Have you left a nursery job too??

[Nanny31]

Hi !

Long story short I quit my nursery job. JUST!
Have you ? And why!?

P.s best thing I've ever done!

I left early years 5 years ago but I was in a union but it was a non striking union as I felt a societal (not workplace) pressure that it wouldn't be right for EYPs to strike.

Having been out a while and seeing how much worse things have got with covid and the extra underfunded expectations put on settings and staff then I can't see that staff have a choice if they don't want to just leave the profession.

It isn’t easy. We’re lucky with our location that rent isn’t extortionate, and we don’t really make a profit. We take a modest salary, probably less than minimum wage given the number of hours we work, but sometimes that’s owning a business. We’re hoping to start making a bit
of a profit by September when we’re full (we only opened in January).

@NurseryHusband we have a lunch cover at my nursery but only allowed 30 mins each. Everyone does 7.30-6.30pm the hours are so long. The job is draining then you have to go back and do it all the next day. We have to do all the cleaning aswell, the wages are not paid on time either. Supermarkets used to be seen as a bit of a dead end job years ago but I can see now why people in their 40's and 50's change over to supermarket work. The perks are better, pay is better and hours not as long and longer breaks.
Nursery work is tough.

The fees for childcare are at the highest levels. Staff salaries low. Too many children per staff due to sickness. Wait until a serious accident happens.

Imagine popping your children into that mess! 😳

This is so true. All the people I know who have worked in nurseries always say they’d never put their child in one.
My children have gone to a lovely pre school but I wouldn’t have used a private nursery for young babies.

Regarding wages not being paid on time @Carsarelife ..
Are you in a union ?

I highly recommend community - union

I definitely agree That nursery wouldn't be my chosen option 4 a baby

It's great that you can do that, though I don't understand how it can be affordable for either parents or employers. It would be a start, I suppose to get me back into the sector, though a significant pay rise, or at least a wage which reflects my experience and qualifications in relation to less qualified/experienced staff. I would like the government to recognise us as professionals, not babysitters.

You’re absolutely right. As I was saying, we have 3 teachers and we can’t pay a competitive wage compared to actual teaching jobs, so we have to supplement it with other benefits and being a great place to work. Hopefully the market price for childcare will increase above minimum wage and we’ll be able to afford to pay our experienced staff more.

I’m also struggling to see how you can do this. What hourly rate do you pay your staff and what’s the rate for each child?
Sounds great in theory but are you not running at a loss atm. I don’t see where your profit will ever be

I won’t go into what we pay, not fair on a public forum, but our daily rate at the moment is £63. There are optional extras to pay for and we don’t supply nappies and wipes. We’re looking to raise our fees in September and also work out the fees around the FEEE places as compared to our normal fees, we lose money on a 3-4, can break even on a 2-3 and are ok on the new under 2 rate. We’ve seen some nurseries have a mandatory 3 day minimum for 3+ years.
Bottom line, at the moment we’re running at a profit for the business, but probably not paying ourselves minimum wage for the number of hours we do, but that’s owning a new business as far as we’re concerned.

Aspects of nursery life really make me think re crowd control sometimes

I prefer the smaller settings to huge ones

Are you working from home, like a childminding business? If so, I can see how you could make a profit with 12 kids, 3 staff and no overheads to speak of.

Having 12 kids in your house for 10-12 hours a day, 50 weeks of the year is no small thing, however. It might be OK for the first year, but long term, you will struggle. I wouldn’t do it for a million quid.

No. This time last year we (well, my wife) was a childminder with 7 kids on roll but no more than 5 at a time with an assistant.
Now we have 24 on roll, 12 a day and have 5 staff, but there’s no way we would have done that at home. We’re in a converted barn on a local farm (think petting zoo, retail etc.) and we’re doubling our numbers in September, subject to finding enough staff, hence my interest in this thread. We’re hoping that by keeping adult to child ratios at 3:1, and paying a reasonable salary, the way the staff feel valued by not being paid minimum wage and being left with up to 13 kids each, actually helps us with recruitment and retention.

Presuming you can fill all your spaces (12 children x 5 days x 50 weeks), you will bring in £189,000. However, if you are paying qualified teacher rates x 4, that will be a minimum of £160,000 plus on costs for your staff.

Of course, you could pay less, but what qualified teacher would work year-round for less than 40 grand? And if your hours are 8-6, you will need more than four staff anyway because no one will work 10 hours a day.

You might just break even if your overheads aren’t too high, but it will be a lot of stress for very little gain in my opinion.

Luckily for us, we see the gains that aren’t simply the bottom line. All we need to do is pay ourselves a decent wage, along with our staff. We have 2 qualified teachers who have left similar posts to come to us, because our working environment and work/life balance is much better, even if the pay isn’t. And we know we’re providing qualify childcare, which is in itself, rewarding.
When you have qualified teachers not just coming to work for you, but wanting their children to come to you, you know you’re doing right. We’ll never be millionaires doing this, but hopefully we’ll be happy and rewarded.