Who Do Staff Turn To?

[Guest]

Some sound advice needed please.

 

If preschool staff have issues regarding the way a manager runs the setting and have approached the manager with their concerns and nothing has come of it, so they then raise their concerns with the chair of the committee and still nothing is resolved, who do we turn to?

 

We have weekly staff meetings where we are supposed to be able to air our concerns, but we feel we are not being listened to.

 

A member of staff from another preschool has told us to speak to Ofsted, but I have read that they do not deal with "in house disagreements" so to put it, so long as the children are not being put at risk "which they are definitely not".

 

Who is accountable for the manager, is it the committee or Ofsted?

 

Recently the staff were asked to make comments for the managers appraisal, when we wrote what we thought were her weaknesses we were told by the deputy that if she submitted these comments to the committee our working days would be made miserable by the manager! As she would know it was issues we had regarding her, we had also commented on her many strengths.

 

I have read many threads on here which have been so helpful and I know there are a lot of people with experience as managers in committee run settings so any advice would be grateful.

thank you.

[Panders]

Welcome to the forum papia.What a sad post to feel that your voices are not being heard. I have no words of wisdom - I am the owner of our pre-school, but often think that whilst we all get along very well, nobody ever puts themselves forward and openly disagrees with any of my madcap ideas which worries me frankly.

 

I do hope that some of our committee run people can help you. Would it help maybe if you voiced just one item which is the major one for you staff and kept on about that one item each staff meeting until there was a change rather than trying to get a few gripes sorted out. Ask for it to go onto an action plan and to have a date by which things can be reviewed or sorted.

[finleysmaid]

IMO i would get in touch with your local advisor for the LEA or member of your advisory body if you have one (PSLA or NCMA) ...in the recent child protection cases communication has been highlighted as key...everyone should feel empowered to speak up or it could be hiding a much bigger issue

[HappyMaz]

Welcome to the Forum, papia and congratulations on making your first post!

 

If the staff team have serious concerns about the way the manager is running the setting then it is the committee's responsibility to identify whether the concerns are justified and tackle them. They employ the staff team and have a responsibility to ensure the setting is running smoothly. I would expect them to take your concerns seriously, especially if they are being repeated regularly at these meetings. Does your setting have a whistle blowing policy? There should always be a mechanism to bring worries of this nature to the management team, and have some level of confidence that they will be investigated and action taken.

 

Its hard to know what to suggest without knowing what the concerns are. Since the children are not at risk, and presumably none of the welfare requirements are being breeched, Ofsted won't be interested, as you have already identified. However if your concerns are going unheard then you could talk to your Local Authority development worker or equivalent unofficially for advice as to how to proceed. I have also known groups in the past who have contacted the Pre-school Learning Alliance for support to resolve disputes of this nature.

 

In order to get these issues resolved it might be necessary to make a formal complaint to the committee using the complaints/grievance procedure, but if this happens it can be very unpleasant for all concerned.

 

I'm not sure that has been very helpful, but I really feel for you! It is very dispiriting to want the best for your setting and to have your views dismised in this way. On the other hand, I've been on the receiving end of very badly presented 'feedback' about my performance, and know only too well how important it is to handle these issues properly. It may be that the Committee lack the skills and knowledge they need to manage staff performance assertively, and if this is the case, the Local Authority should be able to offer support to ensure that this knowledge gap is closed.

 

Good luck - let us know how things go!

[finleysmaid]

sorry for the second time tonight cross posted!

[HappyMaz]

sorry for the second time tonight cross posted!

Gosh I wouldn't apologise for crossing posts with me, finleysmaid, if you were! I take so long to reply that the whole of the FSF family could have commented by the time I've formulated my answer!

[Beau]

I don't have anything much more to add except a sympathetic ear! Committee run preschools can be tricky when it comes to management issues at the best of times and impossible when there are problems. I have had four different experiences of preschools - a parent, a committee member, a leader and an assistant. Unfortunately if one of these 'elements' is not viewing the preschool as a business and tackling things in a professional way it can lead to all sorts of problems. It really needs for everybody to set aside personal issues and feelings which is easier said than done.

 

Do you think that the Manager will react badly to any sort of criticism or is it just the Deputy who is worrying about what might happen? Do you think the feedback staff have given is fair and written in a non judgmental way? Are the committee (and more importantly the Chairperson) generally businesslike in their dealings with staff or do they tend to keep out of the running of the preschool and see themselves more as just a fundraising arm of the group? And are the issues so great that the staff feel they can't ignore it any longer or has this just arisen because of being asked for feedback? Sometimes small gripes have a way of gaining arms and legs when you get a group of people together sharing similar thoughts. It might be helpful to step back away from the situation and assess in your own mind whether the points you want to address are really that bad or important enough to cause ructions for.

 

In any case, I hope you can manage to resolve things soon.

[hali]

contact your LA advisor

[mundia]

This is a very difficult one, and as maz said, it would dependent on what the issues actually are. If I were approached (as an EYAT) by a staff member complaining about their manager, I would be unable to intervene specifically unless something was put in writing. More often than not we are aware when setting staff are unhappy with the management for whatever reason, and we might work with the manager in a more general capacity (eg by running some training for managers on developing manager/leadership skills). Or there might be something that comes up from our regular visits that we can bring around to a discussion.

 

Really if you have difficulties that you cant resolve at the moment, you need to take them to the committee. It isn't for your deputy to decide whether or not your comments are passed on, in fact, they should have gone direct from yourselves to the committee as they should be confidential.

 

I think you need to sit down and record exactly what your concerns are, keeping details to fact, events and so on. (just saying my manger isn't very good isn't helpful). It is a tricky one if there is no law broken (eg harassment in the workplace; discrimination or bullying); and no welfare requirements are not being met.

 

I wish you luck with whatever decision you make.