Early years leadership is under the spotlight more than ever. In the last few years, nursery leaders have had to stay on top of changes to the Ofsted inspection framework and the revised Early Years Foundation Stage, while strong leadership has been a vital element in supporting settings and teams through the challenges of the pandemic.
While most practitioners have been trained to support children's development, those who are promoted to room leader roles often find they are expected to ‘just know’ how to manage their new responsibilities. ‘I worked my way up to room lead, I was never taught how to manage people,’ says Laura Elliot, Ducklings team leader (under twos) at Parsonage Farm Day Nursery in East Sussex. ‘It can be difficult sometimes – I am a people pleaser, I don't like to tell people what to do.’
A variety of training courses are being developed to bridge this gap, ranging from professional qualifications such as apprenticeships and NPQs to much-needed specialist continuous professional development courses.
Tailored courses
One group of baby room leaders, nursery managers and researchers, funded by the British Education Leadership Management and Administration Society (BELMAS), has come together to create an online training course for new and existing baby room leaders. Despite the fact that the ‘first 1,001 days’ have been identified as vital for children's learning and wellbeing, baby room leaders often receive less support in their leadership development than others within the nursery.
‘Early years leadership is a hugely underdeveloped area,’ says Dr Mona Sakr, senior lecturer in early childhood at Middlesex University who applied for the initial funding to develop the training. ‘There is this idea that it is just instinctive nurturing and that there is no pedagogy– which is a complete misconception.’
The experts developed a course tailored to aspiring and existing baby room leaders. Five 90-minute online workshops take place over five months, giving those taking part the chance to interact with each other and share their experience. These are reinforced with resources, including videos and forums, which can be accessed at any time.
The first module encourages participants to reflect on why the baby room is important and how it differs from other forms of early years’ provision, while the second covers vision and values. The final three modules cover reflective practice, evaluating what is working and what is not; action planning, which looks at making improvements; and motivating others, including role-modelling. Students create a reflective blog throughout the course.
The training is not currently CPD-certified, but participants receive a certificate at the end of the course which can be put up in the baby room. ‘We think that's something that settings are really looking for, to be able to say to parents and carers we invest in our baby room leadership,’ says Sakr.
The free course has been so popular that its first cohort, starting in September 2022, was booked out months in advance, with the number of places available increasing from 20 to 50. ‘It feels like there is a very urgent need,’ says Sakr.
Parsonage Farm's Elliot was one of the first to sign up for the training. ‘Not many courses are tailored for baby rooms – there are lots for three- to four-, and for two-year-olds, not a lot for under-twos,’ she says. Stephanie Fox, nursery room manager at Red Bus Nursery in Coombe Dingle, Bristol, has also signed up for the course. ‘Baby room is a completely different type of childcare,’ she says. ‘I think it's important to make sure our staff are supported because there's a lot of emotional attachment to our babies.’
Eden Training Solutions’ Team Leader Supervisor (Level 3) apprenticeship is aimed at supporting room leaders and deputy managers. The qualification can be tailored to the practices and policies of specific early years settings and groups, and delivered to one practitioner from a single setting or a cohort of early years staff from a large group. Sandra Watson, skills teacher at Eden Training Solutions, says that while the apprenticeship is also Level 3, she sees it as sitting between the Level 3 Early Years Educator qualification and the Level 5 Early Years Lead Practitioner.
Future leaders
Bright Stars (formerly ICP Nurseries) chief executive Tracey Storey, and head of operations Liz Richardson, worked closely with Eden to design a bespoke programme based around the qualification Leaders of the Future. Twenty staff have completed the training so far (see case study).
The programme comprises eight units delivered through monthly online training sessions, covering issues such as leadership styles, finance and HR decision making. Participants take part in activities related to each session and build up a portfolio, concluding with an end-point assessment including a ‘professional discussion’ to show knowledge gained, and a presentation. They also have access to a wide range of online training courses as part of the programme through the platform Noodle Now, and can access resources via the Campus platform.
As a former nursery manager, Watson ensures each unit is tailored to early years practice – so finance will see participants looking at fees and funding, for example. Stepping into management means they have to think about staff as well as children for the first time. ‘I tell them they have got to take off their childcare hat and split in half, so it is half staff and half children,’ Watson says. ‘When we talk about equality, diversity and inclusion they tend to talk about all the things they are doing with the children, but what are they doing for the staff?’
Some larger groups have also developed their own bespoke room leader training. Tops Day Nurseries, for example, offers a Room Manager Course through sister company Aspire Training Team, which includes learning how to complete teaching observations on staff and identifying best practice for staff deployment. Kids Planet Training Academy's leadership qualifications cover team leader and supervisor roles, as well as middle and high-level management positions.
Amid a cost-of-living crisis and ongoing challenges related to the pandemic, early years leadership is set to be more vital than ever. Settings that skill up staff now will be in a better position to face those challenges.
CASE Study: Sarah Evans, acting deputy manager, St Ives Nursery
When Sarah Evans embarked on the Leaders of the Future course last year, she was a room leader, but has recently taken on the role of acting deputy manager. ‘The training has massively helped,’ she says. ‘It teaches you the skills you need to be a supervisor or manager, it gave me a lot of confidence and taught me lots of ways of dealing with different situations.’
Evans already had Level 3 and 4 childcare qualifications but saw the leadership apprenticeship as a way to progress her career. ‘For example, we looked at budgets, which is not something I had involvement in before,’ she says.
While much of the content could be applied in any management role, some of the course was tailored to the nursery environment, she says. ‘It was like ”this is what you would do in a general situation, however, this is what you would do in a nursery”,’ she says. ‘A nursery is a very different kind of workplace – not only are you managing staff but also parents, and to a certain extent the children.’
The course took Evans around a year to complete, with online sessions of two or three hours taking place every month. She had to complete a project covering all aspects of the business, and chose to focus on improving the nursery garden. ‘It threw up some challenges – costs went up because of Covid, so trying to stick to budgets was difficult,’ she says.
Evans's final presentation, on how to manage costs in a nursery without comprising on quality, is certainly timely given the cost of living crisis. ‘It is a nursery, we look after children, but it is also a business at the end of the day,’ she says.
COURSE FACTS
BABY ROOM LEADER COURSE
Level: N/A
Duration: 15 hours over five months including five 90-minute online seminars
Units: Five modules – Welcome to the Baby Room, Values and Vision, Reflective Practice, Action Planning, Motivating Others
Cost: Fully funded
More information: www.babyrooms-inspiringleaders.co.uk
TEAM LEADER SUPERVISOR
Level: 3
Duration: 13 months
Units: Eight – Performance and Development, Leadership Styles, Project Management, Operational Management, Cross Departmental Working, Building Relationships, Finance, HR Decision Making
Cost: £4,500 (95 per cent government-funded)
More information: www.eden-ts.com/apprenticeships/eden-business/team-leader-supervisor-level-3