Managing people

Successfully managing a team of staff can be both one of the most rewarding and one of the most difficult tasks for any business manager.

For early years and childcare settings, good staff are essential to ensure a high quality setting.  It’s important that staff can develop strong relationships with the children, with parents and with each other.

For managers, that means getting all aspects of staff management right:  from recruiting the right person, to developing staff and keeping up to date with roles and responsibilities.

It’s also critical to plan strategically for your long-term staff needs and to be aware of your responsibilities as an employer.  Getting all aspects of staff management right could be the difference between business success and failure.

For a number of years, setting owners and managers have said that there is a shortage of well qualified early years and childcare staff and that staff turnover is one of the biggest threats to their business.  Constant changes to Goverment policy combined with a difficult economic climate continue to provide further people management challenges. These pages on staff management should give you an introduction to some of the key issues and many of the links and downloads provide further information, guidance and support on particular topics.