The course encourages leadership teams to take a step back and objectively evaluate how their company culture has evolved over time, and explore ways in which this might be changed or improved.
Room E47 has just delivered its training to Footprints Nursery in Ashford, Middlesex. While the overall quality of the nursery was deemed satisfactory by Ofsted in June, the report noted that management demonstrated a strong commitment to ongoing improvement.
In line with this Footprints decided to use the programme to address areas such as its staff retention, morale and relationship dynamics – all of which it felt had a huge impact on the overall quality of its practice and child outcomes. It also wanted to draw up a plan for overcoming the barriers to future growth and clarify its direction as a business.
During the six-week course, which was delivered on site, it became apparent that Footprints needed to find ways to build the self-esteem of staff and develop their sense of pride in their job roles.
‘It was agreed that a communication strategy needed to be developed which involved all levels of staff,’ says Room E47’s director Tahir Akram (pictured). ‘This included providing a safe environment where staff could share their thoughts and feelings and challenge their patterns of behaviour by identifying their feelings and unconscious beliefs. It was also vital to create a safe platform to feedback any concerns to management.’
As a result of the programme Footprints recognised that its existing recruitment procedures needed to be improved – a point which was duly noted by Ofsted. Its approach now includes a more rigorous follow-up on references and past experience and a more robust induction procedure.
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