Working with providers right across the PVI and maintained sector, including schools, academies and childminders, my leadership and management skills training is designed to build the competence and confidence of setting owners, managers and committee members who need to become as competent in the management and leadership aspects of their setting as they are in managing the quality of childcare. I provide a range of practical tools that they can implement immediately rather than a theoretical awareness of good practice. Courses can be delivered on an in-house basis, tailored to your needs. My current offer includes the following short courses which can be delivered remotely via Zoom:
- Is Your Business Struggling?
- Developing Personal Resilience
- Managing and Motivating Your Team
- Early Years Recruitment and Selection
- Developing Your ChangeAbility
This document sets out details assuming in person delivery. Please contact me to discuss how they would be adapted to better suit online delivery.
See below or feel free to contact me on jacqui@flourishingpeople.co.uk for further information.
Workshop title: Is your business struggling?
What is happening in the UK economy is having a massive impact on Early Years providers, many of whom are still struggling to recover fully from the challenges of COVID. We can expect that there will be increased levels of hardship and deprivation within our communities. This will have a significant impact on parents’ ability to afford childcare fees, and their eligibility for funded places, causing them to rethink their childcare provision. At this critical time, providers need to be agile and creative, and to take tough decisions simply in order to survive.
The aim of this half day workshop is to provide a framework to support providers who may be experiencing a crisis in the sustainability of their business, and to help them to build future sustainability and resilience. You will come away from this workshop with a range of practical tools to support your business planning.
What the workshop will cover
- A model for Crisis Management
- A step by step approach taking participants through each of the stages of the Model:
- Reaction
- Response
- Renewal
- Resilience
- Exploration of the key skills required for future sustainability:
- Looking at the right issues and asking the right questions
- Problem solving
- Managing changes needed for future business resilience
Workshop title: Developing Personal Resilience
Note to commissioning organisations: In preparation for this workshop participants should visit the following website and complete their own i-Resilience profile. This provides a free, in depth confidential report. If they are comfortable doing so, they should bring provides unlimited access to a wealth of free online resources about resilience, personal wellbeing, and how people can be happier and healthier at work. https://www.robertsoncooper.com/iresilience
Recent research into the sector indicates that recruitment challenges are putting increased pressure on staff and increasing the instances of staff suffering from the ill effects of workplace stress. With Ofsted also focusing more on the well-being of your team, this has become an issue that most providers need to consider.
This half day workshop aims to help Early Years managers and leaders to help their teams to develop greater personal resilience in the face of these challenges. There is no single definition of personal resilience, but people often describe it as grit, the ability to bounce back, mental toughness, an ability to face challenging situations with confidence. Whatever personal resilience means to you, this workshop will give you an opportunity to explore how to develop it for yourself and you team.
What the workshop will cover:
- Helping staff to build personal resilience
- How to work supportively with colleagues to manage workload by enabling them to use their time more effectively
- Increasing people’s sense of well-being.
Workshop title: Managing and Motivating your Team
Note to commissioning organisations: The maximum number of attendees for this workshop is 20.
For many early years providers, the challenge of managing staff can be one of the most difficult aspects of providing a good service. After all, your staff are “your service” and your reputation depends on their performance and attitude.
This practical one day workshop looks at the performance and conduct of your staff. We will focus on objective setting and measuring standards, clarifying expectations and how different people are motivated. You will also review the role and key functions of a manager and understand what makes an effective manager. You will come away from this workshop feeling more confident about having those challenging conversations with members of your team and with plenty of ideas about how to get the best from your staff.
What the workshop will cover:
• What makes an effective manager
• How different people are motivated
• How to give staff feedback on their performance
• Setting SMART objectives about how staff are required to conduct themselves
• Using a range of tools and techniques to help you communicate effectively with your staff (especially having those more challenging conversations)
Comments from providers who have attended the workshop include:
“Better than expected – gained an insight into handling different personalities – well delivered workshop, friendly tutor made participants feel at ease.”
“Much more informative than I thought it would be, great course, will implement it immediately within setting and will recommend course to others, tutor was lovely, made us all feel very involved and included. Think we will all go home with more confidence and being more assertive.”
“Gave me the confidence to approach conversations we never like to have!”
Workshop title: Early Years Recruitment and Selection
Note to commissioning organisations: This workshop can be delivered as a half day workshop which provides an overview of how to select the best people for your early years business. It can also be delivered as a one day workshop and includes an opportunity for skills development in relation to interview techniques, questions and scoring.
Recruiting the right staff for the right job is critical for business survival. In today’s challenging environment, understanding good practice in this area is important for any business leaders involved in the recruitment and selection process. You will come away with a step by step approach to undertaking recruitment and selection professionally and fairly.
What the workshop will cover:
• Determining that you have a vacancy (including ideas about flexible working)
• Preparing the right job specification for the role
• Preparing the right person specification for the role
• Methods of advertising the vacancy
• Selecting candidates for interview using selection criteria
• Interview good practice
• Statements of employment, probation and induction
Comments from providers who have attended the workshop include:
“Very interesting – confirmed good processes in place, lots of opportunities for discussion, focused on Early Years.”
“Very informative – enabled me to confirm my decision to restructure rather than recruit”
Workshop title: Developing Your Change-ability
Changes to Government funding mean that Early Years providers have to look closely at their delivery model and make changes in order to deliver sustainably. Because of this, change management skills, or change-ability, has become a core competence. In some cases providers lack the change management skills they need to be able to transform the way they currently operate. This is leading to providers missing out on opportunities.
The aim of this half day workshop is to provide an exploration of a range of tools and techniques that will help providers to develop the change-ability of their early years business, and take the pain out for change for their staff and themselves. You will come away from this workshop with a change management plan to support the current changes you face in your business, and a strategy for supporting other forms of change in your early years business.
What the workshop will cover:
• Why change can feel painful
• How to identify and manage different types of change
• Supporting your people through change
• Developing business and personal resilience
• Planning to take the pain out of change.
Comments from providers who have attended the workshop include:
“I learned ever so much. I have many changes that need making but I now feel positive I can do this.”
“I was apprehensive at the start of the course, by the end I was empowered to make changes!”
Working with Flourishing People Limited: Terms and conditions
These workshops are available only on an in-house basis where an organisation books the workshop, undertakes to market the places and provides a suitable training venue.
- Delivery costs:
- Full day workshops (7 hours including a 30 minute lunch break) – £800.00 plus trainer expenses
- Half day workshops (3 hours) – £500.00 plus trainer expenses
- Two half day workshops delivered on the same day (3 hours each with minimum of 30 minutes in between) – £800.00 plus trainer expenses.
- All workshop materials / handouts are provided.
- Commissioning organisations have the option to purchase a copy of Building Your Early Years Business by Jacqui Burke as an additional take-away tool for participants. The book is offered at a discounted price of £14.00 per copy (usual price £16.99 plus p&p). This covers in more detail many of the topics covered in the training. Alternatively copies can be sold during the workshop to any attendees who wish to purchase a copy. Cash and credit/debit cards can be accepted on the day.
- No additional fees are charged for delivery outside of business hours including evenings and Saturdays.
- Workshop content can be tailored to meet your specific needs (for a small design fee).
- It is the responsibility of commissioning organisations to market the workshops to their early years providers and to provide a suitable training venue. Water should be available to participants. Participants should be made aware of arrangements for refreshments and for lunch. If there is a requirement for people to bring / buy their own lunch please let me know so that I can manage the timings accordingly.
- Laptop and data projector can be provided if required. Provision of a flipchart with paper is required. For some workshops wifi access is required.
- Cancellation policy: Once a firm booking is confirmed by email, any cancellation made will be subject to reimbursement of any travel costs already incurred as a result of bookings for trains, hotels etc being made. Cancellations made with less than 14 days noticed will incur a cancellation fee of 50% of the full workshop fee. A workshop postponed to a later date does not incur a cancellation fee (but may be subject to reimbursement of any travel costs already incurred as above).
- Online delivery: Where a workshop is delivered online, this will normally be via Zoom. If you require it to be delivered using an alternative platform, you will be expected to be available throughout the workshop to manage this interface.