Advice on nursery or another setting

[Rghe]

Hi all,

seeking some advice from more experienced parents! This is my first child and I am unsure if my expectations are too high. We have been at our nursery for 5 months and are contemplating moving settings. Our child is 18mo.

Our child took a long time to settle at their nursery, which is a large chain. We were really blown away by the facilities etc. but I think we were quite naive about how much staff rotation there would be in a large chain. Some mornings I drop my child off (at least once a week) and I don’t recognise many of the staff members in the room. The positives are that our key worker has been the same throughout but we’ve recently had a room move that was poorly communicated and are now resettling all over again with a new key worker. The permanent staff are lovely but I am uneasy about the bank staff they use throughout the day (especially during lunchtime cover etc) - is this normal?

When my husband drops her off, she is mostly happy to go to the staff. Last week I dropped her off and she was hysterical - I found it very hard to see and have been feeling uneasy about the setting ever since.

I’m contemplating moving her to a smaller nursery or to a childminder and I’d love to know if anyone else has done this and has any advice? My husband is slightly unsure as he does the vast majority of drop offs and - while he shares my concerns re staff rotation - says she is broadly happy at drop off and is worried about her settling into somewhere new yet again.

Our child is generally quite a timid baby and I feel a lot of guilt that I should have sent her to a smaller setting from the start. Thanks for any advice you might have.

I think having a consistent caregiver is really important for children this young. I’d move her to a good childminder asap. No guilt though - just make sure you feel good about your choice now.

I think some use of bank staff is extremely common – there will be times when a virus knocks out multiple staff members at once and things like that. It shouldn't be a weekly (or daily!) occurrence, though, and it shouldn't usually be the majority of the staff in the room.

I would agree that a small number of consistent caregivers is important with young children, whether that's a childminder, a nursery with relatively stable staffing and sensible room sizes, relatives, a nanny/nanny share, etc. I am also not a fan of nurseries that move rooms at ~18 months (unless they do it in groups and shuffle the staff with the children) because it often means a child has only just properly settled and built bonds, and then it changes.

I would also be looking to move her, but what setting is best is a combination of parental preference/job needs, the child's personality, and what good quality care is available locally.