High staff turnover at nursery - normal or red flag?

[Lostinthewilderness]

My DC is nearly 3 and attends a local nursery, part of a large chain.

DC had been there 2 years and (subject to the usual niggles) I’ve on the whole been happy enough. DC seems happy there.

The manager changed about a year ago and there have been numerous staff departures.

It doesn’t help that with Covid I can’t go inside the actual nursery so feel a bit disconnected from it / don’t know the staff as well as I used to pre-Covid.

Is a high staff turnover rate normal at a nursery? Or a red flag?

I should add there are also some staff who have been there years and seem lovely too

I’m just trying to rationalise it. I mean we have a lot of staff leave my company all the time, especially younger people. They just go on to do different things.

It's not really ideal for the children and with my son's old nursery it was a sign of issues with the management.

Do you know why they are leaving? If they are going on to further study or a new career or maternity leave then it's not necessarily a problem. If they are going to other nurseries or leaving without a job then it's not a great sign.

If you have longstanding members of staff I think its ok. Nurseries can have a fairly high turnover, and after the past year I would write that off in terms of staff changes.
Is there anything else that is worrying you?

As long as some of the staff who seem competent have been there a long time I wouldnt panic too much but definitely keep an eye. Something more could be going on.

I would see it as a bit of a red flag.

My DH worked as a nursery nurse for 7 years, and said there was often high staff turnover. It's a low wage job, and people tend to move on.

@Queenfreak

If you have longstanding members of staff I think its ok. Nurseries can have a fairly high turnover, and after the past year I would write that off in terms of staff changes. Is there anything else that is worrying you?

That.

In my experiences, nurseries are just one of those places that have high staff turnover. It's not great for continuity but it's a low paid (and probably sometimes thankless) job where people tend to move around. Quite often the young women that have looked after my children have moved on to become teaching assistants or teachers, not many people stay working in nurseries forever unless they're management.

It’s not good, is it? If the chain is BB or BH, it would be a red flag for me.

As an EYP, some places do have a high staff turnover other times nurseries can go through a period of high turnover but then have a long period of time before someone moves on.

My current setting looks to have had a high turnover when realistically it lost the staff it had originally and slowly supply staff decreased as new staff applied for the jobs. There has been a shuffle of staff from P1 to Nursery and the other way about.

If it's a constant high turnover, it's usually management related.

Thanks all

@Lettuceforlunch

It’s not good, is it? If the chain is BB or BH, it would be a red flag for me

Please can you elaborate?

I can also sympathise with how nursery staff have been treated over the last year, ie being made to stay open when schools closed, so I can appreciate a lot of nursery workers are perhaps just feeling generally fed up.

DD worked in a day nursery, and it was a soul destroying experience for her. She lasted less than 2 years.

This will probably go down like a lead balloon but in DD's case, it was older women bullying younger staff members and making them do all the legwork. Having work in a nursing home myself, I experienced a similar situation only I was old enough and wise enough to report them for it. Lots of school leavers take apprenticeships in day nurseries, and I personally don't feel that they are given enough support and supervision as they are effectively used as slave labour.

@Lostinthewilderness

They’re the two biggest chains in the country. There’s no reason for them not to retain staff as they have the money to. Bad practice, poor management and low wages lead to staff leaving.