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Pay Scales


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Hi

I'm looking into putting a pay structure in place dependent on the amount of time a staff member has been in a setting and experience. I thought this would also give them a reason for doing the qualifications, staff have said they complete a level 2/3, and nothing changes with regard to pay. Has anybody else done this. Not quite sure what is fair with regard to pay and how to divide it out. Also do you allow your staff keyworker time (to do their records) during the session, if so how long do they get?

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Hi

Regarding pay scales - I did a forum search and only found one or two topics, although I'm sure it has been discussed before. I've worked in settings where qualifications and length of service are rewarded, so there is a clear definitiion of staff roles and responsibiltiies and all the staff know that there are rewards for commitment to the job.

 

One of my responses had the following suggestions for categories of pay:

 

I would start from the bottom up -

  • Assistant - unqualified/least experienced - would be on minimum wage according to age
  • Assistant - unqualifed but working towards a qualification
  • Nursery Nurse - Level 2 qualified
  • Nursery Nurse - level 2 qualified and working towards level 3
  • Nursery Nurse - level 3 qualified
  • Nursery Nurse - level 3 qualiifed with additional responsibilities i.e. room leader, SENCo
  • Deputy Manager - Level 3 and above with managerial role
  • Nursery Manager - level 3 or above with managerial responsilbiity
     
    You can add length of service etc into this aswell if it was appropriate for your setting.

I hope this helps?

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This looks good - all we need to do now is fill in the blanks where the pay should be! Anyone got any ideas how much the differential should be from one band to the next? I suppose it depends on how much you can afford to pay your manager...

 

Maz

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Hi we have non-qualified on minimum wage then 20p increas for each qualification. This makes not much difference between least and most qualified!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've just found this topic and it is interesting that other settings differentiate between levels of qualifications. My current setting have told me that although I have just got my level 3 qualification they will still only pay me minimum wage and out of that I will have to find £5 per day for a childminder to take my children to school as they will now want me on site by 8.45am. Another job I have applied for requires a level 3 but is also only paying at minimum wage. Today I have applied for a telesales job which offers £7 ph + commission and is prepared to work around school hours and holidays.

I decided to work with children as I enjoyed my voluntary work but also it would fit around my kids. I knew the pay was dire but if I also have to pay for childcare it really isn't worth my while.

 

(rather disillusioned) Sally

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Hi Sally,

I know what you mean, Ive just told my daughter that I'm thinking of packing it in and going to Tesco's- she went balistic!!!

In away I have the opposite to you - I do get slightly more than min-wage - but now the family's grown up I no longer want to work term-time only, I want to be able to just go away, say even just for a cheap mid-week break and not be tied down to set holiday dates. Not only do we get bad pay- we have to pay top whack prices!

xxx

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Oh Sally what an awful situation - and what a waste of your excellent DPP results if you go and work in a call centre somewhere. This really goes to the heart of the problem with working in early years, doesn't it? Retention is such an issue - and job satisfaction will only go so far in compensating for the low salary.

 

Is it not possible for your setting to be a bit more flexible - or are there issues about numbers of children and ratios etc? Is there a member of staff who you could share the school run with and save yourself the childminder's fees? It would be such a shame to give up just at the point when you were so looking forward to putting it all into practice!

 

That said, £7 an hour plus commission and working around school hours is a pretty good deal, isn't it? Obviously you'd miss all the snotty noses, wet pants and temper tantrums though! :o

 

Promise me you'll apply for other (preferably better paid) jobs in early years too though, won't you?

 

Maz

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just a quick update. My setting have decided to be more flexible and let me start at 9.10 after I have dropped the kids off at school. Pay stays the same but I don't mind that so much. And there is a possibility of more hours/opportunities for progression from March when they move into the new family centre. I am so pleased. I really like working with the kids and it would have been a shame to have to go somewhere else.

Maz - the telesales job did sound appealing but I have to say it is boring work and doesn't offer the challenge and variety of working in preschool. It's certainly true that no two days are the same and I do enjoy it, runny noses and all.

I must have been having a bad day when I posted the last message. Still, now I've decided that I'm going to apply to start a Foundation Degree later in the year. I MUST BE MAD

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Just a quick update. My setting have decided to be more flexible and let me start at 9.10 after I have dropped the kids off at school. Pay stays the same but I don't mind that so much. And there is a possibility of more hours/opportunities for progression from March when they move into the new family centre. I am so pleased. I really like working with the kids and it would have been a shame to have to go somewhere else.

Maz - the telesales job did sound appealing but I have to say it is boring work and doesn't offer the challenge and variety of working in preschool. It's certainly true that no two days are the same and I do enjoy it, runny noses and all.

I must have been having a bad day when I posted the last message. Still, now I've decided that I'm going to apply to start a Foundation Degree later in the year. I MUST BE MAD

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So pleased to see you are staying in the profession Sally and thank goodness for flexibility.

Congratulations on your decision also to do the foundation degree. It is not always easy in child care to juggle all the balls (home, own children & a badly paid job) even if we do all love what we do.

 

It makes my blood boil when successive governments had over taxpayers money to push both parents out to work by providing childcare from the crack of dawn to the twilight hours and leave us earning what is really a pittance for what we actually do.

 

There, another rant over!!

 

Don't you just love it!!

 

:o

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Thanks for that dublinbay. I couldn't agree with you more. Everyone seems under so much pressure and is being told what to do on a regular basis - it's all a bit George Orwell with Big Brother (not the reality show) watching. I think the pay for working with children is awful, especially considering the important job we all do. No wonder people lose interest and leave.

As for the foundation degree, I did my DPP as a way of kick starting my brain and the sense of personal achievement was enormous - more than the result (although it was great to pass). Now my little brain has realised it does work - at least sometimes - I would really like to go further. Not sure how I'll fit it in with everything else but loads of other people seem to manage.

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I'm finding doing the FD with the OU very easy to cope with. I don't work full time so I manage my study time when I finish for the day and before my two children get home from school. I work to a study calender and as long as I stick to it I can be sure of getting all the reading done in time.

 

I don't know anything about the work load of people doing the degree at a college but i'm sure someone would fill you in if you asked.

 

I finished my DPP last July too and have completely gotton the studying bug. Wonder how much longer it will last!!

:o

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  • 5 weeks later...

oh my god

 

i am so lucky with my wages then

our unqualified ones get min wage plus 40 or 50p on top cant remember

assistant gets 6.00 hour

i get 7.00 hour

 

and we was asking for our annual rise

 

better not show them this then!!!!!!!

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ok i get 6.25 per hour, as a level 2 working toward level 3. i work 45 hours a week sometimes 50. ive been told i have to stay in surrey to complete my training which is taking forever but my train fare (as i don't drive) is currently 7.50. all in all working in childcare at the moment is pretty stressful!!

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