Nursery World - Strength in numbers (1)

Employing an extra staff member may seem a luxury few nurseries can afford - but some find it worth every penny, as Mary Evans reports Nurseries often struggle to maintain the required adult:child ratios, but is employing supernumary staff the answer?

Nurseries often struggle to maintain the required adult:child ratios, but is employing supernumary staff the answer?

Some managers say that exceeding the ratios in this way is cost-effective, improves staff morale and boosts parents' confidence in the setting. They argue that the benefits of employing extra childcare staff far outweigh the costs in a sector with very tight profit margins, a deepening staffing crisis and falling capacity levels.

Indeed, Lisa Weston, manager of the Old School House in Stetchworth, Cambridgeshire, says, 'We did a money-saving project looking at funding a supernumary person. We looked at how much our bank staff cost us over a year and how much it would cost to employ a full-time person in a supernumary role, and it balanced.

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