Guest Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 HI Our nursery owners want to encourage all the rooms to feel involved in the decision making of certain nursery aspects. they feel that allocating each room a budget per month would be motivational. we have four rooms and each month they are planning to allocate £25 per room for toys/craft. this plan was presented to staff tonight at a staff meeting and most seemed happy but after i thought about this i wondered how fair it is to allocate rooms of different sizes (as in numbers) the same amount of money. i.e baibes have six children at the most, pre-school have 18 most days, it seems unfair to provide these rooms with the same amount of money. the nursery owner feels that rooms should be able to negotiate the spending of money between them, and i think that she hopes the baby room would be kind and share their money with the pre-school (reality is this probably won't happen) The nursery owners have decided that out of this £25 each room needs to be responsable for getting craft materials for their rooms and displays. we currently get a craft order per month which costs between £80 and £100 for the whole nursery. i see problems with the staff being responsable for their own craft allowance and order.... firstly many staff feel that backing paper and borders should not be included in their allowance since it is costly, but the owner disagrees. also i feel that some staff may just help themselves to other peoples craft materials, as there own stock run's low. the practicality of freeing up a staff member from each room to buy these materials will be a problem for me. the nursery owner also want the staff to take responsability for the displays in the hall. this has always been my job as the manager and an area i like to develop, but now i feel this is being taken from me too The owner wants the staff to have ownership and i am all for this. but as this is happening my ownership has been taken from me (i have been told in no uncertain terms that i am not to get involved in the allocation of money or the way they spend it) feel a bit shuffed out as manager. the owner has agreed to a three month trial, so i guess we need to see how it goes. although i would welcome your opinion on budget allocation. your thoughts appreciated Dawn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy P Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Hi Dawn I am just starting this with my nursery too! We have agreed the following amounts which will include all art and craft resources too. Babies (9) £35.00 Toddlers ~ Ones (12) £45.00 Toddlers ~ Twos (20) £55.00 Preschool (24) £65.00 We will be continually reviewing this and staff have decided they wil club together each month for art staff to put in an order together and share the resources out accordingly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellerkaren Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Hi Dawn a big hug coming your way.. It is hard when the owner of the nursery will not let you manage the nursery i will be thinking of you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 Hi Dawn This is not a problem for me now but many years ago I worked in a Nursery that had a similar scheme. Each room was allocated funds for craft and had to do their own orders which was not the problem. The problem started when staff were encouraged to write their ideas for craft for the coming month into a book and then the ideas were collated and resources ordered. Owner's thought this would motivate staff to "let their creative juices flow". Some staff's ideas were used every month but others never got used. Some ideas were fantastic but would have taken the whole month's budget. Staff got fed up with writing ideas that were not used so they stopped writing in the book altogether which then upset the staff who had ideas as they said the whole burden of craft was left to them. I spent one day desperately trying not to laugh as a staff member got upset over the use of "wobbly" eyes on a card that had been her idea but she had not asked for them to be used. I started to wonder who the children in the setting really were!!!! That scheme was soon stopped but I'm afraid to say the staff soon found something else to fall out about, actually thinking back that's why I left!!!! Thanks for reminding me why I now have the job that I absolutely love and good luck with sorting out your dilemma. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 23, 2008 Share Posted November 23, 2008 I agree it does seem a bit tough, especially with so many resources the price they are. To be honest not sure you could get much with £25 anyway!!!! How about asking your team if they would agree to pooling their money for one month and using it to buy a bumper amount of backing paper, borders and other crafty bits etc. which are shared resources for all rooms and then letting them spend their £25 as they want for the remaining months of the year? Alternatively you could 'interpret' your owners offer as £100+ a month (not sure how many rooms you have) and then work around your rooms in rotation so that they could all get something fab! If you let staff 'decide' something like this themselves then they may also feel a bit more empowered. Love Zoe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 Thanks for your thoughts everyone. the budget debate is in limbo at present, with lots of uncertain staff too... Dawn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 Spanner in the works here, me personally, backing paper/borders I never spent much on, rolle of wallpaper (freebies or discount) various colours, job done. How about a competition with staff to 'collate' recycle materials for 'craft' the winners of the most original and 'useful' resources wins the 'privilage' of deciding how the budget is spent, where most needed between all the rooms. (Don't let them know the prize until after the competition, just let them know there is a prize) I'd say, go with the suggestions, themamagement haven't been dictatorial in the fact that they are prepared to reconsider after a 3 motnh trial. Have a bit of faith that the staff will sort this 'challenge' out between themselves leaving you to 'worry' and deal with more important aspects of mamangement which your skills are better used for. the nursery owner also want the staff to take responsability for the displays in the hall. this has always been my job as the manager and an area i like to develop, but now i feel this is being taken from me too I know where your coming from but sometimes we have to let things go for the better development of the 'staff' morale/team' Have ownership of the newsletter, or something similar, something tht others are unable to do, your skills are better utilised eslewhere in management communications such as newsletters, so give this up and have more time to spend on other things that staff cannot do. In essence, the bosses are trying their best to 'motivate' support them in this with other ideas you have, support them in this trial but be objective in your 'experienced' review of how well (or not) it works. Peggy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 Just a thought but maybe the owner of the nursery wants staff to realise the true cost of all the craft materials, resources, toys etc. I know from experience that paper gets wasted by the staff, used just to scribble a note on etc, or that toys are not always put back in the right place at the end of the night and bits go missing - never to be found again - which means a resource can be rendered useless. Maybe the nursery owner is thinking that if staff have to be responsible for providing resources for their own room, then they may take more care when wasting them, that they might come up with really inventive ideas on how to use resources they already have to find new ways of providing opportunities for the children and that RESPONSIBILITY is the key to ensuring that the staff are more creative both in what that they do with the resources but also in managing a very tight budget that most nurseries operate under. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 some interesting points their sheila, thank you. i think it is a way to give the staff responsability, i just think the allowance i wrong, and not proportioned effectively between the rooms. it is also a case of why re-invent the wheel when it is actually working really well the way it is. all staff are happy with haveing one nursery craft order and re toys, we know we can only really have them when we fund raise and again staff are happy with this. the owners decision has caused a lot of angst between all staff. Dawn Just a thought but maybe the owner of the nursery wants staff to realise the true cost of all the craft materials, resources, toys etc. I know from experience that paper gets wasted by the staff, used just to scribble a note on etc, or that toys are not always put back in the right place at the end of the night and bits go missing - never to be found again - which means a resource can be rendered useless. Maybe the nursery owner is thinking that if staff have to be responsible for providing resources for their own room, then they may take more care when wasting them, that they might come up with really inventive ideas on how to use resources they already have to find new ways of providing opportunities for the children and that RESPONSIBILITY is the key to ensuring that the staff are more creative both in what that they do with the resources but also in managing a very tight budget that most nurseries operate under. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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