To ask how well staffed your children’s nursery is?

[IceAndLemonPlease]

Only because when I walk into my daughters they seem overstaffed and bored. The nursery has around 18 kids in preschool and the 0/3’s are mixed (again around 18 kids). Reason being that there aren’t enough babies to justify opening the baby room .

Might be useful to say how many staff were around...

There were seven members of staff with around twenty kids all in one room ages mixed together from 0/3 but the staff looked bored and bit unsettling to see a huge almost 3 year old hurting around the room and nearly knocking into a baby

Bit of a red flag that they seem bored; surely they should be engaging with the kids?
I think there’s 4 or 5 to the 18ish kids

Ratios depend on the age of the children.

It's something like

Under 2 - 1 adult for 3 children

2 year olds - 1 adult for 4 children (soon rising to 5 children)

3-4 year olds, 1 adult to 13 children if a qualified teacher or Level 6 qualified

3-4 year olds, 1 adult to 8 children if the lead adult is not level 6 qualified

However, there should always be 2 members of staff in a room, so if there were only 3 x under 2s, the nursery would still need to put 2 adults in the room. This is not financially viable.

There was only one baby and the rest were all 2/3 year olds. The safety thing is another matter I guess. Some of these kids are approaching three and are huge. As I say, one nearly ran into a tiny baby girl. But they do seem overstaffed in that one room and not engaged. Think I will go in later and have a chat with the manager

At what time? Might seem overstaffed at 8am and bustling by 9am...

Nurseries are really struggling for staff ATM, I'd be surprised if anywhere was willingly running overstaffed. I wouldn't like babies in with 3yos though (although fair enough right at the start and end of the day).

Bored and just talking to each other? I'd be concerned.

It was about 4PM when I went in and it seems to be a general pattern. Lots of staff and not many kids. Staff all look bored and are standing around chatting. They must be the only nursery around which is like this going by some of what I read as in not being able to get staff. I will say something later on. The babies mixed in doesn’t sit well with me either. The room isn’t designed for babies to be in and there’s the safety issue also of older kids bumping into younger ones.

Perhaps there is an exodus of children at school picking up time but they can't have less staff in case children don't leave.

There’s several issues really that are concerning me. I do think though that this nursery is the only one in the whole of the UK which is overstaffed!

The 1-5 ratio is already legal for 2 year olds.

The 1-13 ratio only applies to people with a teaching qualification, not all level 6 qualified staff will be able to use that ratio. ie simply a degree in Early Years won't, unless it comes with QTS or EYTS.

Just FYI :)

Ours seem to have the bare minimum. 3 adults in the baby room (8-9 babies) and 1 in the pre school room (never more than 8 children).

@Littlefish is it a legal req to have 2 members of staff or something you recommend? The preschool room at my dc’s nursery never has more than one adult.

That is illegal as they definitely need at least two adults in one room

It's not illegal, it's poor practice but if the lone member of staff is able to get assistance (is in earshot, can phone, etc) and is in ratio there's no law against it. I wouldn't want to do it though!

Ratio’s aren’t a thing where we are.

Our daughter is two so she is in the 1-3 room, when I picked her up yesterday there were definitely three adults in the room, I know her room has 14 children on a full day.

That's crazy! Whereabouts are you?

Sweden

The concern for me wouldn't be 'overstaffing' (unlikely) it would be staff looking bored. This is unacceptable and should be flagged to the manager - staff should be engaged with the children.