What is a Nursery Manager?

September 11th, 2025

Working as a Nursery Manager is a highly rewarding experience and a great opportunity for someone ready to take the next step in their childcare career.

Here’s all you need to know about becoming a Nursery Manager at a Partou Nursery.

Early years practitioner standing within a bright learning environment at a Partou nursery, surrounded by natural wooden furniture, open-ended learning resources and nature-inspired play areas. The spacious classroom features soft cream and beige tones, wooden play structures, indoor greenery and child-centred activity stations, creating a welcoming environment that supports early years education, child development, imaginative play and school readiness.

At Partou, we strive to develop and empower our staff so that they can continuously deliver outstanding outcomes every day. Here’s all you need to know about becoming a Nursery Manager at one of our nursery settings.

What does a Partou Nursery Manager do?

As a Nursery Manager, you’ll play a key role in helping recruit, supporting and training all staff members in the team. With your team, you’ll ensure that all children attending the setting are kept safe and enjoy play experiences that are appropriate for their age and development.

The position comes with many responsibilities. One of your main roles as a manager will be to manage the day-to-day running of the nursery effectively, such as taking care of financial operations.

You’ll also have to ensure that all legislation is complied with. This includes registration with regulatory bodies, special needs, child protection, Health and Safety, and Food Safety. Making sure that company policies and procedures are adhered to is also important.

Key responsibilities of a Nursery Manager

As a Nursery Manager for Partou, you will be running a business but also working closely with children and their families.

This is what makes the role so unique and rewarding; you’ll get the satisfaction of growing a business whilst building human connections and seeing the children develop. Here are some of the responsibilities you can expect to have in the role:

Build and encourage relationships with parents/carers and other family members.
Build strong partnerships with local authorities, regulatory bodies, and agencies.
Identify the training needs of your team members, working with them to develop plans for their future.
Implement the EYFS and oversee planning and record keeping.
Manage the occupancy to ensure it shows growth and meets the business aims.
Stay on top of current developments in childcare and education policies and practices.
Maintain high standards of hygiene and cleanliness in the nursery.
Manage, monitor and control budgets.
Maintain petty cash systems.

How to become a Nursery Manager

To become a Nursery Manager, there are a few things you need to know.

You’ll need to have a nationally recognised Level 3 qualification in childcare as well as roughly two years’ post-qualifying experience of working with children. Ideally, you’ll have some supervisory experience that would also be useful.

Here is what Partou look for in a Nursery Managers:

Minimum Level 3 Early Years qualification.
Maths and English GCSE.
Strong leadership and management skills.
Passion for early childhood education.
Experience in a nursery setting.

If you do not have a full and relevant award at Level 3, you will need to complete a Level 3 Early Years Educator qualification to be counted in the staff-to-children ratios at Level 3.

We hope this guide has given you some insight as to what to expect as a Nursery Manager, we’d love it if you took your next step on your Nursery Manager career with Partou.

View Partou Nursery Manager Vacancies

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