Thanks Robyn ,

Yes when something is added as a sticky it wont show as part of the search results. We are removing it from the search results when it is a sticky. The only way around this is to add it as a search result. Then it will show in the sticky section and the search section. 

Please advise which you think will be better and I will apply that one :)

Thanks David  I am going to lean on our team for their input as I am not a fan of how this works   Laura & Ian   please weigh in - I don't feel this is intuitive and none of the posts are searchable at this stage - perhaps the stickiness needs to be a choice vs making all posts sticky but please weigh in