Nursery World - Assistants' place

As a nursery owner and manager I am worried about the high profile that classroom assistants will receive along with their higher salary (News, 16 May). It is so hard to recruit and train staff and retain them, especially here in the west of Scotland, because the education department poaches them. I have had to train as an assessor to find qualified staff and have just lost two qualified staff to the education department. It is soul-destroying. We have no recruitment agency here and it is hard to maintain standards.

It is so hard to recruit and train staff and retain them, especially here in the west of Scotland, because the education department poaches them. I have had to train as an assessor to find qualified staff and have just lost two qualified staff to the education department. It is soul-destroying. We have no recruitment agency here and it is hard to maintain standards.

Classroom assistants are just that - classroom assistants - while teachers are trained and qualified. I think an access to teaching course is a good idea if assistants are genuinely interested in working with children and not just in it because they have school-age children.

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