Free holidays for staff on National Nursery Practitioner Day

With a quarter of nursery staff in the UK thinking of leaving their job due to stress and mental health problems, The Co-operative Childcare has decided to celebrate its practitioners by naming a day in their honour and offering free holidays.

Early years practitioners from Cooperative Childcare. Credit: Cooperative Childcare

A new ‘National Nursery Practitioner Day’ on 17 October is celebrating early years workers in recognition of their work nurturing the next generation and the childcare group is urging all nursery providers to celebrate their own staff on the day.

The Co-operative Childcare decided to make their staff feel special by creating ‘appreciation walls’ for parents to write on and hosting ‘thank you’ parties at each of its nurseries. A competition was also organised to ensure one nursery worker from each of the group’s 44 nurseries wins a holiday.

Kellieanne Bicknell, senior early years practitioner at The Cooperative Childcare in Southampton, said: “It’s so important to know that your employer and the team around you value the work you do and can provide a helping hand with problems that can affect you outside of work, like your physical and mental health.

“I think National Nursery Practitioner Day has made everyone feel even more appreciated and helps people feel motivated. We were so excited to hear about the competition and thank you parties as there aren’t many initiatives like it out there.”

With a shortage of nursery workers and a Ceeda survey last year revealing some 45 per cent of job vacancies in private and voluntary-run nurseries and pre-schools in England are unoccupied, the ‘National Nursery Practitioner Day’ will celebrate the childcare group’s 1,300 nursery workers across its network of 44 nurseries.

Credit: Shutterstock.

Rachael Escott, sales and marketing manager at The Co-operative Childcare, is keen for all early years providers to honour workers on 17 October.

Rachael Escott said: “Just as teachers do, nursery practitioners shape the minds of the future and have a massive impact on the children they inspire and educate every single day.

"Nursery workers just aren’t getting the level of recognition they should considering the important role they play.

“We want to do what we can to make them feel appreciated. This celebratory day is just a small way of saying thank you, and forms part of a much wider programme to reward our fantastic workers.”

Early years practitioner Kelienne Bicknell added: “I hope lots of other childcare practitioners get involved too because it’s a great way to bring awareness to the importance of our work.”

daynurseries.co.uk lists a wide range of jobs in the early years sector. To find jobs click here