Nursery staff threatening to all walk out

[ToTheMax0]

At the kids nursery today. All the qualified staff have written in notes of resignation.
They are angry and fed up as staff from another nursery (same company) have been brought in to help/supervise and are making them feel tense and degraded. Leaving many of them in tears apparently.
Aibu to be worried about a mass walk out because let's face it, they wont be replacing the qualified staff anytime soon...

You're not U to be worried but I'm not in the least surprised. The whole childcare system is broken and unfit for purpose.

I would be worried about why they have brought in external supervision.

I'd also be worried as to why head office think they need help and supervision!

It's more that they can't recruit for room leader roles

I'd be worried. My child bonded well with her nursery workers and would have been extremely upset and unable to understand if they all just suddenly disappeared en masse. Poor kids if this happens.

Unfortunately room leader roles are a ridiculous amount of responsibility compared to a nursery nursery for about 30p an hour more. Room leaders are always difficult to recruit and when they do they leave pretty quick. Unfortunately this is becoming quite common in childcare at the moment due to the way the staff are treated.

YANBU! It’s only a matter of time. They are massively, massively underpaid and hugely overworked.

Is it a big company?

It's even tough to recruit good level 3 Practioners plus the pay is shocking for the responsibility

Separate issue but I have no idea how the government thinn they're going to extend childcare provision when it's currently not funded enough/attractive enough to recruit currently.

I think we will see more of this.

What's the solution, raise the fees so the staff can be paid more?

Level 3 nursery worker here.

I've often said to my colleagues that we need to stand together and do something like this. Appalling pay and conditions for immense responsibility.

There's a nationwide shortage of nursery workers, and it's not very difficult to see why.

Everybody is short of qualified staff, meaning they can easily go somewhere that pays better (or treats them better). We have the power at the moment. Pay us more!

Realistically though, is 50P more an hour or even a pound going to make a difference when the dissatisfaction runs deep? It wouldn't for me personally.

I’ve worked for one of the big two nursery chains in the U.K. and sorry to say, they are awful to work for. Not saying they’re unsafe or children won’t be looked after, but the staff are not treated well. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians. Huge amount of auditors and area / regional managers and all sorts of titles who have never done the job on the front line themselves. That’s where your fees are going.

This big nationwide chain keeps staff trapped. 3 month notice on contracts. Requires in depth personal references before confirming employment but refuses point blank to do references when an employee seeks employment elsewhere, will only do “X worked her from this date to that date. No disciplinary”. This has caused old colleagues of mine problems, and cost them competitive roles.

It’s a minimum wage job, responsibility gets you maybe 50p more an hour, minimal holidays, statutory maternity only regardless of service, no loyalty rewards. Sorry to say it but looked down upon by society, sadly including many parents.

If it’s a company, I imagine the reason they’ve been brought in is due to mundane issues rather than actual quality of child care and standards, especially considering how upset the staff are. I saw this at mine…..basically we apparently weren’t doing things the “chain” way- the robotic one-size-fits-all way.

The industry has a big problem right now and I don’t blame your child’s nursery staff for taking a stand. It’s awful and unfair for the children but the staff are human and deserve better. It’s a hard and thankless job.

Let's hope they stand their ground and don't allow themselves to be fobbed off with a small pay rise.

Too many chiefs and not enough Indians. Huge amount of auditors and area / regional managers and all sorts of titles who have never done the job on the front line themselves. That’s where your fees are going

This x100.

Too many higher-ups complaining about the most ridiculous things and forcing us to work over our ratios while they sip tea and have a nice chat in the office.

They have no idea what it's like to try and calm 10 young toddlers at once.
They have never nursed a sick baby all day while trying to supervise, feed, change and entertain 6 other babies.
They don't know the struggles of trying to shadow a child who bites in a room full of boisterous 4 year olds.
They've never went into the loo on their lunchbreak and cried from the pressure and stress of it all.
They haven't lost their appetite and not ate their lunch due to feeling so stressed.

They get paid a handsome wage to just sit in their comfy office and offer no help while complaining that our observations aren't up to date or cleaning wasn't done while the staff are in the rooms doing the very best with what they have getting paid buttons and being ran into the ground.

It’s nothing new. I worked in day nurseries briefly 20 years ago and the pay and conditions were shit then. That’s why nearly all the staff are college leavers who don’t know better - yet!

I worked in nurseries for almost 10 years and I’d never go back. Appalling pay, huge responsibility, the pressure from above over non urgent and mundane tasks is immense, managers treat you like crap, speak to you like dirt and expect you to work for free most days, most staff are school leavers who I’m sorry to say have no experience of caring for children and need lots of support themselves, they often lack a nurturing side because they are too young to understand how precious children are (not all of course), this puts pressure on other staff, then you have the nursery ethos which in real terms means be a robot and show little initiative which means your unable to give children loving bespoke care. Parents expectations are understandably high and you feel trapped between them and managers. Mangers basically put on a front for parents and ofstead. Paperwork and pleasing ofstead are put first above direct care. There is very little career progression potential and team leaders only get just above minimum wage. It’s ridiculous considering they are caring for the most important and precious members of society in their most pivotal years. We love our dc beyond measure and want the absolute best for them, yet we expect people to care for them under these conditions. I’m not saying nurseries are unsafe but i don’t want my dc being cared for by staff who are treated so poorly which does affect their moods understandably and who can blame them. Honestly it’s nervous breakdown inducing working like that.

I actually now have a career in a notoriously stressful profession. Think it’s voted the 3rd most stressful job. I’d still rather be here than go back to that.

I'm a governor for a county managed nursery. It's extremely hard to get ANY level 3 practitioners, let alone room leaders & I understand their frustration.

It's only going to get worse after the fucking stupid announcement from the government too. Our nursery says its unsafe to increase the amount of children each practitioner can have so won't be doing it. They also say if they are forced to offer the 30 hrs as announced then they will be bankrupt very soon & will have to close. And this is a county managed nursery.

I'm very worried for the future of nursery's with this government in charge!