Ensuring that children eat well and have a healthy lifestyle is high on the agenda for the majority of nursery settings, but what about the staff? Do they receive equal support to maintain a good diet and stay fit?
As an employer you are obliged to create a safe and healthy workplace, but it is also important to focus on the actual health of your workforce. It’s well documented that poor staff health leads to increased absenteeism and lowered job performance. It’s also expensive, with sickness absence costing roughly £500 per employee per year, according to the Confederation of British Industry. ‘Healthy employees means a healthy organisation, lower staff sickness, higher staff engagement and active staff, which leads to better outcomes for the children,’ says June O’Sullivan, chief executive of London Early Years Foundation (LEYF). ‘You only have to look around early years awards and conferences to see that many nursery staff are bigger women, but this has to be tackled with sensitivity and employers have to tread a fine line.’
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