Nursery World - Nursery Chains: Staff

Five ‘back office’ employees – spanning health and safety, customer services, recruitment, finance and catering – tell Annette Rawstrone what inspires them in their role

CHILDBASE PARTNERSHIP

Mark Bird

Role: health, safety and environment manager

Appointed: November 2012

‘Childbase, as an employee-owned company, is comparable to my previous job as health and safety officer in the charity sector because there is a high level of responsibility to spend carefully. This is a challenge because what price can you put on safety?,’ questions Mr Bird. ‘It’s made more complicated with the early years sector because the fallout from just one incident can be huge. We want children to engage in risky play, for example through Forest Schools, but it can lead to some interesting discussions with insurance people and we need a strong compliance principle with clear processes.

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