Taking charge
Chages in the makeup of the early years workforce mean those in supervisory positions must learn new skills, as Mary Evans finds Increasingly, nursery managers delegate responsibility for the day-to-day running of their settings while they take on a more strategic role. The remodelling of the early years workforce means the role of the nursery supervisor has never been more crucial, as childcare team leaders will find themselves in charge of staff with higher qualifications than they have, or from different professional backgrounds.
Increasingly, nursery managers delegate responsibility for the day-to-day running of their settings while they take on a more strategic role. The remodelling of the early years workforce means the role of the nursery supervisor has never been more crucial, as childcare team leaders will find themselves in charge of staff with higher qualifications than they have, or from different professional backgrounds.
'Training and development will need to be at a more sophisticated level for our senior nursery nurses and third-in-charge personnel while the overall workforce becomes better trained,' says Linda Oury, director of operations at the Bright Horizons Family Solutions nursery chain. 'We support increased training, because research shows a better-trained workforce will provide more quality for children's care and early education.'
However, according to the arbitration service ACAS, while supervisors play an important part in the workplace, 'in practice, supervisors are often poorly trained and inadequately rewarded and have only a subsidiary role in workplace management'.
The Kidsunlimited nursery chain foresaw the need to reorganise its management structure a few years ago. 'We made a conscious decision that we wanted the nursery managers to become more business-minded as opposed to purely being carers,' says the human resources director, Karen Andrews. 'We decided to bring in unit co-ordinators to manage their own units within a nursery. The nursery manager takes a strategic role and the unit co-ordinators are in charge of the day-to-day running of their units. In some nurseries we would have, say, two units, one for the under-twos and one for the over-twos.
'Unit co-coordinators are hands-on practitioners. Initially some of the unit co-coordinators felt that they should spend more time in the office, and we had to tell them to spend more time in the rooms' (see box, right).
Responsibilities Different organisations give the role a different name, but what does an early years supervisor, room leader, team leader or unit co-ordinator do?
'Our team leaders are responsible for the smooth running of their individual room, which may include caring for up to 12 children (depending on age grouping) and usually working with two colleagues,' says Ali Heal, HR manager at Early Years Childcare, where team leaders are expected to:
* be excellent practice role models
* oversee the planning of activities, narrative and snapshot observations and records of development
* take the lead over parent queries or children's behavioural issues
* be responsible for developing the layout/use of their room.
They are encouraged to:
* support the learning and development of their team
* take on extra responsibilities such as equal opportunities representative, first aider, or SENCO
* have input into the nursery budget, for example, auditing equipment and suggesting toys to purchase.
Bright Horizons Family Solutions expects its supervisors to have fine personal qualities and good interpersonal skills, says Ms Oury. 'Staff look to the leadership team of a nursery to be credible, respectful and fair in their daily interactions.'
It is expected that Bright Horizons managers, team leaders/supervisors:
* have regular communication with their staff teams
* demonstrate integrity by being honest, sincere, and respectful
* be able to build on individual staff strengths
* strive to be their best
* take responsibility for problems
* use good judgement.
Training
'Our team leaders have to have people-management skills,' says Ms Heal.
'They have to be able to be positive and encourage the team, but they also have to be able to identify training needs and step in and ask questions if someone is late. Being able to step in on a disciplinary issue is something in which people sometimes need training.
'A full-day course is delivered that focuses on people management skills and reviews our consistent practice guidelines and policies and procedures.
This also allows staff the opportunity to network and share experiences with their peers from our other settings. Then they are asked to complete a reflective workbook to demonstrate the transfer of learning to the workplace.'
Topics, identified by ACAS, to cover on a supervisory training course include:
* planning and effective use of time
* instructional techniques
* broadening the skill base
* health and safety
* problem analysis, decision-making
* leadership, team building and motivation
* interviewing techniques
* management control of information
* negotiating techniques
* selection and induction
* carrying out appraisals
* handling discipline and grievance matters
* communication skills, both written and oral
* structure of the company
* effective job organisation
* counselling
* consultation.
'This year we started running a unit co-ordinators road show with specific training on key aspects of the role, such as appraisals,' says Ms Andrews.
'We run workshops, and one of the biggest things they get out of the workshops is sitting down with other unit co-ordinators and sharing experiences.' NW
Further information
* The Arbitration and Conciliation Service (ACAS) publishes a range of advisory booklets, including one on supervision, which are available free from its website at www.acas.org.uk
What is supervision?
'Supervision is like a pair of trousers,' says June O'Sullivan, chief executive of Westminster Children's Society. 'One size does not fit all and it comes in different styles, just as you can get a boot-cut or a skinny fit.
'We use a social work model of supervision of appraising practice and process.
'Everybody has a personal development plan set at the beginning of the year and then they have two supervision sessions. The first is after six weeks, and six weeks later the second session. Then the next session is called a review session, and at the end of the year they have an appraisal and the plan is set for the next year.
'Our supervision has a three-fold focus: administration, which looks at what will help people manage their jobs better; educational, which points up learning challenges; and supportive.
'If your team is getting quite big, you may have to share the supervision with your deputy or you will never get anything else done. You have to decide how you are going to share the feedback because it can raise issues of confidentiality. If you are the manager, you have authority to make decisions, but you need to know what to do if you are the deputy. We are also considering the children's centre agenda. Who is going to supervise the outreach staff?
'If you run a three-fold supervision, a manager may need to get additional help for the educational aspect. If your background is as a nursery manager and you are supervising speech and language therapists, you will not know about the training opportunities.
'This is something that needs to be thought through when a job description is being drafted. Maybe the employing agency has to pick up some of the responsibility for the development of that member of staff.'
Case study: First Direct Nursery, Leeds
Claire Hewitt and Helen Barnfield are unit co-ordinators at Kidsunlimited's biggest nursery, the 237- place workplace setting it operates for First Direct at Stourton, Leeds.
They each effectively manage their own nursery within the setting. When they took on their roles three years ago they had specific challenges to overcome: for Ms Hewitt it was the move from being one of the team to leading it, and for Ms Barnfield it was taking on an established nursery which was relocated to the Stourton setting.
'I am running my own nursery with 18 staff and 99 children,' says Ms Hewitt. 'Before I started I spent a lot of time with the manager of the setting, shadowing her and looking at what my job would entail.
'I had to strike the right balance in going from being a room leader working among my friends, to being in a managerial position. I would say I have earned the respect of my staff team. They see me and treat me now as their manager. If they have a problem they don't go to the nursery manager, they come to me.
'The job is very hands-on. I spend time in all the rooms so I get to know the staff and the children.'
In autumn 2003 another nursery in Leeds transferred across the city and became a unit at the Stourton site, run by Helen Barnfield. It now has 101 children and 17 staff.
She says, 'I knew the staff because we had been doing staff swaps and I had spent two weeks at the other nursery.But when the parents and children came on October 27, I apologised that I did not know their names and said I had set myself a target of knowing them all by the end of November. I did it.
'I gave the staff a card and chocolates to welcome them and we did some team-building - for instance, we had drum-playing sessions. I spent a lot of time in the rooms getting to know everybody.'
