If you're involved in any way in the running of a preschool (committee or staff)

[TheNewandImprovedMrsHollywood]

... Please can you tell me about who does your paperwork and when they do it?

I'm particularly thinking about updating policies, SEF forms etc - although I'm also interested in planning.

Is this the job of the supervisor/ manager/ owner/ committee and do they do they do it during school hours? In their own time? Are they allowed time off or paid extra?

Thanks!

Hi, it's usually the committee secretary who deals with paperwork, I;m guessing that this needs to be approved by the chair and the managing committee.

The playgroup I was involved in was all voluntary ( apart from the nursery staff), so all paperwork/meetings and fundraising was done in our own time and unpaid.

hope this helps !

Ok, in a committee run preschool it's usually the job of the committee rather than the staff, specifically the supervisor?

Can I please ask you another question? In your preschool, do your staff (employed nursery staff) get time off or additional paid time to complete paperwork, planning and records relating to the children?

Thank you for your comments, by the way!

staff at our village pre-school get paid for friday afternoons even though there are no children there, this is for planning and records etc, the policies etc are done by the chair and secretary of the committee.

Thank you. Is there any official guidance anywhere that suggests this?

FWIW, this is all as I thought it might be, but let's just say not everyone in my setting is convinced that this is as it should be!!

Hi,all record keeping for the children was done when the children left, so paperwork relating to record keeping for the children was done then, as far as I know the staff were paid for about half an hour after closing time, most days though they were still there for an hour or so, not always working sometimes just having a coffee and a chat.

All paid staff attended monthly meetings ( evenings), this was not paid, when bigger decisions were made/agreed etc.

I go into lots of pre-schools / playgroups / nurseries as part of my job, and the answers to your questions vary setting by setting. There is no 'correct' answer.
IMO of course they should get paid time to do (at the very least) some of the paperwork. Policies should be drafted by someone who knows what they are up to - possibly the manager ? possibly the committee ? but then discussed by all staff. Of course, this could turn into a nightmarishly long procedure whereby staff have to have weekly meetings to get through the ridiculous number of policies needed. However, there is no point in having a policy if staff aren't familiar with it, and if it doesn't reflect the actual practice in the setting.
In reality, for every hour you pay staff for doing paperwork, that nudges the wages bill up a bit, and (in some areas more than others) there is a very fine line between what people can afford to pay, and then having to stop coming, because the price has got too high.
I don't think staff working on low wages (often minimum wage for what, IMO is a skilled job) should be expected to put in unpaid overtime - it's not the same as professionals on a decent annual salary, but it does happen, and it happens a lot.

Thanks again. This is all very helpful.

BackforGood - you make a lot of sense! You talk about should happen and what does happen - and I'm interested in both!! Can I please ask what tasks you would generally associate with someone named as 'supervisor'? I mean in addition to childcare and record-keeping tasks that every member of nursery staff would be expected to do.

Thank you.

I'm no expert on that - I visit to do with Special Needs. Of course, in a smaller setting, the SENCo often is also the manager, and sometimes the B.Co too! I would have thought they have responsibility for managing the staff and managing the curriculum. Also ensuring all the statutory duties are in place and up to date- things to do with safeguarding, first aid, hygiene, etc. I would expect them to be the liaison between the day to day things happening with satff in the setting, the parents, the outside agencies, training, and the management committee.

Thank you. That's very helpful!

Hi Mrs Hollywood. I hope I can help. I am a Superviser/Manager for a pack away Pre School which has just been graded Outstanding. I have 8 Parents on the Mangement Committee who support me. We also have a Development Officer from Children's Links at the end of the phone to guide and advise. Because I am the trained professional as it were, they trust my judgement and we make major decisions together. Policy making starts off between myself and my staff, I then present a new policy or a renewed policy it to the Committee for discussion and then it is presented to the parents until it is agreed and voted on. I am secretarial trained and very organised so have built up the necessary paperwork myself in paid time at home (agreed by the committee) and again I go through everything with the committee first. I keep them in the loop at all times. Normally though, if the Superviser feels something needs to be created, ie Food Hygiene check list, then she can ask the Secretary. The Committee realise that they are legally responsible for the organisation but also that they must be willing to give up their free time for the odd job or standing in for a sick member of staff. You mentioned the SEF which of course is done on line. My staff and I go through a section at a time at staff meetings and then I refer to the committee before I input the new data onto the computer. Planning is done between myself and the staff during half termly meetings, but of course the children decide what equipment we have out on a daily basis. I creat staff rotas and factor in 45 minutes once a week for each staff member to record observations and targets for their key children. What is your role ? If you need any further advise feel free to message me.

I was chair of a committee run pre school for 3 years. We had always paid someone to control the waiting list and admissions, while I was there we expanded this role, so the person involved now drafts policies, administers the grant and other admin tasks not directly involved in day to day planning. Although this obviously costs, it had the advantage of continuity which was a problem when committee were responsible. For reports for key children each member of staff got a set payment for each child which was paid when the child left, their records and reports were produced in their own time.

At the preschool where I am chair things are shared out. We have an administrator to do fees and admissions. The manager and deputy do policies unless it is something one of the staff are the designated person for (e.g. H/S) or have a particular interest in. Then the policies are checked by someone on committee and the staff. SEF was done by our deputy with tweaks from the manager and me. Other paperwork is done as and when it is needed usually by the person who needs it or knows most about it. I do what I can so that the staff can be with the children. Someone from committee does the photocopying.

Keyworkers get paid some extra non-contact time to cover that paperwork. It is pro-rata for their hours but they can pick and choose when they do it. So someone who has 2 hours non-contact might only do 1 hour one week but 3 the next. Designated people tend to be paid more, so that is just part of their role but if they have lots of stuff we will try to free them up to do it during session. Planning is done at separate meetings after session.

Grants and fundraising stuff is done by committee.

hi i am a supervisor of a pack away preschool too. We have a manager who is in rota 2 days anbd then does all the admin on site for 2 other days. (we don't have a comittee but we do have trustees) the manager does all the policy admin however we have a rolling checklist where the staff all agree to read 2/3 policies a month and then leave comments on a board if they feel anything needs changing, the manager then rewrites things and emails it to us.
My role is to be in charge of the day to day running, so making sure that the staff know what they're doing that day, making sure that the'yr keeping on top of obsevations etc. i have responsibility for the planning and that the behavoiur policy is followed. WE all have keygroups and get paid for some paperwork time. (think its about 10 mins per child so paid for 1 hour if you've got 6 in keygropu)
We have planning meetings every 2 weeks where we discuss what the children have beem interested in and how /which things to take forwards. We also have 2 weekly meetings where we discuss any child related issues or do Bristol Standards which we get p[aid for.

At the setting I run, the manager/admin manager and committee are involved in putting together the policies. The admin manager or secretary (if we have one) would type them up and distribute where necessary.

All keyworkers are responsible for their own planning for their keyworking time each session, they are paid 2 hours a week to do this outside the setting time.

The manager is super-numery so plans for the term/week and general room during session time.

The secretary used to be responsible for all the admin work but now we have 75 children it is too much for a volunteer so the Admin Manager does most of it now. It all depends on money really, when we had less children we would not have been able to afford to pay someone and also staff would have had to do the planning in quiet times during the session.

Thank you all so much. This really has been very useful. I have taken over the position of Chair and all of the paperwork is not currently dealt with very efficiently, so it's definitely something to work on. I want to give the staff everything they need to do their job but I don't know what would be reasonable or unreasonable!

mrsollymurrs - I am really pushed for time tonight, but will definitely pm you at some point if that's okay! Thanks.

Happy for you to pm me also if you like as I took over as Chair 4 years ago of a pack away pre-school and the setting was about to close for various reasons (financial as well as general provision) so I now have lots of experience in the business/paperwork side, happy to help in anyway I can. We are now a big setting with 11 members of staff and lots of children so hopefully we have been doing something right.

Also if you have a good Pre-school Learning Alliance set up within the council they provide amazing support to voluntary committees, I don't know what I would have done without them. They have lots of generic policies you can use as well and lots of other resources and advice.