For nursery managers across the country these are exceedingly tough times. The options have been stark. Some nurseries have been able to (some have had to…) stay open despite plummeting attendance, income, and precarious staffing numbers. Some have had to shut temporarily. And many are unsure of their future, ongoing.
At Redfish we know this very well and have felt their pain, for we’ve been there working through many of these scenarios with them. We’ve furloughed as few staff as possible and kept our operations going to ensure that those nurseries that have remained open have had the systems support they need… when they need it… at no extra cost. And we’ve also been there to help those who have had to temporarily mothball their operations, and are now working hard to plan ahead.
How has Redfish nursery management software helped during lockdown?
We believe our software has helped in many ways and we’ve been reassured by the difference it’s made to nurseries whilst they’ve had a lot to juggle. The cloud-based nature of our application has made it easy to access, use, and update remotely, and that has aided social distancing as well as stress! Here are a few examples of what we’re talking about:
- Putting a hold on regular invoicing has been quick to implement
- Ensuring that child absence is marked appropriately within the system has been simple
- It’s facilitated remote working for non-essential staff tem
- It’s ensured communication channels have been kept open and easy to access for staff
- It’s ensured communication channels with parents/carers have been kept open and easy to use
- Full support has been available with no disruption to service
- We’ve effected fast responses to fast changing circumstances… and boy! That’s kept us on our toes!
But now the next stage is upon us, and we’d say that good nursery management software will help at this point too.
Preparing for post-lockdown
The thing is, even though a nursery is very much a hands-on, face-to-face operation, the need for social distancing means that as few people as possible should be on the premises. With our cloud-based nursery management system our customers are able to carry out many of their admin functions remotely without having to be on site at all.
Thus with changes to early years child care imminent, anything that helps to keep the least number of people on site, the better. But that’s not all. The action nursery managers needed to take to ensure the system didn’t send out invoices at the wrong time, mark children as absent inappropriately, or indeed skew any of the performance data meaninglessly, can now be easily reversed. Attendees can be reinstated. Schedules and calendars can be adjusted to ensure social distancing requirements are met. And financial matters such as invoicing can be prepared for when the button is ready to be pressed.
When the nod is given… it’s going to be really quick to re-start operations again!
So if you’re already running our nursery management software and have any questions about getting back to the new normal, then please do give us a ring. However, if you aren’t already running our software but would like to find out more about how it could make life easier for you… please do CALL US NOW!