Supporting your nursery staff

Staffs at nurseries that feature NurseryCam are pleasantly surprised when they learn how it works. The purpose of the NurseryCam system is to enable working parents to see their children. NurseryCam brings a smile to a working mother's face by letting her see her child during the day. Parents use NurseryCam to see their children, not to see the staffs.

Here are some facts about how to support your staffs:

Talk to staff in other nurseries

Nursery staff may find it helpful to talk to staff in other nurseries that have already installed a Parental Webcam. If you feel your staff would benefit from this, please let us know and we will arrange you to talk to them. They are more than happy to share their experience with you.

Sharing with parents

In the experience of our nurseries, most of parents' complaints arise not from the incident that sparked them but from a deeper sense of mistrust of the nursery by the parent or a feeling of guilt. Parental Webcam helps to banish such feelings. The result is that levels of trust between parents and the nursery rise and the number of complaints reduces as a consequence.

Hard working staffs are recognised

Great nursery staffs work exceptionally hard, however their effort can often go unrecognised by parents and occasionally by nursery managers. Parental Webcam is an effective way for everyone to share the positive interactions between nursery staffs and children that take place on an ongoing basis.

Once Parental Webcam is up and running, staffs often tell us they received more compliments from parents than ever before:

"...it's also nice to see how good all of the staff are with the children. I have seen that Josh is cared for when upset and offered a cuddle when he has woken up. These little things make me feel so much happier about leaving my son in the care of the staff." Katie, Exeter
 

Sensitivity and good communication

Parental Webcam undoubtedly brings many benefits to working parents, however, some nursery staff can feel a little uncomfortable at the prospect of being on camera to begin with. Good communication and a sensitive individual approach from the beginning is therefore important. Once the system is installed, staff quickly forget it is there in the same way that CCTV cameras in shops and banks for example are largely ignored by most of us.

Staff-friendly features
 
In order to ensure that Parental Webcam works effectively for nursery staff as well as parents, we welcome feedback. The following features have all been introduced as a result of comments from nursery staff using Parental Webcam.
 
Limit on daily viewing time - Each nursery has the option to set a limit on the maximum viewing time per day for each parent. Some nurseries have set a limit of 15 minutes or 30 minutes per day. This is enough to keep parents happy without interfering with your work too much.
 
Stationary camera at play-area only - The cameras are stationary and cannot pan, tilt, or zoom. Each camera is typically positioned to provide a wide-angle view of a large area or an entire classroom.

NurseryCam representatives are available to answer your questions. To learn more, you can ask your manager to arrange for a demonstration, or invite a NurseryCam representative to attend one of your staff meetings. If you have more suggestions or concerns, we are very keen to hear from you. We want to make parents happy, but not to make staffs worry.

"NurseryCam has been a big hit at Bronte Nursery. Both parents and staff (after initial resistance) love it."

Peer Carter, Bronte Nursery

"It's great to see my child at play with others and the superb staff at the nursery"

Craig, Portishead

"It's really great being able to watch Josh at nursery. It was such a peace of mind when I would leave him crying to be able to see that he was happy by the time I had got to work. It's also nice to see how good all of the staff are with the children. I have seen that Josh is cared for when upset and offered a cuddle when he has woken up, these little things make me feel so much happier about leaving my son in the care of the staff."

Katie, Exeter

"It's good to know the activities of my child to follow her at home."

Sarika, Middlesborough

Click here to download "Adopting a parent perspective", NMT Mar/Apr 2007

Click here to download "State of the art nursery means business", NMT Jul/Aug 2007