nursery leadership and management - nursery manager

Published February 25, 2025 Written by [email protected]

Leading and managing nursery staff

Why is leading and managing nursery staff important?

Effective nursery leadership and management skills are crucial to running a successful early years settings. If a nursery is strong at leading and managing nursery staff, it will lead to a happy and high performing team, good inspection outcomes, and most importantly, better outcomes for the children.

For instance, in England, the Ofsted Early Years Inspection Handbook states that inspectors will consider the effectiveness of leadership and management in their judgement. To be considered “Good”, the nursery must (among other things) demonstrate that leaders have a clear and ambitious vision for providing high-quality, inclusive care and education to all. Leaders have effective systems in place for the supervision and support of staff. Leaders engage with their staff and are aware of the main pressures on them.

Monitoring staff performance

A key part of leading and managing nursery staff is monitoring and recording staff performance. As the manager, you will need accurate and relevant evidence about their ability to meet agreed standards. It is important that staff clearly understand the requirements and standards expected so that they can strive to achieve them. The manager should support everyone to achieve their objectives by monitoring and giving feedback about their performance regularly.

Performance management is the responsibility of both the individual and their line manager. Line managers may or may not be the overall leader of the organisation. In a nursery setting, the overall leader of the setting will have responsibility for making sure the organisation as a whole is performing well. They are also likely to have some direct performance management responsibilities, for example for room leaders who they directly line manage. Individual room leaders in turn will have responsibility for managing the staff within their rooms and monitoring their performance.

As a line manager, you need to make time for giving regular feedback to individuals about their performance. As part of the performance management system, you will need to carry out a formal review of performance at regular intervals – usually annually. But an individual should know and understand how well they are performing throughout the year – so that the formal review contains no surprises. Keeping brief notes as you go through the performance period will enable you to give clear, evidential examples of both good performance and areas where the individual needs to develop.

Regular feedback on performance can be given formally (for example, through regular, scheduled one-to-one meetings during the performance year), or informally (for example, by an ad-hoc discussion when something has gone well or less well).

When giving nursery staff feedback, it is important that:

The feedback is specific, so that the person knows exactly what they’ve done well or less well

You create an open dialogue with the individual – feedback is a two-way conversation, and you need to listen as well as have your say

You are honest but tactful – be clear in your appraisal of their performance but do so sensitively

The feedback is constructive – support the person to improve through constructive discussion.

Nursery staff training and development

Through the performance review process, early years practitioners and their line managers will identify areas for development. This may be in relation to:

Skills and competencies required for the individual’s current job

Areas for development of the individual’s career within the organisation

Areas for development of the individual’s wider career in childcare.

Having focused discussions about the type of continuous professional development the individual needs, and how this could be achieved, should form part of the performance review discussions. Training and development objectives should be included in the individual’s objectives for the coming period.

Recognition and reward for nursery staff

Consider developing a system to recognise and reward individuals and teams within your nursery, if there isn’t one in place already. Take the time to talk to your team members about such a system and what sorts of awards they would value. You will need to be realistic in terms of resources but if a small budget exists you could consider offering financial rewards, such as shopping vouchers. Another option is offering fringe benefits, such as an extra day’s paid holiday for an outstanding performer. Discuss the approach with your senior leaders.

Looking for more support on nursery leadership and management?

Develop your knowledge further, by undertaking NDNA’s free online course (for members) for nursery managers: Effective Leadership and Management, or our Live Virtual Classroom course, Leadership and Management.

Back to early years blog