What does leadership require of us? The workforce challenge
The early years workforce crisis is often talked about as a recruitment problem: we need more people to come into the sector. But perhaps we need to spend just as much time thinking about the people already here. In 2025, the annual staff turnover rate in group-based early years provision in England was 14% – twice the rate that we saw in school-based provision (Department for Education, 2025). In a nursery employing 20 people, that's the equivalent of losing almost three members of staff every year. And that is an average. In my work with early years settings, I regularly come across nurseries where the churn is considerably higher – where leaders feel as though they are constantly recruiting, inducting and starting again.
When that becomes the norm, recruitment can start to feel like the obvious problem. But there is another question we need to ask: why are people leaving?
Why pay isn't the only factor in early years leadership and retention
Of course, pay matters. Working conditions matter. Hours matter. We shouldn't pretend that good leadership can somehow compensate for low pay or difficult working conditions. Recent NFER analysis continues to highlight low pay as a significant challenge for the early years workforce, alongside concerns about opportunities for career progression, particularly for more highly qualified staff (NFER, 2026). These are structural issues that require attention well beyond the individual nursery.
But they are not the whole story of why someone stays in one workplace and leaves another. People are more likely to want to stay somewhere when they feel that they belong; when their contribution is noticed and valued; when they are trusted and taken seriously as professionals; and when they can see opportunities to learn, grow and take on new challenges. They are more likely to stay when they feel part of something – when there is a shared sense of what the organisation is trying to achieve, and they can see how their own work contributes to that.
These are all things that leaders can influence.
How formal leadership structures shape retention
Rethinking induction and ongoing development
Some of that influence happens formally. Think about what it is like to join your organisation. Is induction primarily a process of handing over policies, explaining routines and getting someone onto the rota, or does it help a new educator to understand the organisation they are joining and find their place within it? What happens six months later, when they are no longer new? What opportunities are there to develop their practice, explore their interests or take on new responsibilities? If someone wants to progress, is there a pathway they can see – or do they need to leave the organisation in order to grow?
Why professional development still matters for early years leadership
Professional development matters here too. It doesn't always have to mean expensive courses or qualifications. It might mean giving someone responsibility for an area they care about, creating opportunities to observe a colleague, making space for professional conversations, or noticing a strength and helping someone to build on it. The important thing is that people experience themselves as professionals who are still developing, rather than simply another pair of hands needed to keep the ratios working.
The everyday practice of early years leadership
But retention is not shaped only through these formal structures. Organisational culture is also built through hundreds of much smaller interactions.
Does anybody notice when you arrive in the morning? Do colleagues say hello? Does someone ask how your weekend was? When you offer an idea, what happens to it? When you are struggling, does somebody notice? When something goes wrong, are people curious about what happened, or does everyone immediately start looking for someone to blame? When one room is having a difficult afternoon, do other people see that as their problem, or our problem?
These things can sound small compared with workforce strategies, recruitment campaigns and professional development programmes. But they are the everyday experience of belonging to a team. How we speak to one another matters. How we respond when somebody needs help matters. Whether people feel known, appreciated and able to contribute matters.
The difficulty for leaders is that “build a positive culture” can feel like an impossibly vague and overwhelming instruction. Where do you even start?
Turning values into everyday culture
One useful starting point is to become much clearer about the values you want your organisation to operate by. Not the values written on the website or displayed in the entrance, but the values that describe how you want it to feel to work together. Perhaps you want your team to be characterised by generosity, curiosity, trust, warmth or courage. The important next question is: what would we actually see if we were living that value?
If we say that we value belonging, for example, saying good morning to one another isn't trivial. Making sure a new member of staff isn't sitting alone at lunchtime, silently scrolling on their phone with nobody to talk to, is part of how we create belonging. So is asking someone's opinion in a team meeting, or checking in after a difficult day. These might seem like small things, but this is how values become culture: through the ordinary, repeated moments of organisational life.
This is also why creating a vision and values with a team is more powerful than handing them a set that somebody else has written. When people have contributed to deciding what matters and what that should look like in practice, there is something shared to come back to. Leaders can ask not simply, “Are people behaving well?” but, “Are we working together in the way we said we wanted to?”
Leadership Practice Inquiry: Why do people stay here?
There is a lot for you to think through here - too much to do in one go. Before introducing another retention initiative, start with curiosity. Spend some time investigating what it actually feels like to work in your organisation.
Talk to people who have stayed for years and ask them what has kept them there. Talk to someone who joined six months ago and ask what has helped them to feel part of the team. Think about people who have recently left: what might have been making staying harder? Notice who gets access to development opportunities and who doesn't. Pay attention to the everyday interactions around you - in rooms, corridors and staff spaces, and look for the moments where people experience belonging, recognition and support, as well as the moments where these are missing.
Most importantly, resist the temptation to decide too quickly what the problem is. Approach your organisation as something to investigate rather than judge.
And keep one question in mind as you do: if someone in your organisation quietly started looking for another job tomorrow, what might be pushing them towards the door - and what might make them want to stay?
How Parenta can support your team's growth
Where does your own setting stand when it comes to giving your team room to grow? For many leaders, the barrier to strong early years leadership isn't ambition; it's time. Between ratios, rotas and mountains of paperwork, it can be hard to find space for the coaching conversations and professional development that keep people invested in their careers with you.
This is where Parenta can help. Our nursery management software takes the administrative load off your plate, freeing up more time for the everyday leadership moments that build belonging. And through Parenta's childcare training courses, you can give your team clear, accessible pathways to develop their practice and progress, so that staying and growing feels like the obvious choice. That's what everyday early years leadership can look like when you have the time and the tools to make it happen.
Ready to give your team more time for the early years leadership that keeps them here? Get in touch with our friendly team today and find out how Parenta's nursery management software and childcare training courses could support your staff retention.
