With recruitment and retention of great team members still a hot topic in the industry, Family First’s head of talent Jamie Gordon explains why the group are doubling down on the offering for their people.

Earlier this year, Ofsted released an article explaining how they felt early years settings could maintain quality in the face of workforce challenges, highlighting how issues around recruitment and retention issues are evident during inspections, what providers are doing to mitigate negative impacts and the importance of good leadership during times of high turnover.

Family First are by no means immune to these challenges but have taken significant steps in 2024 to take on the learnings outlined by Ofsted, invest in their people and therefore retain and attract the
highest quality teams possible to provide great outcomes for children.

This has included significant investment in their own People Team to ensure that there is sufficient strength and depth in human resources to support managers in their settings on a day-to-day basis.

They are also piloting the Family First Flex Team – a more robust and reliable bank staff operation – and are planning to introduce a new induction programme to ensure that new starters are fully prepared for their first day on the floor with the children.

Head of Talent Jamie Gordon said: “We want inductions to be much more structured to not just ensure consistency of delivery, but quality of learning and enablement which will set people up to succeed.

“There’s no doubt that the challenges in recruitment and retention are still evident.

“But by investing in our people and offering opportunities for them to grow personally and professionally, we can make ourselves a more attractive proposition.

“The quality of Early Years education we can deliver to our children, and the level of our parent partnerships is reliant upon having consistent, reliable and engaged teams.

“We are determined to make it a genuinely fun, rewarding and learning rich environment.

“Learning and development is never a waste of time or effort. When you can help nurture someone, whether that is a child or an adult, you add value to their lives.”

Other developments for Family First include a new, revamped leadership course which is due to be launched soon. It has been designed in three tiers, so it is appropriate for whoever is undertaking it, whatever the position they hold and their level of experience. Every single nursery manager will undertake the training, as well as more senior field and support office managers as well as thos identified as potential future leaders. Jamie added: “We are excited and confident that this will positively impact every element of our business and each individual.

“Their teams, the children and the families ultimately benefit and that’s why it is so important to invest in the future of each person.

“It will drive quality and loyalty, and we believe it will increase retention.

“If you show that there is a pathway towards leadership opportunities, the next generation of people can see that it is achievable, rewarding and presents the chance of a fulfilling career with great earning potential.”

Family First has also introduced a new role of Nursery Development Manager with more than twelve due to be appointed across the group.

Perfect for experienced nursery managers, the postholders will be responsible for working with teams at individual nurseries and Early Years Specialists to set strategic directions and ensure there is continuous improvement. They will also be responsible for ensuring high-quality care and education for children is always on offer Jamie said:

“We see this as a staging point for a nursery manager to get experience in field management – almost bridging the gap between manager and Area Manager or Early Years Specialist.

“We want these people to be subject matter experts, working on inductions and really driving good practice across the nurseries they are assigned to.

“It will add an immense amount of value in terms of visibility and subject matter expertise.

“It is a logical next step for some nursery managers.

“Some, of course, will be happy to stay in their one nursery and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that whatsoever.

“For those who want to develop further, the step between single site and multisite management is arguably the biggest challenge someone is likely to face as it requires a total evolution of the working and management styles they have learned to date.

“The new role enables smaller spans of control and more impact on a clustered geographic area supporting the quality of Early Years provision.

“This is a genuine, people-centric industry, and with a better resourced field team we feel we can become more proactive and lessen the amount of issues which arise unexpectedly.”

Jamie said having the right people in place was paramount to the future success of Family First.

“At the end of the day, if you get your people right, you get your business right,” he said.