![Leah Turner](/media/tgbntrwo/leah-turner.jpg?width=1002&height=668&bgcolor=White&v=1dad85402856500)
Calculating occupancy seems to throw everyone into a spin, and for a variety of reasons.
When I’m valuing a setting, I will always ask about occupancy, and the answer is rarely confident. The fluctuation of demand, coupled with the sheer intensity of day-to-day management, often stops managers from exploring their occupancy levels and understanding them. In many cases, a manager will tell me occupancy is at 85 per cent, only for me to calculate it at 70 per cent.
For those who use occupancy software, it can go the other way. I only recently found out that one software provider calculates a full-time equivalent (FTE) place to include all opening hours, which sounds logical on paper. However, it means that a child who doesn’t attend breakfast club and arrives at 8.30am rather than 7.30am would be calculated as a 0.9FTE – so the report will say you have capacity, when you in fact have a full house by 9am.
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