Addressing the Recruitment Crisis in Early Years: A Sustainable Solution

The ongoing recruitment crisis is placing significant strain on the early years workforce, which is already under immense pressure. While managers and nursery settings work tirelessly to maintain high standards, they are increasingly relying on agency and temporary staff to fill gaps. However, this approach presents several challenges. It’s important to assess the effectiveness of agency staffing and its impact on the quality of care and education provided to young children. Understanding these effects is crucial to ensuring the best possible experience for the children in our care.

The Impact of Staffing Gaps

Contrary to what some of the children we work with may believe, nursery staff do not live at the nursery! There will inevitably be times when a child's preferred familiar faces are absent—whether for a day or longer. Managing these absences can be a challenge, as nurseries must continue to provide consistent, high quality care regardless of staff shortages.

In my experience of managing nurseries in the past, I often had to rely on two to three agency staff per day to cover absences. This placed additional pressure on our permanent team, affecting their well-being and sometimes leading to increased stress-related absences—a cycle that is difficult to break. I recall one particularly difficult day when we had to bring in four agency staff and three employees from another site just to meet our requirements. The result? Disruptions in routine, increased stress for the children, and a noticeable dip in the quality of care.

Beyond operational challenges, the financial strain of hiring agency staff is concerning. Temporary workers may lack familiarity with the children's individual needs, abilities, and learning progress, making it difficult to maintain a high quality curriculum. Frequent changes in staffing can also unsettle children, disrupt their routines, and add stress to the permanent team. Ultimately, it is the children who suffer the most from these constant changes.

Finding a Better Way: The Acorn Approach

At Acorn, we are committed to finding sustainable staffing solutions that ensure a stable and nurturing environment for the children. To manage staff shortages effectively, we implement a layered approach, which we refer to as "onion layers." This includes:

• Supernumerary staff, such as apprentices, managers, and housekeepers, who can provide temporary cover.
• Part-time staff willing to take on extra hours.
• Our invaluable bank team, a dedicated group of professionals who step in when needed.

Unlike agency staff, our bank team is an extension of our core staff. They are not just there to complete routine tasks—they are valued members of our nursery community, actively engaged in all aspects of nursery life.

Building a Stronger, More Connected Team

Just like our permanent staff, our bank team members are carefully selected to align with Acorn’s values and ethos. We follow the same safer recruitment procedures, including thorough interviews and structured inductions. This ensures that every team member, regardless of their role, is dedicated to delivering the highest standard of care and education.

Relying solely on agency staff to meet staff-to-child ratios is not an acceptable long-term solution. Familiarity is crucial for building trust and secure attachments with children. Having our own bank team provides a level of consistency that is essential for children’s emotional wellbeing and development. It also fosters a sense of belonging and teamwork, leading to better collaboration and a more positive working environment for all.

The Flexibility of the Bank Team

As life changes and commitments evolve, many staff members seek greater flexibility in their work. Our bank team offers the perfect balance—allowing experienced professionals to remain part of the Acorn family while maintaining a schedule that suits their needs.

For example, three former Acorn managers have transitioned to our bank team, choosing to step back from management while continuing to contribute to the Acorn community. One of them, Jo, has been with Acorn for over 30 years. She now works as a senior practitioner in our bank team, sharing her expertise across various sites. She loves the variety and the opportunity to mentor both children and staff while enjoying a better work-life balance.

Strengthening Communication and Community

We have recently introduced a WhatsApp group for the team, which has been a huge success. This has strengthened relationships, improved communication, and fostered a sense of teamwork, ensuring that everyone feels connected and valued.

A Growing Team: Andrew’s Story

“I didn’t intend to work in nurseries. My career started in out-of-school care, looking after primary school aged children, in after school and holiday club sessions. I remember my very first stay and play session, where I had a lecture on dinosaurs from a pair of 7 or 8 year old boys.

It was at my second job in that sector where I would first experience working across multiple sites; not particularly a choice I made, but it was the job they had available at the time. There were 6 after school clubs, and I remember feeling a sense of excitement whenever I was scheduled to work at a setting I hadn’t visited before. I would get to meet new children, see the new school, facilities, toys and ideas that each setting came with. I soon learned about transferring ideas I picked up at one site, and testing them at another- to see how the next group of children responded to it and made it their own.

It was also at this job where I discovered the joy of working in nurseries. I had a fateful conversation with one of the holiday club managers, who asked “Does anybody want any overtime next week?”. It was in one of the nurseries. This gave me a brilliant opportunity to try working in a nursery, thinking “if I don’t like it, I don’t have to do it again!”. The rest is history, and I now had a range of nurseries to visit and help at too, helping during the day and providing lunch cover before heading to after school clubs.

Fast forward to late 2023, I made a phone call to Acorn’s HR team. I was looking for a new job. Having seen that Acorn had multiple nurseries, I made perhaps a bold move of asking for the job that I really wanted, without knowing if it was available. “Would you have a position in which I could work full time, but covering across multiple nurseries where needed?” I was delighted to hear that this was something that Acorn could accommodate, and I started with Acorn as soon as I could, at the end of January 2024.

My year (and a bit!) at Acorn has been truly wonderful. I have had the absolute privilege of working at 15 of the nurseries so far. I’ve met a huge number of wonderful children, across all the age groups. I have also worked with a large number of remarkable and wonderful colleagues. I delight in being able to bring some of my specialities and favourite activities to the children. I particularly love facilitating risky play, using large loose parts (Tyres, pallets, planks, reels, tubes etc)  to create constantly changing and challenging provocations for children to climb on, tunnel underneath, roll or slide down. The children also love to build and add their own ideas! I also love bringing my guitar along with me, allowing the children to engage with an exciting and energetic song and dance session, also allowing the children to experience playing the guitar- discovering that gentle fingers produce soft notes, and strong fingers produce louder ones- but not too strong!

I really feel my practice has been enriched in my year at Acorn. I love Acorn’s ethos, and see it demonstrated fantastically by the nursery teams across the company. I love that I am trusted by the nurseries, and feel free to fully get stuck in. I also believe the central support office team has a caring attitude, and that decisions are made with good intention without any essence of superiority. The training days are a brilliant way in which Acorn enriches the staff teams, and bank staff are fully a part of this too. All during the working week- keeping our evenings and weekends free.

My job is not for everyone. I do not know where I will be working from one week to the next- I still feel excited to discover what the following week has in store when I get the rota. Lots of staff say to me that they wouldn’t enjoy the uncertainty of that. But that’s just as well. The consistent staff at each nursery, who provide key person roles, forming close bonds with the children, and knowing their needs intimately are SO important. But when they are on annual leave, unwell, or absent, I want to be the very best that I can, to ensure that the children I am with that day have a really wonderful day”.

Final Thoughts

The recruitment crisis in early years is a real challenge, but solutions do exist. By building a strong, flexible bank team, we can ensure a stable, high-quality environment for the children in our care. Investing in our own team—rather than relying on external agencies—creates consistency, strengthens relationships, and upholds the high standards we strive for at Acorn.

If you’re looking for a rewarding, flexible role in early years education, we’d love to hear from you. Join us in making a difference.

You can contact our friendly HR team on 01908 510309 or [email protected]