Low turnover and high morale are the two factors which have helped tomake the Halesfield Day Nursery Centre in Telford, Shropshire, asuccess. Founder Marcelle Kite believes the stability of her team is anasset to the business, which local families appreciate.
'We have parents who brought their first child to the nursery, who arenow teenagers, bringing their younger siblings back to the nursery andbeing cared for by the same practitioners,' she says. 'It is great forparents to have that kind of continuity.'
Ms Kite, who is a qualified teacher and Early Years Professional, boughtthe nursery in 1989 after it had failed financially under its formerowner. Her two-year-old son attended then.
'When we started we had seven children full-time and now we areregistered for 54 children,' she says. 'Expansion followed in 2004 whenwe successfully tendered to run a Sure Start nursery in the Sutton HillChildren's Centre.'
While Halesfield provides full daycare for mainly working parents from awide radius, Sutton Hill offers a range of sessional care for familiesclose to the centre in what is a deprived area.
A broad age range of staff are employed at Halesfield. 'We have 18staff, three of whom are past retirement age,' says Ms Kite. 'In thepast 12 years we have supported staff to take a total of 11 maternityleaves, and have enabled them to return to flexible working. Staff withcaring responsibilities are also offered extended parental leave.'
When a vacancy arises, applicants are assessed on the basis of aptitudeand commitment. According to co-founder and nursery manager Helen Kite,the best way to gauge an individual's skills and potential is to allowthem to spend time in the nursery before the job offer is made.
'Candidates can come in and spend a couple of hours shadowing staff.This gives us a chance to observe how they interact with children,' shesays. 'We we like to take on staff who are at level 3, but often weprefer to make our own judgements. We actively seek to take on older,untrained people, with a view to training them in the nursery.'
Other benefits to staff include being paid for attending staff meetingsin the evenings, time off in lieu, holiday entitlement rising to 30 dayswith length of service, and guaranteed sick pay.
'Balancing flexibility with ratios is always a challenge, but we achieveit by having staff who are committed and prepared to engage in a two-wayprocess,' says Ms Kite. 'If they see there is a problem they will tryand come in early or adjust their time in some way to get around it. Onthe whole, we try to keep our hours as static as possible, as a lot ofstaff have to work around their own childcare arrangements. We do,however, have other staff who can respond to any requests forflexibility and adjust their time if needed.'
While there are no current vacancies at Halesfield, when one does ariseit hopes to welcome another long-serving member of staff.