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Nursery nurse
Hours
Variable hours
Starting salary
£10,000 + per year
If you love helping babies and young children develop and learn, a job as a nursery nurse could be perfect for you.
A nursery nurse needs to be warm and caring. They need to have good communication skills and be responsible. They also need a consistent and fair approach.
You do not always need qualifications to start training as a nursery nurse. Course providers and employers may prefer you to have a good standard of general education. This could be three or four GCSEs or similar qualifications. Before you can begin working with children you will need Criminal Records Bureau clearance.
WorkDesc
The work
As a nursery nurse you would be:
- planning and supervising activities such as arts and crafts, music and cooking
- helping children to learn number skills through activities like counting games
- reading stories and providing other activities to develop language skills
- taking children on outings
- helping children to learn skills such as dressing and using cutlery
- feeding, bathing and changing babies
- observing children and writing reports on their progress
- being aware of health and safety and making sure children are safe
- sharing information on children's development with their parents
- reporting any concerns such as signs of abuse.
Your job could be at local authority or privately-owned nurseries, Sure Start Children's Centres and nursery or primary schools. In some jobs you could be known as a nursery practitioner. You could also specialise in working with children with physical disabilities, learning difficulties or mental health problems.
HoursDesc
Hours
Your working hours will vary. They would usually include shifts to cover early starts and late finishes to meet the needs of parents.
IncomeDesc
Income
The starting salary for junior or trainee nursery nurses can be between £10,000 and £12,000 a year, depending on age.
Qualified and experienced nursery nurses can earn between £14,000 and £18,000, depending on responsibilities.
Nursery managers can earn between £25,000 and £38,000.
Figures are intended as a guideline only.
EntryRequirementsDesc
Entry requirements
You do not always need academic qualifications to start training as a nursery nurse. However, course providers and employers may prefer you to have a good standard of general education, possibly including three or four GCSEs (A-C) or similar qualifications.
Before you can begin working with children you will need Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) clearance.
Nursery Assistant
You could begin your career by working as a nursery assistant, where you would be supervised. You can also prepare for this work by completing the Level 2 Children and Young People's Workforce Certificate.
Nursery Nurse
To qualify as a nursery nurse you will need to complete the Level 3 Children and Young People's Workforce Diploma.
The following Level 3 qualifications are also recognised:
- Council for Awards in Care, Health and Education (CACHE) Level 3 Diploma in Child Care and Education
- BTEC National Diploma in Children's Care, Learning and Development
- NVQ Level 3 in Children's Care, Learning and Development – you may need to arrange a relevant work placement.
You may be able to find work in a nursery as a trainee and attend college part-time to work towards qualifications.
You may also be able to begin this job through an Apprenticeship scheme. You will need to check which schemes are available in your area.
For more information on Apprenticeships, visit the Apprenticeships website.
The Department for Education's Early Learning and Childcare section has information on qualifications in pre-school childcare.
TrainingAndDevelopmentDesc
Training and development
Once you are working as a nursery nurse you can develop your career by completing further qualifications, including:
- BTEC HNC/HND in subjects such as Advanced Practice in Work with Children and Families, or Early Childhood Studies
- a degree or foundation degree, for example in Early Years or Early Childhood Studies.
Early Years Professional Status (EYPS)
The Government wants to have an Early Years Professional in every early years day care setting by 2015. If you have experience, qualifications and support from your employer or local training provider, you may be able to work towards EYPS.
If you gained EYPS, you would support and mentor others to help improve the quality of early years care.
There are four routes to achieving EYPS. The route available to you will depend on your qualifications and the amount of experience you have of working with children up to the age of five.
For more information, see the Department for Education website.
SkillsAndKnowledgeDesc
Skills and knowledge
You will need to have:
- a warm, caring and patient nature
- good communication skills
- a sense of responsibility
- a consistent and fair approach
- a sense of humour
- creativity
- an awareness of safety and hygiene
- the ability to work in a team.
MoreInformationDesc
More information
Edexcel 
www.edexcel.com
National Day Nursery Association
www.ndna.org.uk
Council for Awards in Care, Health and Education (CACHE)
Apex House
81 Camp Road
St. Albans
Hertfordshire
AL1 5GB
Tel: 0845 347 2123
www.cache.org.uk
Department for Education - Early Learning and Childcare
www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/earlylearningandchildcare
Pre-school Learning Alliance National Centre
The Fitzpatrick Building
188 York Way
London
N7 9AD
Tel: 020 7697 2500
www.pre-school.org.uk
City & Guilds
1 Giltspur Street
London
EC1A 9DD
Tel: 0844 543 0000
www.cityandguilds.com
OpportunitiesDesc
Opportunities
Vacancies are advertised in national and local newspapers, on specialist agencies' websites, and in publications and websites such as Nursery World and Children and Young People Now.
You could also choose to work as a nanny or maternity nanny.
As an experienced nursery nurse you could progress to room leader/senior nursery nurse, nursery officer or manager.
You could also become a community nursery nurse, or complete further training so that you could do other work such as nursing, teaching or social work.
Job profiles are based on the latest information supplied to us by industry bodies, such as Sector Skills Councils. Please be aware that with the introduction of the Qualifications and Credit Framework there has been, and will continue to be, changes to vocational qualifications. For more information, please check with industry bodies directly.
We do not accept responsibility for the content of external sites.
LMIData
Related industry information
Industry summary
Early years, children and young people’s services are represented by the Skills for Care and Development Sector Skills Council. This includes those working in early years, children and young people’s services, and those working in social work and social care for children and adults in the UK. The social care sector comprises two sub-sectors:
- Adult social care – with a workforce of nearly 1.5 million, accounting for 5% of England’s workforce, and 38,000 employers
- Children and young people – with an estimated workforce of 2.7 million
Early years, children and young people’s services provide publicly funded services accessed by between 1.5 and 2.5 million families per year, including early years education, childcare, children’s social care, family support, child protection, fostering and adoption services. There are more than 500,000 workers delivering these services in England.
[N.B. Following the change of Government on 11th May, all statutory guidance and legislation referred to here continues to reflect the current legal position unless indicated otherwise, but this document may not reflect Government policy.]
Key facts:
- The children and young people’s social care workforce includes:
- Over a quarter of a million people working within early years and childcare settings, with 165,200 employed in full day care and 58,300 workers in sessional day care
- An estimated 111,484 nannies
- An estimated 1,152 portage workers in England (who provide a home-visiting service for pre-school children who have developmental or learning difficulties, physical disabilities or other special needs)
- About 1,985 in the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS)
- An estimated 7,500 residential childcare workers in children’s homes and 2,100 in care homes for disabled children
- 25,460 full-time equivalent social workers
- Approximately 37,000 foster families in England
- Approximately 14,000 learning mentors
- 2,247 educational psychologists
- Between 3,000 and 5,000 education welfare officers in England
- 65% of full day care provision is privately run, with 22% of settings run by a voluntary organisation.
- The majority of sessional care settings are run by voluntary organisations or are privately run.
The children and young people’s workforce includes a wide range of workers, jobs and professional occupations, including:
- Early years and childcare – Early years/nursery teachers; Nursery nurses/workers; Portage workers; Nannies; Home Child carers; Heads of children’s centres; Volunteers in childcare settings
- Children and young people’s social care – children and family court advisory and support service officers, foster carers, residential childcare workers, children and family social workers
- Learning, development and support services (LDSS) – learning mentors, educational psychologists, education welfare officers, behaviour and education support teams, family support workers
National and regional data
[N.B. National and regional data are currently unavailable.]
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