RE: Using decimal point for ratio
by: perky - 01-05-08 23:19
Hiya
I work in a Nursery where we have three rooms, baby, preschool and toddler. If we had your situation we woudl have the etxra member of staff. I run a nursery that is also a registered charity and so staffng has to be kept to a minimum. But i have a system on excel where i can see exactly how many childen and therefore staff are required every half hour throughout the day, if it is a 'part of an adult' e.g 7 babies which would obviously be 2.333 staff, i would put the extra in as babies quite often need the extra, whereas if preschool had 17 with two members of staff, i would be happier to leave them rather than put an extra in when not really needed. I tend to put an extra in if its more than .5, but it really depends on the sitation and the manager has to make that call. We have been told that if its an emergency or for a short period i.e an hour or less, we can use a student or volunteer, providing we are happy that they are confident , which i think culd get you in trouble if you start to rely on it too much !!
i think the bottom line is that your staff need to be comfortable and even if you only need three staff in a room for ratios, sometimes because of the children the staff need the etxra support of additional members.
hope that helps !