NANNY knows best, but Caroline Lee, of York, knows even better.

That is why Caroline has been nominated for the Women In Enterprise Award in The Press Business Awards 2006 and pitched her venture, the Caroline Lee Nanny Agency/Sunshine Day Nursery for the title of Small Business Of The Year.

Caroline, aged 26, has been in the childcare industry since she was 16, working with families, companies abroad and nurseries. At 18 she gained a BTEC National Diploma in childhood studies with the equivalent of two A levels, including child psychology and sociology.

Three years ago, Caroline failed to find a suitable property to turn into her own day nursery, so she started Caroline Lee Nanny Agency.

Her objective: To make a big difference to families and nannies, meeting both sides and providing them both with accurate information on employment, contracts, taxation and insurance.

While visiting people's homes to assess their needs, Caroline discovered that there was a huge demand for quality childcare services.

So the agency soon expanded into other services such as housekeeping, mother's help, a mobile crche and babysitting and Louise Johnson, a business management expert was eventually brought in to manage the rapidly expanding business.

Then the Sunshine broke through. Caroline found her ideal property to convert into her Sunshine Day Nursery, in Huntington Road, moved her nanny agency there and used it to recruit a high quality team to run it.

Now the Sunshine Day Nursery, which caters for 26 children up to the age of five, is having to find more staff to cope, particularly since the nursery is capable of taking 36 tots. Parents are attracted by its good Christmas 2005 Ofsted report and its new equipment.