Professional practice in children’s care learning and development Essay

It is my understanding that in my continued professional development, as manager of my setting it is my role to ensure that myself and every member of the staff and management committee understand the values, principles and statutory framework that underpins service provision in children’s care, learning and development At all times in our centre the welfare of the child is paramount and we demonstrate daily professional practise in line with the new minimum standards, code of practice and the ethos of our setting. We understand that parents are the most important people in children’s lives and that with their support for their children’s learning and development, it is up to us as a staff team to enhance what the children have already been taught by their parents and ensure that through our daily plans, based on the 6 areas of learning, set in place by the education training inspectorate, make a positive impact on the children’s early learning skills to h elp them achieve a positive long term impact on their later learning and achievements. If young children are to get the early education and care they need, there must be a substantial change in the way working with young children is perceived. There needs to be clear roles in the early years workforce and standards are continually being raised with new publications like the Cathy Nutbrown report. Other publications such as together towards improvement, the curricular guidance for preschool education, the 0-6 strategy, the minimum new standards and all relevant or new legislation all have an impact on our staff team to ensure that everyone is working together to develop their professional practise ensuring that we are committed to providing an outstanding provision for pre- school education in our setting. In my setting as part of the manager’s role I am required to keep on top of all new legislations and ensure that these are being implemented by myself and the staff team. This includes making sure that everyone has the appropriate qualifications to work in an early years setting and that we all avail of any training that becomes available that will enhance the staff teams knowledge to ensure that at all times we are providing high quality  education and play, which is age appropriate and that the children are provided with the correct resources to develop this. I ensure that as a staff team, all members of staff get to work with any outside agencies in developing their own professional development, such as local primary schools, social services, eti, and our early years specialist. We are also part of the SEN building capacity pilot scheme which has provided very in depth training to all members of staff and has proved very beneficial to the staff to help identify additional needs, put strategies into place for the children and if needed develop Individual Education Plans, working in partnership with the parents to help the child develop in whatever area they are having difficulty in, so that we know when they move onto primary school we have supported them in their development to the best of our professional ability. We ensure that we contribute to children’s care learning and development in every aspect of our practice and service by constantly reviewing our work through our daily observations and evaluations of the day. We take into account every child’s needs rights and views and incorporate these into our ever changing daily plans and routines. I believe in our setting we all have a very good working relationship with all parents and families and operate an open door system at all times. We meet with parents a few times a year to discuss how their child has settled in and also their transition onto primary school, also we meet up when necessary if a child has an individual education plan. These meetings gives us the opportunity to discuss with the parents, all the information we have gathered about their child, and ensure that we have treated every child with individuality and all areas of diversity etc are respected, valued and celebrated within our daily work, ensuring that at all times we are promoting their child’s health and well being and that as a team along with the parents, using our professional knowledge and skills as practitioners we are contributing to enrich the experience of every child’s learning to the best of our ability. We also ensure that all information we have gathered from the parents and through our own observations, is treated confidentially and used on a need to know basis. If parents disclose any personal information about their child or family life we treat it as confidential and the information is respected as appropriate unless a child’s protection and well being are at stake. In our setting we do daily, weekly and m onthly risk  assessment to ensure that at all times, every child’s personal and physical safety is of the upmost importance, whilst still allowing for risk and challenge appropriate to every child’s capabilities. We believe that best practice requires reflection and continuous search for improvement, so as a staff team we are constantly reviewing our practice and reflecting on daily events to ensure that every staff member is working to the best of their ability, we are continually updating our training and knowledge individually and as a staff team, as we believe the more we know and understand from all relevant training, the better education we can provide for every child that comes to our setting. Also through our development plan and self evaluation, working with the Together Towards Improvement document we can reflect on our practice and ensure that we are also developing our own personal practise and our setting is run to the highest standard at all times. Unit 141 Professional practice in children’s care learning and development Outcome 2Understand the values, principles and statutory frameworks that underpin service provision in children’s care, learning and development A.C 2.3Support others to implement values and principles that underpin service provision By using the term â€Å"others†, this may include, workers/practitioners, colleagues, carers, volunteers, students Values: The needs, rights and views of the child are at the centre of all practice and provision How to support others We strive to provide best practice for all of our children, by promoting their needs through the 6 areas of learning. All children are individuals and their needs, rights and views will all be different, it is up to us to provide a broad and balanced curriculum to ensure that every child is at the centre of our learning plans and that every child should feel secure and valued. Individuality, difference and diversity are valued and celebrated How to support others Every child is included and supported in our setting, regardless of race, sex, religion, ethnic origin. Toys are not gender specific and all children are encouraged to play with everything. We use the media initiatve puppets at circle time to promote diversity and try to adopt a persona for each  puppet relating to a child in our settings circumstances. We welcome children and their families from all backgrounds. Staff ensure that in everything they do we help to teach the children that all people are valuable irrespective of race, colour, ethnic origin, religion, culture, ability or linguistic background and we try to celebrate these differences as much as we can. Equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice are actively promoted How to support others All children are provided with the same opportunities and resources, staff are all treated fairly and with respect, in line with our equal opportunities policies and procedures. Children are recognised and valued as individuals and encouraged to develop their own sense of identity within their cultural and racial groups. Staff are all valued as individuals and encouraged to develop to the best of their ability. Fair training and recruitment procedures are in place to ensure that everyone is treated the same. Children’s health and well being are being actively promoted How to support others Good hygiene is practised and promoted at all times to minimise the spread of infection. Guidance on infection control is displayed in the main hall and a copy is sent home to every parent at the start of the year to ensure that correct exclusion times are adhered to. We operate a healthy breaks system where all children are encouraged to eat snack together and choose from a selection of healthy snacks, fruit, milk and water on a daily basis. All children take part in 30 mins active physical play daily, we encourage parents to sent a coat and hat with their chid for colder weather as we try to get children outside for physical play as much as we can. If this is not possible due to heavy rain etc the play room is cleared and we do song and dance for all the children. Children’s personal and physical safety is safeguarded, whilst allowing for risk and challenge as appropriate to the capabilities of the child How to support others During all activities provided daily every child is given the opportunity to  develop in a safe environment, whilst allowing them to challenge themselves without any undue risk or harm. Daily, weekly and monthly risk assessments are carried out on all equipment to ensure that it is structurally safe for the children and appropriate activities are adapted to suit every child’s need and capability. All areas of the playroom are adapted as much as possible to ensure that every child can develop with age appropriate resources. Self-esteem, resilience and a positive self-image are recognised as essential to every child’s development