The Margin Diagnostic

You know the margin should be better.

You can feel it in the gap between how hard the team is working and what the P&L is showing.

The problem

Revenue is growing. Occupancy looks healthy. But somewhere between the top line and the bottom line, margin is being lost in ways that are hard to isolate from inside the operation.

That's because it rarely comes down to one thing. Margin in early years leaks from a dozen places at once, and many of them look like sensible operating decisions. They only show up as margin leaks when you measure them at setting level and compare across the group.

What the diagnostic does

We take the P&L apart across five areas and show you exactly where the money is going.

  • 01

    Funded hour economics

    What each funded hour costs you to deliver versus what you receive, broken down by local authority, age band and setting. In every engagement we've run, this is the calculation that changes the conversation. Once you can see the true cost of delivering a funded hour by setting and by local authority, the decisions that follow become much clearer.

  • 02

    Fee architecture

    How your fee structure interacts with funded hours, consumables and parental add-ons. In our experience, every group has cross-subsidies in its fee structure. The question is whether they're there by design or by accident, and what adjusting them would be worth.

  • 03

    Occupancy and ratio

    How full your rooms are only tells part of the story. The staffing model underneath determines whether that occupancy converts to margin. We look at both together because the relationship between them is where the opportunity tends to sit.

  • 04

    Workforce cost

    The single largest line item in any nursery group, and the one with the widest variability between settings. Agency spend, overtime patterns, qualification mix, room leader deployment, absence. We benchmark across the group and identify where the outliers are and why.

  • 05

    Central overhead

    What head office costs per setting, whether the services it provides justify the allocation, and where there's duplication between central and site-level teams

What you get

A board-ready report. Every opportunity sized, a sequencing plan that tells you what to prioritise and why, and a clear view of the financial impact over 12 months.

Who it's for

Nursery groups running 5 to 100+ settings who want a sharper view of where their margin is and how to improve it.

PE-backed platforms preparing for value creation or exit.

Investors who want an operator's perspective on the P&L alongside their financial diligence.

Fixed price. Scope agreed before we start.

Talk to us about a diagnostic