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Working capital that keeps the rooms open.
A nursery pays its team and its rent on the dot, then waits on funded hours to land — and ratio rules mean you can’t flex staff down when a term runs quiet. These plain-English notes look at how short-term finance fits a UK childcare company, and on every one, the company borrows, never you personally. No personal guarantee.
Few trades carry their costs as steadily, or collect their income as unevenly, as childcare. Qualified staff, premises and food are fixed from the first day of term — but the fees and the funded-hours money that pay for them arrive on someone else’s timetable, and rarely all at once.
Creditcorp is the growing name for the Credicorp group, and Credicorp Limited is the lender behind it. It does one thing: short-term working capital for incorporated UK businesses. This page is a guide, not an application — when you’re ready, applying happens on the lender’s own site, credicorp.co.uk.
Throughout, the borrower is the company — a UK private limited company (Ltd), LLP or PLC — not the director who signs. No personal guarantee, no charge over a home, no personal credit check on a director. These are not personal loans, payday loans or sole-trader finance.
Where the cash-flow gaps come from
Childcare costs run flat and high while income arrives late and uneven. Four pressure points show up again and again.
The funded-hours payment lag
Government-funded early-education places are delivered week by week, but the money for them tends to land in arrears, on the local authority’s schedule, and often after a headcount census rather than alongside it. You’ve already paid the staff who looked after those children — sometimes a full term before the funding settles. That timing gap is the single most common reason a nursery reaches for working capital.
Staff ratios you can’t flex down
Statutory adult-to-child ratios set the floor on how many qualified people must be on the floor for the children in your care. When a term runs light you cannot simply cut hours the way a shop trims a shift — lose your team and you can’t take children back when numbers recover. Holding a skilled crew together through a thin patch is a cash-flow cost, not a luxury.
Room fit-outs and EYFS compliance
Opening a baby room, adding capacity, refreshing outdoor play, upgrading sleep rooms or a kitchen, or bringing a space up to EYFS standard is a one-off cost with a clear payback: more registered places. But the bill — and the inspection that follows — lands well before the new places start earning.
Occupancy swings and the summer dip
Numbers move with the calendar. Older children leave for school each September before the new intake fills the gap, after-school and holiday-club demand spikes and falls with term dates, and the late-summer weeks can run quiet while rent and core wages don’t move at all. The trough and the peak rarely line up with when the money comes in.
Which kind of finance fits a nursery
Three shapes of short-term working capital, and how each tends to land in childcare. The detail — amounts, pricing, terms — lives on the products page and with the lender; we won’t quote figures here.
A Business Bridging Loan — for a known, one-off cost
A single lump sum, repaid over a short fixed term. It fits the childcare jobs you can put a figure on: a room fit-out, outdoor play equipment, a kitchen upgrade, or a known shortfall while a funding payment is in the post. You know the cost and you can see the places or the settlement that will clear it. More on the Bridging Loan →
Credicorp Flex — for the term-by-term rhythm
A revolving facility the company can draw on, repay and draw again. This suits childcare’s natural pattern — covering wages through a quiet stretch between intakes, bridging the recurring funded-hours lag each term, and topping up around the holiday-club peaks — without arranging fresh finance every time. More on Credicorp Flex →
Credicorp Slice — for a single supplier bill
Spread one supplier invoice over a few weeks while the supplier is paid in full today. Handy when a catering, cleaning or equipment bill lands at an awkward moment between fee runs and you’d rather smooth it across the weeks that follow. More on Credicorp Slice →
The company borrows — not you
Plenty of nursery owners have already signed personal guarantees they didn’t love — a premises lease, a minibus on finance, a supplier account. The Credicorp model is the other way round: the agreement is between Credicorp Limited and your company, so the finance itself doesn’t add to what’s pinned to your own name.
- No personal guarantee — the company is the borrower, full stop.
- No charge over your home — your house isn’t security for nursery staff or a room fit-out.
- No personal credit check on a director — the lender looks at the business, not your own file.
- Bodies corporate only — UK Ltd, LLP or PLC, never a sole trader or an individual.
This is exempt business lending under Article 60B of the FSMA Regulated Activities Order 2001, not consumer credit. The full regulatory position — and the company and trade-mark detail behind the group — is set out on the group site, creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
A worked example
An illustration, not a real customer — just to show the shape of it in childcare.
A day nursery trading as a UK limited company runs a single setting with an attached after-school club. Each September a cohort of its oldest children leaves for reception, and the new intake takes a few weeks to fill those places — but the qualified team has to stay in post the whole time, because ratios don’t bend to occupancy. On top of that, the term’s funded-hours payment from the local authority isn’t due to settle until well into the following term.
Because the squeeze is recurring rather than one-off, a Credicorp Flex facility to the company fits the pattern: the nursery draws down to cover wages through the quiet late-summer weeks and the funding lag, then pays back as the new intake fills and the authority settles. The agreement is with the company, so the owner gives no personal guarantee and puts no charge over their home. If a baby-room fit-out comes up later to add capacity, a fixed-term Business Bridging Loan would cover that known cost separately.
Childcare funding questions
The questions nursery and club owners ask most. For anything specific to your business, the lender’s team are at credicorp.co.uk.
Can my nursery borrow to bridge the wait for funded-hours payments?
Yes — the lag between delivering funded early-education places and the local authority settling them is one of the most common reasons a nursery uses short-term finance. Staff and rent are paid every month, but funding often arrives in arrears and on the authority’s own schedule. A Credicorp Flex facility suits this recurring, term-by-term gap; a Business Bridging Loan suits a single, known shortfall. The specifics sit with the lender at credicorp.co.uk.
Will I have to give a personal guarantee or a charge over my home?
No. Credicorp lends to the company — your UK limited company, LLP or PLC — not to you as a director. There is no personal guarantee, no charge over a home and no personal credit check on a director. For a nursery owner who has already signed personally for premises or a vehicle lease, keeping the funding itself off your own name is a genuine difference.
Can I use it for a room fit-out or new equipment?
Yes. A new baby room, a refit to meet EYFS space and safety standards, outdoor play equipment, sleep rooms, a kitchen upgrade or sensory resources are all working-capital uses. Because the cost is known up front and the payback comes from the places those rooms let you register, a fixed-term Bridging Loan often fits a fit-out cleanly. The lender confirms what suits your case.
Staff ratios mean I can’t just cut hours in a quiet term — does finance help?
It can. Statutory adult-to-child ratios mean you have to hold a qualified team in place whatever the week’s occupancy looks like — you cannot flex staffing down the way some trades can. When occupancy dips between intakes, short-term working capital lets you keep that team together rather than lose people you’ll need the moment numbers recover. Talk the pattern through with the team at credicorp.co.uk.
My after-school and holiday club income swings hard across the year — does that change anything?
The borrower is still the company, however seasonal the income. After-school and holiday clubs see demand spike in term time and around holiday weeks, then fall away — yet premises and core staff cost the same all year. Credicorp Flex is built for that drip-feed pattern: draw down when wages outrun fees, pay back as bookings return.
Is this a consumer loan or a payday loan?
Neither. This is business credit to a body corporate, not consumer credit, and it is not for sole traders or anyone borrowing in their own name. Under Article 60B of the FSMA Regulated Activities Order 2001, lending to a UK company sits outside the consumer-credit regime. The full position is on the group site, creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
More general questions are answered on the FAQ, and the whole journey is on the how-it-works overview.
Related sectors
Childcare shares its staff-heavy, late-paid cash-flow shape with a handful of neighbouring trades.
- Education & training — the same termly fee cycles and the quiet weeks between cohorts.
- Healthcare & dental — a regulated, staff-led trade waiting on plan and NHS payments to catch up.
- Professional services — another payroll-first business bridging the lag between work delivered and money in.
Or browse the whole set on the industries hub. Company and legal detail for the group lives on creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
Ready when you are
Whatever your setting needs funding for, applying, drawing down and managing your account all happen on the lender’s site, credicorp.co.uk.