A nursery in Bromley has been forced to turn children away due to lack of available staff.

Fennies Nursery, on Blythe Road in Bromley, has been “so short staffed” that it is no longer able to book children into the setting, according to source who wishes to remain anonymous.

The person told the News Shopper that those attending the nursery are only being allowed in on a “first come, first serve” basis.

This means that parents have had to allegedly queue outside of the nursery for more than half an hour before the doors open, with hopes that their child will be allowed in for the day.

A spokesperson for Fennies Nursery has said that “significant investments” are being made to help tackle any staffing issues, including increasing recruitment spendings, providing free lunches for employees, investing in existing teams and locations, and implementing “better” practises.

The member of the public who spoke to the News Shopper said: “It wasn't a surprise that there were going to be some staffing issues at some point – we are all well aware that overall, the sector is not in a great place.

“Where the big surprise is, is that this particular branch has gone from being okay to there being some kind of emergency every day for the past six weeks.”

The source said that parents received a notification that there was not enough staff to keep all children at the nursery and asked if parents could volunteer to keep their child at home.

They added: “Because it was an unusual thing to ask, many parents were happy to do so.

“This happened again the following week, and then into early November we were told that the nursery was struggling.

“It was every single day during the weeks commencing November 7 and November 14.”

A spokesperson for Fennies Nursery told the News Shopper that the organisation is “working hard together” to minimise the disruption felt by parents.

The anonymous source added: “I can honestly say I've never seen anything like it, it was reminiscent of the panic buying in Covid.

“The nursery opens at 7.45am and parents were queuing with their little ones from 7.15am.

“By the third day, parents were arguing in the queue.

“This is happening at a number of the Fennies nurseries and it's leaving parents at odds with their employers as they're having to take exceptional leave to look after children who should be in Fennies.

“The local team have been amazing – we’re struggling with the expansion plans from above.

“Numerous emails have been sent to head office but there is total lack of communication or contact from them and no response yet as to what is being done to help the branches and existing parents.

“Fennies is being run as a corporate machine without due regard to the safeguarding of the children or the stress it's placing on existing parents.

“One parent was told if they didn't like it then they can give notice.”

The full statement from Fennies Nursery said: “Early Years as a sector has a systemic challenge on finding great, reliable, and qualified team members, which every nursery group is experiencing.

“The exodus of thousands of people away from Early Years is well documented in the news as are the difficulties facing similar industries such as travel and the NHS.

“Fennies was and is aware of this industry-wide challenge and we understand the impact of not being able to drop children off at nursery and the stress surrounding needing to find last-minute childcare, our nursery teams and head office teams are working hard together to minimise the disruption felt by parents.

“We have offered many lines of communication with parents, such as 121s with the senior team members and group calls for all parents to join.

"However, the effectiveness and timeliness of our communication with parents is always under constant review and we will identify where improvements can be made.

“To battle the staffing issue, we have made significant investments such as increasing our recruitment spend with Indeed from £700 per month at the beginning of 2022, to £7000 and we are seeing some positive results from this.

“We have also invested in our existing teams and locations, we provide free lunches for all employees, we have appointed an experienced Chief People Officer with PLC and large organisation background and are already implementing better practices.

“A salary review was undertaken earlier this year and increases were awarded that amounted to a 12.5 per cent uplift.

“We have a further review taking place, to be delivered by Christmas 2022 which will drive any further reviews necessary going into 2023.

“We have refurbished staff welfare areas across the majority of our nurseries, with others planned.

“Safeguarding is at the top of our agenda.

“The staffing challenges within Fennies that led to turning children away from the nursery were driven by the necessity for us to remain compliant with the expected ratios, of qualified staff to children.

“Our teams are fully trained on safeguarding, and we regularly audit all our nurseries on their knowledge and understanding of the correct processes.

“We have refunded parents for full costs of the days that they have not been unable to attend nursery due to these circumstances.

“The Fennies plans for new nurseries have been drawn up over a significant period of time. Any new nursery does not directly compete with other Fennies in the way we look for team members.

“Our growth for next year features sites that are in new areas and these teams are being hired exclusively to those locations, for example, Ealing and Reading.

“The team are committed and passionate about what they do for the children, and we are certain that our recent investments and immediate plans will only help take Fennies as a whole in the right direction.”

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