When business concerns override a focus on care and education, staff welfare suffers, says the Secret Practitioner…
Picture this: you’re a qualified practitioner in a preschool room. You’ve just had to run into the tiny toilets to ahem toss your cookies because of the dreaded sickness bug doing its rounds.
You plead to go home. But, alas, the only other staff in your room are two enthusiastic but very young apprentices. You can’t possibly leave them alone for the rest of the day.
Your manager apologises. She says she was only given the staff to just meet ratios. Of course, you know that the hard-working apprentices are paid pitifully. It’s obviously a decision bosses have made with money in mind.
There was no contingency plan for the unavoidable situation because, on paper, all the boxes were ticked for staffing that day (in an office far, far away).
Unfortunately, this is a situation that many of us have faced. It’s leading to practitioners feeling overworked, underappreciated, and unheard, often affecting the care they provide.
Bosses make these types of business decisions through profit-tinted glasses, rather than the eyes of experienced childcare professionals. They are overshadowing the needs of children and their hardworking teachers.
Another misplaced business strategy I’ve encountered is the use of the Bradford Score. If you’re lucky, you won’t know what this is, but I’d argue it doesn’t fit within a childcare setting.
The system penalises employees for frequent short absences, and in another context, it might make sense. However, in a nursery, staff constantly pick up minor illnesses. Managers actively encourage them to return before they’re fully recovered to help meet ratios.
This is contradictory and unsupportive – particularly if you discipline employees when their score gets too high.
When being off sick is “bad for business” and we’re told the 48-hour sickness policy doesn’t apply to practitioners because “adults know how to wash their hands thoroughly” (yes, I was actually told this during a bout of norovirus), where does staff welfare come in?
In my 10 years of experience in the childcare sector, and through discussions with friends and colleagues, I’ve noticed a pattern: the larger an organisation grows, the less people-focused its decision-making often becomes.
When I interviewed for one of the would-be “leading” providers, managers promised a rewarding career with growing opportunities within a passionate team – the usual buzzwords to entice unsuspecting practitioners.
I couldn’t have been more naive. They introduced new policies every week when something went wrong at another branch.
Nurseries had rebrands and name changes to cover themselves after bad inspections. Owners let lower management go after bad business decisions, leaving settings without the consistency and resources needed to avoid disaster.
Inevitably, many staff would then hand in their notice, and the pattern would repeat itself.
I’m not a business owner; I don’t know the exact solution to balancing the need to make a profit with the needs of staff welfare and education.
However, I do know that many nursery owners have never actually worked in the classrooms or managed a setting themselves.
Maybe some of them should spend a day on the playroom floor and see the pressure we’re all under being micromanaged by someone who only visits us once a year.
I’m fortunate to be employed in a small private nursery that genuinely cares for its staff and children. It’s a place where staff aren’t scolded for being off sick and are actually supported to improve their practice. This means the absence level is significantly lower and the setting is a more positive place to work in.
But I understand that this is rare. Sadly, many settings are staffed by practitioners who are constantly on edge, feeling undervalued for their work, and losing their love of the job.
We as practitioners are innovative and passionate people, and when there’s no room for that because of business decisions that are incongruent with the childcare sector, settings will suffer.
The Secret Practitioner has worked in the early years sector for over a decade.
