“It’s our polite nudge in the ribs to help you and your team stay organised and on task.”
This week’s subject is Continuity of staff
Element 4.1.2: Every effort is made for children to experience continuity of educators at the service.
Have you recently reviewed your processes for ensuring effective staff recruitment and retention, refining practices to support continuity of education and care?
Services have a responsibility to take all necessary steps to foster continuity of staff as it underpins the quality of the relationships and experiences for all children and families, supports secure, trusting relationships, creates safe and predictable environments, and has a significant impact on children’s learning and development.
Strong and consistent educator-child relationships correlate with improved social-emotional outcomes, reduced behavioural challenges, and enhanced cognitive development. When staff turnover disrupts this flow, children may face unnecessary stress, disrupted routines, and missed opportunities for personalised guidance and support. For services, it means consistently having to invest time and resources into recruitment and onboarding, ultimately decreasing the quality of service and outcomes for all stakeholders.
Services can foster continual improvement by reflecting on what proactive strategies are currently in place to support continuity of staff and consider what new and improved steps can be implemented:
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- How does the organisation of educators’ support staff to meaningfully and effectively engage with children and implement the educational program without having the pressure to complete other tasks or routines simultaneously?
- How does your recruitment process extract not just qualified candidates but those aligned with your service’s philosophy and committed to long-term roles?
- How does your service stand out from the crowd when advertising positions for the service?
- How effective is your onboarding process in helping new employees feel welcomed and valued and how is this evaluated determine areas for improvement?
- How do current recruitment practices align with your values, philosophy and the type of team and culture you aim to create? How is evaluated?
- How does management collect genuine feedback from educators and staff to assess staff satisfaction within their roles and work environment? How do you ensure feedback is genuine? Do you provide opportunities for feedback to be anonymous?
- How inclusive and supportive is your workplace culture, and what strategies can be implemented to foster a greater sense of belonging?
- How do you acknowledge the personal strengths, professional experience and diversity that your team bring to the service?
- What staff incentives are available to ensure they feel valued and that their commitment to the service, children and families is acknowledged and appreciated?
- What opportunities are educators given to provide feedback and input into service operations including the selection of resources to support educators to fulfil their professional responsibilities?
- How does the service obtain and use exit data to contribute to continuous improvement?
- What strategies are in place to help build staff cohesion and pride in the service?
- How do staff provide input when selecting professional development opportunities?
- How does the service acknowledge, reward and promote consistent outstanding performance, individual and team achievements?
- How does management develop individual performance and professional goals for educators and staff? Are these developed collaboratively?
- How do performance development processes provide educators with targeted feedback that supports continuity and quality improvement?
- What processes and recourses are available for staff to support mental wellbeing? Does the service provide an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and if so, how is this promoted to staff?
- Does your service actively plan and implement team-building experiences that are collaboratively designed and effective in strengthening team cohesion, fostering a unified approach to supporting children’s learning and development?
As you reflect on your service practices, consider, what one change could be made this month to strengthen staff continuity? Consider some of the below strategies:
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- Planning and implementing team projects, with a shared goal and vision, empowering educators to be creative, showcase their individual skills, fostering teamwork and a shared sense of accomplishment, e.g., designing a new outdoor learning space, creating or updating the staff or family resource library.
- Team building social events or regular experiences that foster mindfulness and wellbeing, while being optional; Collaborate with staff, sharing ideas for the types of activities they’re interested in. Keep it voluntary to respect individual preferences, schedules and staff’s personal commitments, e.g., fortnightly team yoga or mindfulness sessions, team wellness walks; monthly nature walk, cultural food share and creative arts night (educators bring a dish that reflects their culture or personal favourite and engage in a creative activity, like painting or creating vision boards).
- Acknowledge and celebrate staff achievements and milestones, enhancing self-esteem and motivation, e.g., employee of the month award, individual award categories (using a collaborative voting system with children and families), Birthday celebrations, professional milestone celebrations (work anniversaries, promotion, completing/upgrading qualification), personalised thank you notes (have each staff member write a note recognising a colleague’s specific contribution).
- Foster open and consistent communication, building a cohesive team and supporting staff well-being and continual improvement, e.g., regular, brief one on one or team check-ins to debrief and reflect on daily events, strategic open-door leadership, utilising digital communication platforms (and use them to promote valuable resources to staff e.g, BeYou resources), reflective practice circles to share challenges and brainstorm solutions collaboratively, collect staff exit data.
- Evaluate the services recruitment and onboarding processes, fostering continual improvement; collect feedback at the end of each new team member’s probation period and use this information when reviewing your recruitment and orientation policy, procedures and checklist.
Resources:
Be You- Wellbeing tools for educators
The Spoke- ‘You have to look after yourself’: ECEC educators and resilience, The Spoke- Understanding and Supporting Educator Wellbeing
Is your open door policy doing more harm than good?
The educational leader resource
Attracting and Retaining Staff
The Sector- Government announces new Workforce Reference Group to address ECEC staffing challenges
Within System7 go to Quality Area 4/ Module 3 to submit self-assessment notes and if required, open a QIP issue if you identify any areas of improvement.
The Childcare Centre Desktop has a range of resources to assist services with continuity of staff. These include Staff Exit Survey and Interview Guide and Questionnaire, Employment Application Form, Recruitment Policy, Recruitment Reference Checks, Professional Development Policy, Educator Orientation Checklist, Educator Orientation Survey, Professional Development Guide and Procedure, Professional Development Audit and much more.
Resources, NQS Element, Regulation and System7 links:
Childcare Centre Desktop – Childcare Centre Desktop
National Quality Standard – QA 4/ 4.1.2- Continuity of staff
National Regulations – 168
System7 Module – QA 4/ Module 3
If you have any questions send us a note via the Contact page here!
