The founders of the Darenth nursery handed majority control to a trust for its staff on 4 September. It has been Outstanding at its last two Ofsted inspections.

One of the borough’s largest nurseries has passed into the hands of its own staff. Dimples Day Nursery in Darenth is now majority owned by an employee ownership trust, according to filings made at Companies House this month.

The change took effect on 4 September 2026. Dimples Day Nursery EOT Limited was recorded that day as holding 75 per cent or more of the shares in the nursery company. (Companies House, persons with significant control)

On the same date, the three people who had owned the business between them stopped being its controlling shareholders. The register names them as Sandra Roles, Charlotte Mair and Chantelle Wood.

What the register shows

The paperwork was filed between 15 and 20 September, and it sets out the sequence:

  • 21 August 2026: Dimples Day Nursery EOT Limited is incorporated as a company limited by guarantee, with no share capital, and registered as non-trading. That is the standard shape of a trustee company for an employee ownership trust. (Companies House, company 17414346)
  • 4 September 2026: the trust company is notified as the nursery’s person with significant control, holding 75 per cent or more of the shares. The three former owners cease on the same day.
  • 4 September 2026: Sandra Roles stands down as company secretary after nearly 14 years in the role, but stays on as a director. Jennifer Mortimer and James George Gary Jan Rumley are appointed directors of the nursery company.
  • 15 September 2026: the nursery company files a purchase of its own shares, the mechanism used to fund this kind of deal. (Companies House, filing history)

The trust company has five directors, all appointed in the same window: Charlotte Mair, Paul Miller, Jennifer Mortimer, James Rumley and Chantelle Wood. They act as trustees, holding the shares on behalf of the workforce rather than for themselves.

A family business since 2002

Dimples was first registered with Ofsted in Darenth in July 2002, and the limited company followed in September 2003. Sandra Roles has been a director since that first day.

The law firm that acted on the sale published the deal on 21 September. The firm, Herrington Carmichael, says its senior corporate solicitor Sophie Protheroe advised the founders on the sale. It quotes Sandra Roles saying that “transitioning our much-loved business to an EOT was something that my two daughters and I had deliberated over for many, many months”. (Herrington Carmichael)

The nursery’s own website makes no mention of the change. It still describes the setting, the hours and the Forest School exactly as before. (Dimples Day Nursery)

What an employee ownership trust actually is

An EOT is a trust that holds a controlling stake in a company for the benefit of all its employees. It is not the same as handing shares to individual members of staff. Nobody gets a share certificate. The trust owns the stake, and the employees are the people it has to benefit. The model was created by the Finance Act 2014.

Two tax rules drive it:

  • Owners who sell a controlling interest to an EOT pay no capital gains tax on the sale, provided the conditions are met. The rules were tightened on 30 October 2024, so sellers can no longer keep control of the company through control of the trust, and trustees must be UK resident. (HM Treasury, taxation of Employee Ownership Trusts)
  • A company owned by an EOT can pay every employee a bonus of up to £3,600 a year free of income tax. National Insurance is still due on it, and the bonus has to be offered to all staff on equal terms. (HMRC Employment Income Manual, EIM03050)

The nursery itself

Ofsted last inspected Dimples on 7 November 2022 and judged it Outstanding in all five categories: overall effectiveness, quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. It was Outstanding at the inspection before that too. (Ofsted, URN EY229801)

The inspector’s report records 50 staff at the setting, 44 of them holding relevant early years qualifications, including six qualified to level 6. It describes children “immersed in the serious business of exploring, investigating and learning”.

The nursery takes children from nine months to five years, opens 7.30am to 6pm on weekdays, runs a Forest School and adds a holiday club for school-age children in the main school holidays.

Settings on the Early Years Register are normally inspected at least once in a four-year window, so Dimples is due another visit. Any new report will be published under the same URN.

What it means for you

  • If your child is at Dimples, nothing in the filings changes the setting, the registration or the staff. The Ofsted registration is unchanged and still open. The company that runs it has new majority owners, not a new operator.
  • If you work there, the trust now holds the controlling stake on behalf of all employees, and the £3,600 tax-free bonus allowance becomes available to the company. Whether it is used, and how much, is a decision for the directors.
  • If you are looking for a nursery place, ask about the ownership change at the visit, and ask what it means for fees and staff turnover. The 2022 Ofsted report records that the nursery receives funding to provide free early education for two, three and four-year-olds.
  • If you own a local business and are thinking about retirement, this is the second route out besides selling to a competitor or closing. Sales to an EOT are dated and public in the same way, so they are checkable.

Dartford’s business record this year has been mostly the other way. We have covered the borough’s empty shops and a steady run of insolvency notices, so a 50-person employer changing hands without closing is worth marking. Our directory lists businesses in the DA2 area, and we also track Ofsted judgements at Dartford schools.

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