Our working relationship: 'It's all about communication'

Kelly Shrimpton, nursery manager at Bambino Day Nursery, which is operated
by All About Children, and Rose Elkins, head of operations for the nursery group, have enjoyed a close working relationship at All About Children for over six years.

Kelly Shrimpton

What are your day-to-day responsibilities?

Everything from providing rooms with hands-on support and observations to booking in family show-rounds and supporting apprentices with any training requirements.

I've been working for All About Children for six years now, and enjoy being part of the team.

I've just completed a Level 2 counselling skills training course to be better prepared to support staff with any mental health needs in a practical way, which is an area of training I'm particularly interested in, especially during these challenging times.

How we work together…

Rose is one of my line managers, and we have a great working relationship. Her manager's meetings are always valuable as a time to talk through business performance and share information. I always have lots to tell her about during her visits to Bambinos too. Rose is always approachable and a great problem solver, which is a real support.

I think our working relationship is helped by the fact that we've known each other a long time now, meaning we know how each other works – something that only comes about through having that consistent working relationship.

Rose always shows a genuine interest in our nursery – children and staff. Every time she visits, she introduces herself to new members, adding that personal touch, which makes a difference.

She has also been a tremendous help with our Summer Student Scheme, looking at colleges together and attending open days with an eye to recruitment. A big part of this is trying to grow our workforce from within as much as we can, progressing our staff through training; something that is proving very successful. We provide a lot of assistance with training and career progression.

Challenges we've faced…

Working together through Covid was surprisingly beneficial – believe it or not – and brought us closer together as it was a time when we were having daily check-ins, which meant as a hub nursery we saw each other daily.

Re-opening after lockdown meant looking again at how we were going to progress going forward – a lot had changed, there was a lot that needed rethinking; of course we wanted to be completely prepared for anything, such as another Covid outbreak.

The future for everyone needed to be more flexible and we took a close look at child hygiene measures and all aspects of keeping children safe. We worked on new risk assessments together, which was a real collaboration, talking through the changes we had already made due to the pandemic, which should be kept in place going forward, and also discussing new ideas we could put in place, thinking about how we could make our nurseries as safe as possible without compromising on children's curiosity and exploration.

Why it works…

I think a big part of what makes a good working relationship successful is good communication and taking care of your staff, getting to know everyone and how they work, being present in the day-to-day and making people feel appreciated.

At All About Children, we've introduced fresh fruit as snacks for staff, as well as our free meals, as a way of boosting morale and saying thank you for all the hard work. We also recognise staff achievements, using Facebook to congratulate everyone completing training, such as colleagues completing their apprenticeships.

Rose is so good at making everyone feel part of the team – it's a joy to work with her.

Rose Elkins

What are your day-to-day responsibilities?

Looking after 23 nurseries across the South and Midlands, heading up all of the operational side – recruitment, occupancy, meeting business objectives – everything that's involved in leading a team of settings.

I visit up to six nurseries a week, looking at any challenges they might be facing, taking the time to go through the detail to see how we can work through any potential problems.

How we work together…

I've known Kelly for six years now. I was already working for All About Children when Kelly joined the company. She is very experienced and a real trooper, with nothing ever being too much trouble – she's an absolute asset.

We talk at least once a week. I can be sure Kelly will keep me abreast of anything that needs taking care of, dropping me an email or giving me a quick call. It's all about that extra level of contact, which is so important in our working relationship.

Challenges we've faced…

The biggest challenge we face, I'm sure Kelly will agree, is definitely recruitment– which I'm sure is no surprise.

We work through this together, identifying the current need of the nursery and making a plan with our recruitment team, thinking of ways to get inventive with the challenge; for example, we've started a Summer Student campaign, where we utilise social media and contact universities to advertise our offer of summer work. This works really well as uni students are typically off on their summer holidays from mid-May to mid-September – so a long working period.

It's great for the students looking to gain valuable experience not only in early years, but of collaboratively working within a team. All students will go through our robust safer recruitment procedures as all of the staff teams do, and complete an induction before working with children.

It's proved really successful, with over 60 applications last year – this year we had over 200. Their calibre of care and enthusiasm is fantastic and we have lots of returners from last year. Kelly has three summer students at her nursery now and she makes sure they are always treated as important and valued team members.

What we've achieved…

Me and Kelly also look at motivation and work-life balance within our workforce. Kelly has 45 staff members at her nursery, which includes full-time, part-time and apprentices. We offer all staff free hot meals for breakfast and lunch, which is something we brought in during November when it was getting colder, and we've kept it going as staff love it and to support them with the cost of living. The children also like it – having staff sit down to eat with them makes meal times a real social experience and children just love having staff join them.

Another effective way I collaborate with Kelly is through our Managers Teams Call meetings, where I can talk to her and the team about anything. Hearing everyone's ideas and suggestions is great for getting you motivated, plus it's a real inspiration to hear everyone's suggestions given with so much enthusiasm.

There is also our TikTok challenges set up by Leah Hannon, our marketing manager. Our staff have had a lot of fun with these, learning dance routines, really throwing themselves into it. We have loaded them up to our TikTok account to show potential practitioners that we do have fun in our nursery teams. This is a hard job, so it's good to have a bit of extra fun!

Why it works…

To create a great collaborative work experience, the most important thing is to be people-focused and manage expectations. Kelly always exceeds all expectations – you're really nothing without a great manager.

TikTok challenges

All About Children has embraced the use of TikTok after attracting the attention of singer and presenter Marvin Humes.

The nursery group, which has its own TikTok account to demonstrate to prospective staff the fun that nursery teams have, recently challenged practitioners in the settings to take part in a dance tend. It was set as a teambuilding exercise to encourage staff to spend time and bond together.

Marketing manager Leah Hannon explained, ‘I was browsing TikTok one Sunday and noticed a dance trend that I thought would be quite fun to participate in.

‘Some of our nurseries took up the challenge and posted videos. I then tagged singer Marvin Humes as it was his new song that was being used.

‘To my surprise, he sent me a message to say it was a great idea. He also sent a video message for our staff to say he has really enjoyed watching the videos so far and that he would love to see more.’