References

[vanillafudge]

Would people consider it to be usual for a nursery to not give references for people who have previously worked there? The nursery tells me that they do not give references for anyone, not just this particular person.

Becoming more common in a lot of sectors now, if you have CV are their any other past employers listed you could contact?

This is really annoying but understandable.
I am an employer and have found it hard to get references for new staff, which in todays safeguarding climate is frankly ridiculous!!!!!
On the other side you can get sued if you give a bad reference. If I give refs now I am very sparse with any details, although I always make phonecalls to people, you find a lot more out this way.

It's not at all uncommon for lots of employers in all sorts of sectors to not give references. AFAIK my own employers give "references" but only to confirm the dates that you worked for them, that you weren't sacked and that you didn't have any pending gross misconduct charges against you (if they even do that much). As a manager I do give personal "employers'" references for people who've worked directly for me, although I suspect there is a company policy against it.