PURPLE POST November 2022

A wintry welcome to the November edition of Purple Post!

In this month’s edition….we have two new Parenta people videos to share with you, news of our annual online Christmas quiz, hot off the press salary pay dates for 2023 and annual leave news; and some truly remarkable colleague reviews received from employers and learners.



Salary Payments over Christmas and 2023

With the Christmas break fast approaching, we just wanted to remind colleagues of the pay dates over the festive period. 

Salaries for December will paid on 3^rd January 2023, however, expenses will be paid on 23^rd December, provided they have been submitted by the standard cut-off date.

Pay Dates for 2023

3rd January

1st February

1st March

3rd April

2nd May

1st June

3rd July

1st August

1st September

2nd October

1st November

1st December

Annual Leave Uplift for 2023

Please note, BreatheHR will be closed for the first week of January to allow time for the annual leave allowances to be updated; including addition of birthday allowance and Christmas shutdown leave for 2023. A reminder will be sent nearer the time and confirmation of when the system has reopened.

In the meantime, we would like to take this opportunity to wish all our colleagues a relaxing and restful break over the festive period.

The continuing adventures of the Parenta Bear

Keep those high fives coming!

We have a Kudos winner for November – Emma Goodman. Emma has only been with Parenta for a short while, so it’s an extra special achievement this month, congratulations, Emma!

We caught up with last month’s winner, Lorraine White and and this is what she had to say about working in the Parenta family:

“Hi, I'm Lorraine White, Parenta's Retention Executive. I lead the Change of Employer (COE) side of things for the business, and work with many different people across a variety of departments, helping our learners and employers move the apprenticeship from one setting to another, as smoothly as possible! I wanted to say a huge thank you for all my Kudos in October which gave me Kudos winner of the month. It's a team effort and very much appreciated.”

Childcare Websites Testimonial

"Thank you (Beth)! It is already looking so so much better than what we are used to. I will get on it this week and get you the information you need asap."

Training Testimonial

"Please can I specifically request for Sharon Mills to be the tutor for Moses. My staff and I are happy with her professionalism as a tutor/trainer last time."

Training Customer Service - well done, Karley - some fantastic feedback below!

"Very kind, polite and helpful. She supported through all my enquiries. It is a great pleasure to talk to her over the phone."

"Very supportive and did not take long at all to resolve my query. She came back with a satisfactory response and was very friendly and pleasant to talk to. Thank you."

"Very supportive and will always point me in the right direction."

"She really helped us on the phone today I couldn’t thank her enough I was really stressing out and she help me calm down and help me with what I needed to know, and she help the other apprentice as well she really understood us and was very patient with us, I couldn’t thank her enough and the manger was really thank full for her help."

"I was really impressed that a follow up call was given with additional information. I felt heard and listened to."

Software Customer Service

"Whenever I ring up for help and advice, they are always willing to help, and nothing is too much trouble."

"Brilliant support today and previously with invoicing. Many thanks."

"Quick and easy to add a new user and I'm not the most tech person. I always receive excellent help and advice from Abacus support desk. Thank you."

"Responded to my query in a timely manner and everything sorted very efficiently, thank you Alex :)"

"Alex was really helpful this morning, I am still learning how to use Abacus and due to taking over from someone previously I was unaware of the previous errors on the system from before I started a few weeks ago but am now able to explore issues I have with invoicing and shouldn't need further support in correcting them. Alex was knowledgeable, patient and was really helpful so thank you so much. My query was resolved in full and extremely quickly! It all made sense also - no confusing jargon or anything - simple step by step instructions which is perfect for me."

"My request was handled quickly and efficiently as always."

"Great customer service - issue promptly resolved and also informed how to avoid this in the future"

"Brilliant, such a fast response thank you!"

1.     Don’t forget to use the staff intranet! It is a treasure chest of resources all ready and waiting for you to use.

2.     When sending documents to the Marketing team for creating and/or branding, please ensure that the FINAL version which has been approved and signed off by all relevant parties and line managers – including those from other teams – is sent to the team. Please ensure that the correct data with all the required fields is included as a CSV file. This will avoid re-work and delay in returning the documents back to you.

Thank you!

Resources to help us, our learners, and our settings

A reminder that all Parenta resources can be found here on our staff intranet, all in one handy place.

We publish additional industry expert advice, news articles and crafts in our free magazine and on our blog.

Here are this month’s How to Guides and documents that have been added to the staff intranet:

Parenta Magazine

Our free monthly magazine is packed with news articles and advice pieces - all of which are written to help nursery managers with the efficient running of their settings and to promote the health, happiness and well-being of the children in their care. Please do read it and send the magazine link to your contacts.