why would four nursery nurses be temporarily replaced?

[dobalina]

I've namechanged for this. Four members of staff at my son's nursery have been replaced with temporary staff. The manager can't tell us who or why (although we have worked out who as they are the four we haven't seen all week) just that they are being temporarily replaced and there is some sort of hearing this week.

What she has stressed, though, is that it is not related to the children and is an adult/staffing issue. Whatever that means.

If it was just one person I'd think maybe drugs or a conviction. But four??? What on earth were they plotting? Is there anything worth stealing from a nursery?

For what it's worth I'm very fond of two of them; don't really know the others.

Any ideas?

Fiddling their hours?

If they have been replaced i would be very worried especially if noone is telling you why which worries me and she wouldnt tell you if it was anything child related for fear of it spreading through the nursery and everyone leaving
unless i got a full and frank explanation from the manager i would leave quickly

odd. Very odd.

sickness? there has been a massive clamp down on episodes of sickness at my work and they are being really harsh! Lots of people awaiting hearings. Its really quite unfair

I mean disciplinaries for episodes of sickness in the last tax year, not all off sick now IYKWIM

agree with normality..as a nursery nurse myself.. this is extremely bizarre behaviour and not certain but definitely sounds like a serious incident has taken place...or unless 4 staff members have walked due to management problems.. especially in the private sector.. the treatment of nn is diabolical

the meeting referred to could be a grievance meeting

if they was any safeguardding issues parents would be contacted as OFSTED would want to keep parents informed

Social network gossiping?

that's another one they've keelhauled a few at my work for recently - and its been for fairly mild comments - in fact ANY reference to work whatsoever on FB is now banned

Bullying another staff member maybe?

Or else it is child-related and the management don't want to worry parents until it has been investigated.

sickness and social gossiping would not be the reason for 4 staff members either being suspended or leaving of their own accord...nor would bullying..

one of the highest priorities of a nursery is to ensure that positive relationships are maintained within the setting..so to keep minimal disruption to the children

to the op
are these 4 keyworkers who have left/ wateva

do they belong to the same room

So there is the possibility they have done something wrong and the meeting is to look into it. So there is also the possibility that nobody has done anything wrong at all and they will be cleared after the meeting.

It could be all kinds of things not related to the children. I think you need to trust the nursery at the moment. They seem to be doing everything right.

Hi dobalina,

The question you have to ask yourself is do you trust your Nursery Management. As it has been stated in previous posts, there are lots of reasons for staff members being suspended, I am a Nursery manager, and can tell you that in most cases I have had to take as far as suspension have no direct relation to duty of care. You could link them all in to duty of care, if you wanted to, but things like covering up staff days off, where a group of staff arrange to alternate sick days and back each other up on how sick they were, to unwillingness to complete children's records etc. The list goes on and on.

If you trust the management then I would say do not worry too much about this, as any grave issues relating to staff involving the children would require that the management informed the parents of the child/ren involved, and I can speak from experience that even though management ask that parents keep this confidential until the disciplinary has taken place most parents know about it by the end of the day.

Your main focus should be on ensuring that the temporary staff members if replacing members of staff in your son's room are aware of his needs, again this will be being covered by management as well, however you cannot do anything about the four staff members, but you can reassure yourself that your child is still being well cared for.

Again on this note, I have used agency / temp staff regularly over the years, and on the whole have found that they are a great source of new ideas, and offer fresh eyes into the day to day running of a Nursery, take the time to speak to the new staff in your son's room, and ensure your son is not affected by the change in staffing.

We had this in a Private Nursery where a number of staff handed in their notices at the same time. 3 had issues with management after being scapegoated for an issue and another we knew were moving on after getting a new job. It resulted in a lot of parents being very annoyed and wanting answers. And the management not really wanting to say well we cocked up with a situation which resulted in all the staff deciding to leave. Parents were aware of the tension as it could be felt by parents as they came into the nursery. One dad worked with a staff members relative who kept us informed of parents feelings so we could try to sort it out. But it really wasn't a pleasant time at work and awkward as we were told to be quiet about it.

Thanks for all your replies. I think it is definitely some hr/admin issue but still perplexed as to what could have such an immediate effect. There was a parent's evening booked in for last Monday; this was cancelled on the day. We'd only booked in the week before so whatever it is must have come to light suddenly.

I do trust the management that it is not child related. Apart from anything else they would be on very dodgy ground telling us it wasn't and then parents finding out otherwise. I've no qualms about my son's welfare, I trust them and my son loves it there.

I would be really happy to see all the staff back on Monday if the hearing decides they won't be sacked. Anyone could fiddle their hours or sick and, while they have to face the consequences of that, it doesn't make them intrinsically bad people.

So we'll see what happens on Monday....

I suspect it was the 4 of them handing their notice in with regards to wages or hours worked etc.....for a nursery to 'suspend' 4 staff members has huge implications on the financial and caring side of the nursery.....as a nursery nurse I can tell you that to hand your notice in with 3 colleagues when a parents evening is coming up would cause great effect.

Also when a nursery gets supply staff generally its lovely for the children they bring with them new ideas,new songs and new ways and children thrive on this in familiar surroundings the other staff can find it difficult though.

There was an issue at a nursery I worked in when a child had a bit of a disease that could affect mums to be. 2 staff 'disappeared'. They hadn't wanted to tell anybody about their news as it was still early days, but it kind of gave the game away. They were all fine.