The early years sector is facing a critical shortage of qualified practitioners, and our clients are feeling the pressure. For nurseries, this isn't just an inconvenience - without the correct staff ratios, they're forced to send children home, impacting families and creating significant operational challenges.

One particular client - a large nursery in a rural location with limited public transport - had been struggling for months to find a qualified early years practitioner. Their remote location made an already difficult search even harder in a market where virtually every nursery is competing for the same limited pool of qualified candidates.

Meanwhile, other clients needed immediate solutions for unexpected staff absences and ongoing cover, where every morning could bring a new crisis that threatened their ability to maintain statutory ratios.

Since launching our Early Years division ten months ago, we've developed three distinct recruitment services to meet the varied needs of nursery settings:

For Permanent Placements

The key to success lies in taking time to really understand both the nursery and the candidates. For our rural client, we conducted a thorough debrief that went beyond the basics. We explored everything from transport options and unique selling points to career progression opportunities - essentially, every reason why someone would want to work there.

This detailed understanding allowed us to create a genuinely compelling, niche advert that spoke to the right candidates. We then supported both parties through a swift compliance process to ensure a quick start. In a market where time absolutely kills deals, speed matters - but so does quality.

For Temporary Cover

We've built our temporary service around the reality of nursery life: emergencies happen, and they often happen first thing in the morning.

Our out-of-hours service starts at 7am with a pre-prepared list of fully compliant staff who are available and ready to go. Clients have access to profile cards and can get an immediate response when they're facing unexpected sickness.

But we don't stop at crisis management. Our consultants proactively plan ahead, discussing the week's outlook with clients every Monday and sending availability for the coming week. We look at potential risks—is someone going in for an operation? Are there patterns of longer-term sickness? This allows us to have staff ready rather than scrambling at the last minute.

We also prioritise consistency. Where possible, we ensure the same practitioners return to the same settings, creating familiarity for the children, reassurance for parents, and smoother operations for the nursery.

For Temporary to Permanent

Sometimes the best permanent placements emerge organically. We're completely open and honest with our nursery clients: if a temporary placement is working brilliantly and a permanent vacancy exists, let's talk about it.

This "try before you buy" approach - whether it's a rolling contract for three or four weeks or a longer-term temporary placement - gives both the nursery and the candidate confidence that they're making the right decision. It's an approach that genuinely supports retention, because everyone's certain it's the right fit.