With half of early years staff saying work has made them ill, Charlotte Goddard looks at employee health protection

Early years practitioners love their job, but in many cases, it is making them ill. The Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families surveyed 1,458 early years staff earlier this year and found the majority were happy in their work: 62 per cent said work always or often had a positive impact on wellbeing.

On the other hand, early years can be a stressful, pressured environment, and never more so than during the past 18 months. Half of those questioned said stress in the workplace had caused them to feel unwell over the past 12 months, and only 15 per cent reported not having felt stressed or unhappy at work in the past two weeks. The main causes of stress were:

  • workload and work/life balance (52 per cent)
  • administration and paperwork (38 per cent)
  • business pressures and meeting work targets (33 per cent)
  • Ofsted inspections (27 per cent).

‘It’s clear how much early years staff love their work, but also that it can at times be emotionally demanding and stressful,’ says Dr Camilla Rosan, head of early years and prevention at the Anna Freud Centre. ‘Staff wellbeing needs to lie at the heart of nursery settings, so we can best support those who look after young children in the first years of their lives.’

Feeling valued

Research shows that unemployment contributes significantly to poor health. However, the 2010 Marmot Review of health inequalities in England reported that a poor-quality or stressful job can be even more detrimental to health. Characteristics of good-quality work include adequate pay, strong working relationships, and promotion of health, safety and wellbeing and learning development.

Inadequate pay has long been a feature of early years work, and poor pay has strong links to poor health. Forty-six per cent of employees earning less than the Living Wage said their pay causes anxiety, according to a report from The Living Wage Foundation earlier this year. Feeling unvalued by society can also impact health. ‘One of the reasons people leave the sector is the impact on their wellbeing, many of them feel like they’re the forgotten heroes,’ says Judith Marriott, HR director at Busy Bees.

The Anna Freud Centre found that having a staff mental health and wellbeing policy in place makes a difference – practitioners in settings without such a policy were more likely to say they felt unwell as a result of work-related stress (61 per cent, compared with 50 per cent with a policy). Practitioners were asked what interventions would be most helpful, and the majority said access to improved information about mental health and wellbeing, better support from colleagues and access to mental health support.

In July, the centre published a free toolkit to help early years settings support and promote staff wellbeing. ‘Early years staff wellbeing: a resource for managers and teams’ was informed by focus groups with early years practitioners and work with local authorities and the National Day Nurseries Association. The toolkit makes a number of suggestions for promoting staff wellbeing, including:

  • Write or review your staff wellbeing policy as a team and display it publicly.
  • Include a section on staff wellbeing at all staff meetings.
  • Put up a board about staff interests – the better we know each other, the more we understand.
  • Consider running a staff wellbeing survey (only recommended for settings with more than ten staff in order to protect privacy).
  • Make a list of some of the ‘lighter’ things to improve wellbeing, such as treats and special compliments.
  • Think how you can offer space and support for employees when they need it; for example, after dealing with a complex safeguarding issue or difficult conversation.
  • Set up a buddying system for staff or managers to provide support.
  • Signpost to services: there are a number of organisations that can help staff who are struggling with their mental health and wellbeing.

For Busy Bees, it is important to keep track of the mental and physical health of employees, in order to offer them the best support. ‘At the point when they are completing the application, we would identify whether there are any health issues we should be aware of, to understand what needs to be put in place for their mental as well as their physical wellbeing,’ says Ms Marriott. ‘Then we would continue to address mental and physical wellbeing through supervisions, as well as checking in annually.’

Busy Bees has a range of policies and practice that supports wellbeing, including the Speak Up programme, which gives staff someone to call to confidentially share their concerns, and the LifeWorks programme, which includes counselling sessions for employees if necessary.

Physical health

Working in an early years setting, with fixtures and fittings designed for small children, can lead to musculoskeletal problems. Practitioners need to know how to protect their physical health when they are kneeling or bending to interact with children, or lifting and carrying them. ‘The good news is that any musculoskeletal health intervention is very cost-effective, but it needs open communication and good leadership that believes staff are the most important resources,’ says Lorna Taylor, chartered physiotherapist and founder of physiotherapy-based business Jolly Back, which supplies low-height chairs and furniture for adults working with young children.

Settings should ensure practitioners have access to an adult-height sink as well as an appropriate desk and chair if need be.

Training is also key. Ms Taylor is working with the University of Derby on the inclusion of postural awareness, ergonomics and manual handling in the Early Childhood Studies curriculum. She has also worked with the Early Years Alliance to develop a pamphlet and online training covering the prevention of back pain. The University of Derby is currently researching musculoskeletal disorders in the early years workforce and hopes to publish its findings in January 2022.

Mental and physical health are closely linked, and any wellbeing policy needs to focus on both. ‘If we are struggling mental-health-wise with our workload and workplace culture, we’re more likely to present with physical health problems,’ concludes Ms Taylor. ‘And likewise, if you’re in pain, you are more likely to be anxious and depressed. Tackling mental and physical health together is really important.’

CASE STUDY: Portico Day Nurseries in North West England

Wellbeing in the workplace has been a key focus for Portico Day Nurseries for the past ten years. As one of the main stress points in the workplace, paperwork was one of the first and biggest areas tackled. Portico drastically reduced planning and paperwork, and brought learning journeys online, cutting down admin. That work is ongoing, says Sarah Fillingham, area manager and mental health and wellbeing champion.

‘Following the revisions to the Early Years Foundation Stage, we are looking at getting rid of some assessments, and ensuring that others don’t all happen at the same time,’ she says. ‘We have done lots of work since Easter on how we can make that process less stressful for staff.’

The nursery group was one of the first early years organisations to sign the Time for Change pledge in 2018, a commitment to change the way employers think about mental health and support staff wellbeing at work. Staff members gained knowledge through free NVQs from the Skills Network, and Time for Change resources helped build an environment where staff have the confidence to have a conversation about mental health and can access information if and when needed. Practitioners might be signposted to Able Futures, for example, a programme that offers nine months’ free advice and guidance from a mental health specialist, who can help with coping mechanisms, building resilience, or access to therapy.

Other interventions include revamping staff rooms, encouraging staff to go for a walk at lunchtime to clear their head, and introducing ‘kindness charts’ where team members can leave positive messages, and ‘kindness baskets’ with treats such as hand cream. Most important, however, is to embed support through a listening culture, with ‘social work’-style supervisions and strong professional development programmes that help staff feel valued, says Ms Fillingham. Portico regularly measures staff wellbeing with a survey which enables it to track trends across settings.

The group has also trained members of staff to be able to check their colleagues’ blood pressure as part of an initiative driven by St Helens Council. ‘Every setting has a blood pressure monitor, and we remind staff in our newsletter they can come if they think they have got an issue,’ says Ms Fillingham. In cases where blood pressure is high, champions recommend the team member visits their GP.


Juice Nursery in Altringham, Greater Manchester
Outstanding-rated Juice was one of the settings that fed into the Anna Freud report. The setting enhances basic salaries with initiatives like performance-related bonuses, a bi-monthly attendance bonus, staff member of the month, long service awards and referral bonuses, as well as offering staff personal loans with no or low interest rates and professional loans to support their ongoing learning.

Juice operates an ‘open door’ policy, actively seeking staff opinions and giving all staff direct access to the management team. It has a staff wellbeing policy, issues staff wellbeing surveys, promotes flexible working and provides  snacks, fruit and drinks in its staff rooms, as well as a range of toiletries in the cloakroom. ‘We have added board games, books, mindful colouring as well as comfy sofas and bean bags, cushions and blankets to the staff room,’ says Sarah Leary, marketing manager at the setting. ‘We have also allowed staff to come out of uniform during hot summer months, to ensure that they are comfortable at work and where possible have introduced a further 15 minute rest break.’

FURTHER INFORMATION