Kids Kapers, Bolton Road, Kearsley

A UNIQUE integrated children’s care centre which caters for youngsters with and without special needs is teaching tolerance at an early age.

Kids Kapers is the brainchild of retired nurse Carol Dyson, who launched her first centre in Salford when she took early retirement from the medical profession in 1997.

And last year, she opened her second Kids Kapers branch at a former church house in Bolton Road, Kearsley.

Today, the combined operation caters for 240 youngsters and 25 staff, some of the children with special needs.

Carol runs the business along with her husband, daughters and son in what is truly a family affair.

She said: “I don’t know of any other integrated care centre elsewhere, especially not in the North West. I like to think we are unique.

“We have children with disabilities and those without any special needs. They work and play alongside each other.

“I originally opened in Salford as an integrated play centre and the childcare followed on from there.”

Today, the Bolton and Salford centres offer nursery care for youngsters aged six weeks to pre-school, a nursery school offering free education and an out-of-school club, including pick-ups from school, for children up to the age of 12.

In her nursing career, which spanned more than 30 years, Carol worked at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital A&E and intensive care units as well as caring for special needs youngsters.

Commenting on the unique integrated approach of her business, she said: “It’s because there’s no black and white.

“Although some of our children might have special needs, they have got their faculties and require stimulus.

“I believe the integrated centres teach tolerance and the fact that not everybody is the same.

“We all deserve to walk on the same pavement and breathe the same air.”