Speaking, panels & podcasts
Helping nursery owners build settings that pay their way and stay well staffed. Practical talks for conferences, panels, webinars and podcasts on occupancy, profitability, staffing cover, fees and funding, drawn from hands-on nursery leadership.
Or email directly: dominic@nurserybusiness.co.uk
Talk topics
Three talks for nursery owners, managers and sector audiences. Each can be shaped for a keynote, panel, workshop, webinar or podcast.
Why a nursery can look full and still struggle, and how to read the figures that sit behind occupancy.
Audiences leave with the two or three numbers that show whether each room and each funded hour actually pays.
How to plan for holiday and absence before it happens, so ratios stay safe without leaning on agency costs.
Audiences leave with a practical cover plan and the early warning signs to watch each term.
How fee setting, funded hours and rising costs fit together, and what that means for the year ahead.
Audiences leave with a clear, calm way to review fees and explain them to parents.
Practical tools behind the talks
The free calculators let owners see the staffing, funding and cover questions that sit behind my conference and workshop topics.
For organisers
Use these as written in programmes, show notes and event pages. Use the copy buttons, or open the longer versions below.
Dominic Scotton is the founder of The Nursery Business. He has more than 20 years in early years and helped grow Pennies from one setting to four, with £4.1m turnover and 150+ staff. He now helps UK nursery owners get the numbers, staffing cover and compliance working together, without the jargon.
Dominic Scotton is the founder of The Nursery Business, a consultancy for UK nursery owners who want a setting that pays its way and stays well staffed.
He has worked in early years since 2005. At Pennies he held creative, operational and board roles and helped grow the group from one setting to four, reaching around £4.1m turnover and leading more than 150 people. During his time there, Pennies Hockers Lane was judged Outstanding by Ofsted in 2011.
Through The Nursery Business, Dominic works directly with owners on the commercial side of running a nursery: fees and occupancy, staffing and holiday cover, and the compliance that sits underneath both. He’s known for being plain-speaking and practical. He has sat on the owner’s side of the table, and he talks about nursery finances in terms owners can act on the next morning.
Dominic Scotton is the founder of The Nursery Business, a UK consultancy that helps nursery owners get control of the business behind their nursery. His focus is simple: a setting that pays its way and stays well staffed, without the jargon.
Dominic has worked in early years since 2005. His career began at Pennies, where he worked across creative, operational and board roles. He helped grow the group from a single setting to four, with around £4.1m in turnover and more than 150 staff. In 2011, during his time there, Pennies Hockers Lane was judged Outstanding by Ofsted, a team achievement and part of his operating background.
That experience shapes how he works today. He knows what it’s like when the occupancy figures look fine but the bank balance doesn’t. He knows how a term can start fully staffed and end short, and how compliance work quietly eats into the week. Through The Nursery Business he offers fixed-fee reviews, wider business health checks and ongoing support. He helps owners find what is holding the business back, decide what to change and put it into practice.
He talks with owners, managers and sector audiences about the practical side of running a sustainable setting: fees and funded hours, staffing cover, and turning the numbers into decisions.
His style is warm, direct and practical. He avoids theory for its own sake and focuses on what an owner can check, change or ask about the next day. To talk to Dominic about speaking, podcasts or events, email dominic@nurserybusiness.co.uk.
Free to use alongside your event listing or show notes.
Booking
Send the date, audience, format and location (or online), and I’ll come back to you personally.
