Nurseries often struggle to maintain the required adult:child ratios, but is employing supernumary staff the answer?
Some managers say that exceeding the ratios in this way is cost-effective, improves staff morale and boosts parents' confidence in the setting. They argue that the benefits of employing extra childcare staff far outweigh the costs in a sector with very tight profit margins, a deepening staffing crisis and falling capacity levels.
Indeed, Lisa Weston, manager of the Old School House in Stetchworth, Cambridgeshire, says, 'We did a money-saving project looking at funding a supernumary person. We looked at how much our bank staff cost us over a year and how much it would cost to employ a full-time person in a supernumary role, and it balanced.
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