No staff at nursery

[catlady1234]

Hi,

My DC (10 months old) has just started nursery, this should be their 3rd week. They go 3 days a week.
Last weds they were sent home with upset tummy as they are teething. Had to have Thursday off too as per their policy.

They should have gone in today but at 7:30pm last night we get a message via the app saying they have no staff and they can't go in.

Is this common?

I'm worried they have staff issues and also the last min communication is a huge issue for us! We don't have easy solutions and it gave us no time to find any options.

I've also never had this. We used a private nursery for our dc and they never got turned away or sent home for anything. We didn't send them when they were ill and luckily they never got poorly at nursery without us knowing about it and keeping them at home.

I do think I'd be looking for alternatives if there are any.

I've worked in nurseries for many years and have only experienced closures three times- all due to dangerous weather.

I can see why it's happening though. As others have said there's a massive recruitment and retention problem in nurseries. Even those with half decent pay (well, decent for a nursery!) and good benefits are struggling. If staff are off sick and there are no bank staff available, nurseries have no choice but to close or to limit how many children they allow through the doors. Working out of ratio is illegal and obviously a huge safeguarding risk.

Oh yes tbf we did have one closure due to snow and ice. But never staff shortages.

I definitely see why they're struggling to retain staff. A very difficult job and nursery staff aren't valued enough at all. Ditto school support staff like TAs.

Not true our nursery fees are pushing £60 aday us staff are on min wage!

Sorry to say but £60 a day is the cheaper end, I’d have thought.

@Kissingfrogs25 Yes agency staff are qualified, in my work there are 2 agency staff that have been offered full time work in our nursery but refuse as they are payed more through agency.

Sorry to say but £60 a day is the cheaper end, I’d have thought.

It depends where you are. Ours have just increased to £46 a day.

Our old nursery was £42 a day.

O wow I thought that was high its higher than all other local nurseries.

Yes all our local ones are between £46 and £50

At ok. We are in Croydon and ours is £65 a day, which is the cheaper end. The much nicer Montessori nearby (that we can’t afford!) is £80.

This happened once to us at the height of covid... the nursery asked for volunteers to take the day off (unpaid) and didn't charge us.
Ours isn't super expensive but they have amazing staff retention - how they treat the staff was very important to us when we were looking around and this one was very transparent about sharing terms and conditions, rates of pay etc. they have a professional hr person even though it's only 2 branches and the owner is very hands on and clearly very appreciative of her team.
Hopefully it's a one off but if you do need to look elsewhere I'd definitely ask for copies of the staff t&cs and about retention and the management structure. A decent back up nanny will help too - especially if they are prepared to have them if they are teething etc. good luck, it gets easier after a few months !

I couldn't agree more. I'd even consider taking 3 years off as unpaid maternity leave if I could guarantee returning to the same job.

I know a few people who have come out of chidcare as the money is just not good enough anymore and can work at tescos for more
Lots of responsibility looking after kids but not well paid and also lots of paperwork etc
Its not a job like it used to be

About shutting for bad weather...

I've experienced nurseries shutting for snow on a few occasions. The next day many parents come in driving their huge 4x4s and complain. Staff tend to drive little hatchbacks that just can't do it, or they're new drivers who are just scared of crashing.

Hire a nanny ? Your baby will be in his own home and go on lovey outing during the day it's much nicer

*About shutting for bad weather...

I've experienced nurseries shutting for snow on a few occasions. The next day many parents come in driving their huge 4x4s and complain. Staff tend to drive little hatchbacks that just can't do it, or they're new drivers who are just scared of crashing.*

We did have some parents not happy that we closed due to snow! It was bad enough first thing in the morning when we opened. It then got worse very quickly, and we had to close about 3 hours later. By that point parents couldn't access the nursery by car, staff had to carry the children down the road to their parents cars then walk home, leaving their cars in the nursery car park. One staff member crashed her car on the way in to work that day.

My daughter worked in one charging mega money...£0000s, per term still treated staff badly on minimum wage etc the parents would attend events to charity fundraise where babysitting services from staff were auctioned then when they went to babysit for parents paying a few hundred they watched children have lessons in the basement pool before eating carluccios for tea. So very exclusive

Our nursery closed completely with 12 hrs notice. We later found out that they had lots of debt and three staff handed in their notice around the same time so they decided to go into insolvency. It wasn't a cheep nursery - around £75 per day.

It has taken 4 months but both my DC's now have a place at another nursery this one approx £90 per day. We can't afford the hours they were previously doing so we have had to reduce their days and rely on support from family and friends to cover the rest of my working hours as well as use both of our annual leave to fill in the gaps. If this one closes I will take a career break until the eldest one is at school. It's been far to stressful.

A family member works at a nursery - she gets paid £16k a year for 40 hours a week - shifts between 7am-7pm. She is amazing but I don't expect she will do it for long. I couldn't do it.

Yes it is lovely. Do you think it costs the same as a nursery place?

I disagree. The economic crisis is hitting hard, the number of nanny jobs is much lower than it has been in previous years. I think most nannies would look at a job slightly above going rate, looking after two babies.

I was a nursery manager. There is more stress on early years as there is more pressure from 'above'.
Paperwork is horrendous and having been a nursery manager and also a primary teacher I can honestly say nursery workers(room leaders) will do the same amount of work as a teacher but get paid less. Planning, assessing etc

It's shit and I don't know what the answer is.
No better in schools as they can't afford TA's but even if they have the budget for them there is a lack of applications. My school had two applicants. Five years ago we would have been inundated.
Don't dismiss childminders. I have managed several nurseries and used a childminder for my own children There are some bloody good ones!

Our nursery also expect the staff to do parents evening twice a year- assessments and milestones, 15 min per parent, even for the babies- the work that goes into that must be huge. I feel for them.

@outtheshowernow

We can't afford a nanny. And we don't have space at home. I wfh in the living room so it wouldn't work for us.

@Creameggs223

£60 a day sounds amazing value! We pay over £100 a day but that is London

catlady1234 ·

no, no, I didn’t mean what’s your issue. Agreed, that’s obvious. I meant what’s the issue causing them to shut down for the day?

if it is staff sickness, for example, they really don’t have a choice.