Kites Nursery School, Victoria Street, Old Cwmbran, has been recognised as an Investor in People organisation after achieving the standard in February 2005.

Kites Nursery School embraces a commitment to training and development and looks forward to the bottom-line benefits that improved people performance delivers.

The excellent inspection reports from ESTYN (Welsh inspectorate for education) and Care Standard Inspectorate for Wales which Kites has received over the years shows the commitment the nursery has towards the children it cares for. It was therefore the next step to recognise the value of the staff, their performance and their contribution to Kites success. "We have used the Investors in People planning process to address our needs and have now implemented a training and development programme. We will consistently evaluate this to ensure our staff has the most up-to-date skills in order that we may build on our success," said Catherine Whelan, owner/manager. "I am so proud of our achievements since I bought the nursery 18 months ago." Ruth Spellman, chief executive of Investors in People UK said: "Putting people development at the heart of every function is the most cost- effective decision a business can ever make. "Employees are central to business success so it is vital for staff to be skilled, flexible and motivated; this can be achieved through planned and consistent training and development. "The IIP framework ensures that if you look after your inputs, the outputs will look after themselves."

The standard is based on four key principles for people development: commitment to develop employees to achieve business goals and targets, planning to review training and development needs required in context of the business, action to ensure relevant steps are taken to meet training and development needs, and evaluation to measure the outcomes of the training and development for individuals and the organisation.