Nursery manager responsibilities, help please?!

[Guest]

At the nursery I own we currently have a manager and an admin person. I think that we are office heavy and that many of the admin tasks can, and indeed should be carried out by the nursery manager. Please can you let me know what your responsibilities as nursery managers are? The admin person currently deals with bookings and inputing them onto the system, invoices and invoice queries, funding and headcount, phone enquiries etc. She also deals with staff holidays and puts the staff hours onto a spreadsheet for the accountant. Does this sound like the duties of most nursery managers??

I appreciate your feedback. (I am also involved in the nursery, my role is to plan future numbers and 'drive' new initiatives). Thanks!!!

[Cait]

Speaking as a retired manager, I would have LOVED having someone to help with Admin! It was all done in my own time and I didn't get paid for it. That's not the way it was initially planned, but over 25 years the paperwork side of things increased so I found I was spending all my free time working on admin, sometimes till after 10 at night. There are some jobs that only the manager can do, of course, but many tasks could be given to someone in a dedicated role of admin.

 

If you didn't have an admin, when would your manager have the paid time to do all that side of things?

 

You don't say how large your nursery is? That will make a difference to the amount of admin that needs to be done.

[lsp]

Is your manager included in ratios or a keyperson? Are you full daycare - what age children?

[GFCCCC]

We have all of our admin and finance done by separate staff. The role of our Nursery Managers and Setting Leaders is purely focused on Childcare; ie. Leading, supporting and supervising childcare staff, organising, planning and ensuring care is as it should be and working with parents and outside agencies. The only paperwork our Nursery Managers do is Supervision records, Auditing development files and checking trackers, Children's personal records, paperwork relating to SEN and safeguarding and planning and organising staff training. Everything to do with allocation of places, fees, funding, finance, building management and health & safety is done by admin.

[Stargrower]

Goodness...I do everything. But I'm not a key person. I sometimes think if I worked 24/7 I still wouldn't get everything done. But I really can't afford to employ an administrator. We only just break even as we are!

[hali]

I did everything and was a key person :lol: :lol: :lol:

[sunnyday]

I did everything and was a key person :lol: :lol: :lol:

Same as that hali - we must just be super-talented :lol: :lol: :lol:

[lmwhite]

We have a paid admin person and a committee they do all the jobs you have listed. The Pre-school Manager liaises with them but my main focus is the development and support of the children and staff. I have key children too. Personally I have been a 'do it all ' and as it is now, I think as a Manager the work load is huge ,if affordable an admin person is a must for the setting to run efficiently and for the manager to feel sane !

[diesel10]

Definitely admin role, why would you want to pay a managers wages to do all that.

 

As manager I (in my 4 hours a week in the office) update policies, risk assessments, do acreditations, and staffing stuff. The rest of the time I am keyperson, senco and run the sessions.

[hali]

Same as that hali - we must just be super-talented :lol: :lol: :lol:

Of course :lol: ::1a :lol: ::1a :lol: ::1a

[thumperrabbit]

Same as that hali - we must just be super-talented :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

Of course :lol: ::1a :lol: ::1a :lol: ::1a

I've always thought it :1b

[Stargrower]

I guess it depends on the setting too. We are a full daycare setting, open 51 weeks a year and have 110 children on role.

[Rob6692]

I would recommend having someone to do the admin side of things if it's affordable. It makes it far more difficult for managers to be effective leaders if they're bogged down in admin responsibilities, which is quite likely to happen, and practice may suffer. Also, it would have a huge impact on the manager's wellbeing and motivation if they're stuck doing admin work constantly when they feel their time could be spent more productively

[sunnyday]

I guess it depends on the setting too. We are a full daycare setting, open 51 weeks a year and have 110 children on role.

Absolutely - my setting is a very small village pre-school - it's a whole different ball game! :1b

[Stargrower]

Absolutely - my setting is a very small village pre-school - it's a whole different ball game! :1b

 

But still has it's challenges, I know!

[sunnyday]

 

But still has it's challenges, I know!

Just a few :1b

[Guest]

Is your manager included in ratios or a keyperson? Are you full daycare - what age children?

She is not included in ratios or a key person. Her role is office based, but with time spent in the rooms, perhaps doing lunch cover so that she is able to keep in touch. We are full daycare, 60 place. I also work at the nursery and it is largely my job (alongside the manager) to drive new initiatives, be involved in staff supervision, plan staff meetings. Her office based responsibilities will be, rotas and sickness, answering the phone, taking bookings, doing visits, staff holidays, headcount for funding, emailing invoices monthly (we have a nursery management software system)....... We can't really afford admin and manager...

[Guest]

We have all of our admin and finance done by separate staff. The role of our Nursery Managers and Setting Leaders is purely focused on Childcare; ie. Leading, supporting and supervising childcare staff, organising, planning and ensuring care is as it should be and working with parents and outside agencies. The only paperwork our Nursery Managers do is Supervision records, Auditing development files and checking trackers, Children's personal records, paperwork relating to SEN and safeguarding and planning and organising staff training. Everything to do with allocation of places, fees, funding, finance, building management and health & safety is done by admin.

It sounds like you have several settngs. The role of SEN and Safeguarding is the responsibility of other staff members, and the deputy is our Health and Safety person. Allocation of places will be done by myself and we will share the responsibility of supporting and supervising etc. Does this make it seem more manageable?