at The Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow between 1968 and 1971. She then completed her Midwifery training at the Queen Mother's Hospital in Glasgow in 1973.

Thereafter Cathy returned to RHSC where she became a Theatre Sister and worked with Professor Caves in setting up the first Paediatric Open Heart Surgical unit in Scotland.

Between 1977 and 1980 she stopped nursing to have a family and between 1980 and 1995 worked as a part time Staff Nurse on night duty at Canniesburn Hospital.

Cathy has three children and has been involved in their pre-school care in State nursery, playgroup and private nursery. Finding herself a single parent with a family to support and one child under 4 years, Cathy was very aware of the difficulties in finding good quality childcare suitable for working parents in rural areas.

In 1991 Cathy opened Mansefield Nursery in her home in Lennoxtown. This proved successful as children came from all the surrounding villages, Killearn, Strathblane, Milton of Campsie, Kilsyth and Cumbernauld but was severely limited in the number and age range of children that could be accommodated.

In 1994 Cathy moved the business to a 2000 sq. ft rented, modern industrial unit in Kirkintilloch registered for 32 children. The unit enjoys the benefit of a large outdoor play area to the rear of the premises and proved ideal for the operation of a pre-school nursery.

This proved so successful that the following year Cathy took on the equivalent size adjacent unit and the nursery has continued to expand over the last few years to the point where it is currently registered for 140 children.

Investors in People

Riverside Childcare has been an accredited Investors in People service provider since 1999.

Benefits achieved as a result of implementing Investors in People: The Standard has provided a structured framework for development and has given a consistent focus towards providing staff with the skills to meet the overall Nursery objective of being the best nursery provision in the area. Cathy Sutherland also feels it improves public image and perception of the Nursery standards.

Care Commission Report 2006

The following comments have been taken from the annual Care Commission Report. The full report is available for you on the Care Commission web site at www.carecommission.com

Views of service users

Several children spoke to the Care Commission Officer and gave their views of the service. Some comments included:

• "I like the soft play"
• "I like playing in the home corner"
• " I like playing outside"

Views of Carers

As part of the inspection process the Care Commission issued the service with questionnaires to distribute to carers. (Of the questionnaires returned all indicated they were "very happy" with the service provided)

Comments from parents included:

• "The menu provided by Riverside is excellent"
• "The staff have a fantastic relationship with my son"
• " I have no doubts that I chose the best childcare facility available to me."