Nursery World - Recruitment: Identifying the challenges of agency staff

Agency staff are a vital resource for many settings, but using them can pose difficulties. By Jo Caswell and Kate Peach, owners of Peachwell early years consultancy.

There must be clear communication with agency staff, so they understand what is expected of them.

The recruitment crisis is placing excessive strain on an already fragile early years workforce. The challenge for providers in recruiting high-quality practitioners has never been so great. As struggling leaders attempt to balance their books each day and run their settings to the highest standard, there is now becoming an increasing over-reliance on having to use agency and temporary staff. But how well does this work in practice and what impact, if any, does it have on quality and the provision for young children?

Many settings we have visited over the last year have all, at some point, had to use temporary, bank or agency staff to cover absence. Some are having to use them daily and often have long-term placements until permanent roles are filled.

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