Third new room leader in 4 months...

[bumpers]

Am i right to feel a little uneasy about this? My DS is in the toddler room and has been since he turned 3.

Since then there have been a noticeable amount of staff leaving, including 3 new room leaders in the past 4 months. When we pick up and drop him off there are a number of times where I dont recognise any staff - the only one I did recognise today is the room leader who resigned out of the blue and is leaving next week (she has only been in post about 5 weeks).

Am i being paranoid or is this staff turnover normal? He is due to go to the pre-school in a few months, gut feeling says to look elsewhere but it might be too much of an upheaval with a new baby turning up as he starts pre-school......

Any thoughts welcome.

MIght it be that they just werent up to the job? It is difficult being a room leader sometimes nursery nurses think they can 'manage' a room but when it comes down to it didnt realise what a difficult job it is. Although it is very difficult to recruit nowadays there just dont seem to be any decent ones out there. All the good ones have jobs in schools as they pay more money.

But, are you aware of any problems? is there a problem with the actual nursery?

Perhaps - the girls were all lovely but were quite young, so it could be the added reponsibility and low pay I guess.

No major problems that I am aware of but there was the sudden departure of the nursery manager about 6 months ago and that seems to have led to lots more of the old faces leaving.

I guess the problem with the nursery for me is the constant new faces looking after my son, they seem different every day. We bring spare clothes, wellies etc as requested but they never seem to use them and he comes home in random clothes and his wellies are now lost somewhere. Just seems to be getting more and more dis-organised. As he is off to pre-school soon enough perhaps I am worrying too much!!

I suppose that really proves the point about the room leaders not being up to scratch.. A room leader ensures all those little things are done. It is very difficult remembering everything but a good room leader is able to get all jobs done and children looked after.
Why dont you have a little chat with the Manager with your concerns.

Its the parents evening this week so I think I will talk to them about it. Thank you for your help :)

Hi there

yeah i would definetly be enquiring into this if i were you, especially being that its in such a short space of time.

The last nusery that my DS was in had so many staff changes that it was impossible to feel reassured and it defintely contributes to a break down in communcation when staffing levels change so frequently.

Hope all is well and it isnt anything sinister.

I did raise it with them but there was no real answer, just the staff circumstances meaning that they choose to move on. BUT on bumping into my sons ex key worker (an amazing girl who my DS loved) she said that the problems were all to do with the management of the nursery and the pre-school was the same!

She didnt go into detail but it made me feel even more uneasy. My DS is due to move to the preschool in april (which is different premises entirely) in the same week as my new DC is due so am really in a pickle as to what to do next. Gut feel says to move him to a new preschool so that he can settle in before the baby arrives and I'll hopefully stop worrying!

Thats really not right i mean on average you say that if you have staff change over of one person every 6 months thats high and you look into it but 3 people in 4 months means there is something very wrong unless the previous 3 people were in a lottery syndacate then it explains it

I'd say move your DS to another nursery so you leave enough time before your new one arrives so he can settle :)

3 people in 4 months is high staff turnover
And would concern me
Listen to your instinct

As an educator myself, I think that is a lot of staff changes for any room.
For the consistency of the children and families, educators should be as permanent as possible. Unfortunately, in the industry of child care there can be many changes as it is typically an industry that appeals to younger generations. These younger generations could be studying- the moving on to become a teacher or something else, and they are also wanting to plan/start their own families.

Council run centres are typically more organized because they all work under the same conditions of employment and adhere more strictly to national quality standards as well as policies and procedures. I find the problem lays with the private sector. Private centres don't often allow or obtain adequate funding, resources or knowledge to run/manage a centre, and can often find themselves facing larger problems within their teams and own management.

You should approach your director/Co-ordinater of the centre. If they can't give you an appropriate answer for why the staff are inconsistent I would definetly move centres.

Hope this helps :)

I would move him if you can. I think high staff turnover is a real warning sign. It's all very well blaming the girls for ' not being up to it' but ultimately it's up to the management to appoint and support the right people.

Were they all meant to be permanent, or were some of them temps to cover until another was recruited? Ds's nursery had a period of lots of change after the manager moved, but it boiled down to two new staff being hired within a month, but one didn't pass 3-month probation so then a couple more temps until a new permanent woman started.

I was concerned at the time but since then the only new staff have been previous ones returning after maternity leave etc, and the old manager covers most temp needs.