The Special Needs and Disability Act 2001, applied to England and Wales in 2001 highlighted the importance of inclusion of all children into mainstream education.

Unit 3

E1/ E2

The Special Needs and Disability Act 2001, applied to England and Wales in 2001 highlighted the importance of inclusion of all children into mainstream education. It firstly strengthened the rights of access to mainstream and also when it was expanded, it set the SEN code of practice that made it clear to education and care settings that they needed to support children with special needs. It meant in practice that nurseries and schools needed to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate such special needs children.
This act strengthens the rights of children with special needs. It requires commitments from care settings themselves. One is to communicate with parents and carers about if and when special needs provision is concerned for there child. The act requires a commitment also to provide parents and carers with advice and information on special needs care.

The Children Act 1989 / 2004 changed the way organisations work together putting the welfare of children first. It highlights how children’s welfare is of paramount importance in education and care settings. The act aimed to encourage these different care and education organisation to work together more efficiently. The first piece of legislation in 1989 created the foundation and then when it was amended in 2004.
Coming into force in October 1990, the children’s act 1989 aimed to protect children in their homes in day care or in full time care. It is based on important principles established with in the act. The act provides regulation guidelines on services for children and families. Partnerships between parents are made at every stage. When concerning court cases delays are to be avoided and orders made with a positive effect on the child in mind at all times. It helped layout the “Every Child Matters” scheme. The act highlights how the welfare of the child as paramount and aims for further encouragement of multi service involvement bringing together all types of services to protect children.

Human Rights Act 2000

The Human Rights Act 2000 requires courts to make judgments supported by the European conversions for human rights, providing children with the same rights as adults. Impacting settings because professionals must ensure children’s rights to dignity, they are never to be subjected to corporal punishment or any form punishment or abuse at a setting. The act does this because punishment is a violation of children’s rights, and it levels children’s rights with that of adults.
The Equality Act 2006 is a fairly new act that is a key of the commission for equality. Linked to the human rights act it enforces documents involving gender, age, disability, race, religion, and health. Because of this act children are never subjected to discrimination or lack of opportunity due to anyone of these factors. Through the Equality act all children are ensured the same opportunities in settings.

Protection of Children Act 1999, although radical changed the way we look at child protection in modern day care. The act set up a register of people that are seen as known “unsuitable” These names are those thought to be a risk to children or to be unsuitable to work with or care for children in any setting. Leading to children and families feeling more secure in settings and outlining the responsibility of professionals to ensure vital documentation is presented, i.e. CRB checks.

E3 There are many ways policies and procedures implement the responsibility of settings to safeguard children. Anyone working in a care setting should be aware that broken equipment is a risk to children. We need to check equipment regularly and all broken equipment needs to be removed or fixed as soon as possible, to reduce this hazard. Practitioners should use policies to cover personal hygiene in a setting. Children should be safe and comfortable at all times. A policy involving personal hygiene for example will tell a setting that children should never be left wet or soiled and should be educated in personal hygiene such as washing hands. And such a policy of personal hygiene is linked to the Health and Safety Act at work 1974; many of the following are linked however to the Children’s Act 2004.

Policies may impact the layout of the day in a setting. Children must for example go home with a designated person. And children not leaving the classroom or building before there designated person has arrived. If changes are made the school or teacher must be informed. Another area that should be implemented with policies and procedures is accidents, emergencies and illness. Policies say we should be spotting illness quickly, and follow guidelines. Children are to be sent to a Scholl nurse, given rest time and only sent home as a last resort. Making sure all exits are accessible in the event of an emergency, and remembering your role boundaries.

E4 The main tool used in promoting inclusive strategies, in terms of policy is an inclusive policy that will be apparent in all care settings. This will include statements such as settings in mixed religious must ensure they promote diversity and positive attitudes towards others. Faith schools and other settings must go even further in outlining policies that promote understanding within the community in terms of respecting all other cultures and faiths. An inclusion policy could help promote inclusive strategies is through concepts such as “individual learning” linked to “SEN” were additional help is made available for special needs children at all times.
Another way practitioners can ensure inclusiveness is looking at the building its self when concerning access and disabled children. This will mean the whole building will need to be assessed for ease of access, ramps and lifts as well as WC disabled toilets and any changes that would need to be made to the building in order to make all facilities available to all children and parents and to become a fully inclusive placement. For example hand rails and ramps, accessibility also includes getting to and from school. Disabled or poorer families may have trouble getting to and from school with ease. A placement may be able to provide specialised transport for disabled children and or to give grants towards the cost of travel in the interest of being inclusive. This may all be stated in an accessibility policy. As well as mobility issues there may be issues with push chairs for some families.
Session times can be a difficult area to keep inclusiveness with in a placement. It is still the responsibility of practitioners to ensure measures have been made so that no groups in society ate excluded due to busy life style, wealth, culture, or religious, religion. For example in my placement there is a situation where, a child cannot attend breakfast club because he has morning prayers. They also have a after school club that the child has been invited to so he feels included and part of the school community.
Another part of becoming fully inclusive in any care setting is remembering the involvement of the parents in the child’s care. It is essential for both the children’s development that school and parents work in partnership in improving their child’s education and care experience. Steps can be taken by practioners to ensure this, such as parent governors to give parents a sense of control over the running of the school and a sense of importance. It also makes them feel there voice is heard and their concerns are expressed openly. In my placement there is a “Friends of .....” group which met in the school monthly and involves only parents and the parent governors and other parents so they feel they have a chance to discuss things.

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E5 It is important for children’s self reliance as well as independence that we as practitioners use and do all we can to empower them. From a young age children must gradually learn to take control of their own learning and choices. It is vital also those practitioners see and treat children as individuals who can and have the right to make such choices. Through this empowerment children benefit from confidence and independence. In children it is important they become gradually independent, not relying on adults all the time to make decisions. One strategy that is important in this is the creation of the play space in a setting and play opportunities within a setting. Play is a time were children take control of their choices. They should be able to choose from a verity of different play areas, and shouldn’t be restricted especially during “free play sessions” The idea and importance of a play based education and learning is made clear from the creation of “the foundation phase” the document states;

Basing learning on choice is an excellent example of how we empower children through learning experiences. Also in my placement the children have photos of themselves on a board that they stick on the area they want to play in for that day. It is important we empower children by asking questions and asking were they would like to play not just telling them were they must play. Another strategy that helps us empower children includes food, time, and session times. For example all children should have the opportunity to choose what food they choose to eat or what they want, whilst educating about healthy food.

Handling information is useful for supporting children through this time, for example from a new school, this could include maps, posters, questionnaires, evidence from older students, interviews with older students and or transport information that will all help make a successful transfer and make children feel they know where they are going. For transfers with in a setting such as moving class can be made smoother with information about the type of work they might to. It may be useful to see examples of some older children’s work.
Taking children to go and pick out their own uniforms and other equipment they will be using in schools. Involving children could also include group activities. Lots of group work and group activities helps the children develop people and communication skills.
It is not only the child experiencing changes; parents are almost always just as affected by the process as children can be. Parents can be useful in the process as an information source. As parents know children’s development well they are well placed to provide information that can help make sense of behaviour and situations. When considering parents at this time we as care practitioners must empathise with them as they are going through changes as well, this shows understanding. Key workers and home visits will keep parents as involved in the process.
Building a partnership between parents, carers, and professionals can help support children at this time. Staff should be kept up to date with information about linking placements. For example e-mails, websites and other forms of communication are all useful in keeping staff up to date. Also staff can be put on training that improves how they teach and how they deal with transfers. Training can keep activities modern, going further in looking at the children as valued individuals. A good way to help relate to very young children during a transfer is reading topic books. A book I found in my placement called “Don’t eat the teacher” about a boy starting school for the first time.

E7 Discrimination comes in many forms and is primarily centralised around unfairness, Also there are many ways tat discrimination is caused, and their being a lot of ways it can affect children and families. It is important that as practitioners we understand the different forms of discrimination, how it affects children. And most importantly it is important that practitioners understand ways of avoiding such discrimination wherever possible.
It’s based on and is mainly the result of stereotypes, which are standardised or fixed images of groups and can cause discrimination to occur. One thing that can cause discrimination is attitudes and values, these attitudes are shaped by family life, the environment a child is brought up in. Also attitude and values can be effected by and strongly influenced by friends and peer groups. Discrimination can also reduce “Self-Actualization” And a negative impact on a child’s self worth, and self esteem, if a child experiences continued discrimination they may not understand and they may just feel they are simply inferior, leading to possible emotional problems. Children may think they are worthless and won’t feel like a positive individual. Children can begin to be resentful to other children if they are discriminated against or they see it happening. They can take this out on which they now may see as the normal children in the placement. Children can also begin feeling isolated as a result of discrimination, and thorough this there social development is negatively affected.
It can affect the way children live there life in the present and future. Presently because they may choose to not take part in activities or opportunities they have a fear of failing. A child may feel they can’t do things and this may lead to under achieving at school or placement and the child having a general feeling of failure.

D1 As practitioners we must learn to understand and support children in all situations especially when they may feel most anxious for example during transitions between or with in placements. We can do this by developing certain key issues. Tassoni states;

The main legislation that supports this is the children’s act;

Because of this it is doubly as essential to use parents as a key issue for supporting children during transitions. Parents must be respected as primary carers and as those best to bring up their children. And so we can gather information from parents about how best to prepare and settle children at this time. This could involve for example key information about personal care. Also as part of this we can use and develop links between settings directly. Settings can help by providing information that can help us prepare children successfully.

Also in gathering information this could include the gathering of information from previous carers about children’s interests. Children will be nervous at first and may be reluctant to talk about interests or things they enjoy. Talking to parents can help us find out particular things that the child enjoys. For example in my placement we have parent and toddler morning. During these mornings every week we get to know prospective parents and often prospective pupils, this is where we gather allotted of information about the children’s interests.

During this time it is important to recognise that not all children will react in the same way, some may feel yes feel anxious and nervous but some may well be excited and happy. This means that some children will need more support at this time than others. And as professionals we must be aware of how children are coping with transitions to we can best help them depending on how they are feeling as individuals. Changes in behaviour can include bed wetting, sings of anxiety, and reverting back to younger behaviour. This can be helped by further, parent involvement as parents will be able to notice changes in behaviour just as well as teachers can.
Another key issue when supporting children at this time is providing a successful continuity experience for children and families, to help them settle in better. This can involve ensuring that basic care needs are continued successfully. Supported by,

In my placement when children are moved from nursery to reception, there is a focus on ensuring the two environments have a certain sense of continuity. Children have shared play areas; both areas have familiar facilities, such as sand play and wet play. The experience of continuity is continued by ensuring transitions are gradual, so children don’t feel over whelmed by changes that happen all at once. For starting in a nursery for the first time children may make visits with parents for a morning or two a week and build it up until they are comfortable to come without a parent present until they start full time.
Active involvement is part of supporting children through transitions. This can involve a number of strategies that keep children and young people as actively involved in the transition process as possible; this makes them feel valued as well. Tassoni states;

D2 Practitioners must remember at all times the importance of using effective strategies

that encourage self-reliance and independence in children and young people, In order to improve outcomes for children. This is supported by the Children’s Act 1989 as in section B; the importance of choice and involvement is highlighted.

This means that we are regulated by law to empower and encourage independence in children. One strategy is ensuring children have every opportunity choice through play, they should be able to choice their own play equipment, area, and resources. As well as arrange play materials so they have an improved sense of ownership. Another way with play is we can ensure there is a verity if different play areas, rescores and equipment, helping them develop independence. Children can be consulted on play decisions and activity decisions through carpet sessions. If conflict arises during play we should encourage children to resolve conflicts without our intervention, especially older children. Free play and the importance of choice in play help children to be independent in their choices and they will be more likely to be confident in their own choices in other areas of life.

Another way to encourage and empower independence in young people is through strategies involving time. This can be by making any homework tasks/ reading tasks, flexible so they learn to organise their own time independently. Snack time can be self service, the choose when they eat. Although it is our responsibility to ensure food is safe children should have the opportunity to have this type of freedom with when they eat it. There could also with food be a choice and verity of menus that would help promote independent choice in children. Tassoni states;

Because of this we must learn to respect the way individual children interact and ensure that as practitioners we don’t restrict their opportunities. Relationships with professionals can be a vital part of how we encourage children to be independent and self-reliant. We as professionals should be vigilant in noticing interests in children and we can better help them with this information to become more independent. When children grow in confidence they become more wiling and are more likely to achieve their full potential. In order to improve outcomes for children we should be doing all we can to encourage the development of sense of achievement in children. This can be through letting them do or try tasks independently such as putting on coats. And with younger children this can include using the toilet independently. Confidence boosts such as these gives a great sense of achievement.

C1 There is a wide range of theories for how we as part of professional practice empower children. Some theory’s have very different ideas about this, and often has a profound effect and impact on the practical practice within settings.

One influential theorist is Bandura who has done extensive research, used the term “Self-efficacy” This is a term used for a feeling of belief in yourself, that you can do things and that a child or young person can control how well they do. It explains how children with self efficacy will be more likely to achieve their potential believing they can do it.

It is thought there for that without self-efficacy children will think a task is too difficult for them before they even try it, stifling them because they will not try activities. Bandura explained in this that babies need self-efficacy as well as older children. In terms of self-efficacy Tassoni talks about the extent of how we believe in ourselves. Tassoni states;

Meaning us, as practitioners should plan with self efficacy and empowerment in mind. Adults should not always be taking control of activities. For example letting young people have creative freedom within artistic activities not telling children what is the right way to do things, projects and activities. Praise can encourage the development of self-efficacy and we should be using positive comments and praise where possible.
Self efficacy defined by Bandura has many different sources and can be developed in many different ways and can be stunted in many different ways. One source is successes and achievements in life; children need to experience success throughout development to achieve good self efficacy. Overcoming obstacles can help children and young people feel proud and helps develop self efficacy. When children understand obstacles and experience success, they know that they need to try to achieve, as so they will more inclined to try activities. It is important that this feeling of success is felt with as little help from adults as possible. We as practitioners should always keep our support to a minimum; children feel achievement more if they believe they can achieve alone, that they are able. This is explained in the idea of practitioners creating a system of “scaffolding learning” for children. It can help self efficacy also to see children or people they see as similar to them self achieving as well. If young people see this they will increase in confidence and children use this to believe in themselves regardless of how different they feel.

Vygotsgy’s research talks about how adult’s role and adult intervention helps children to achieve potential. He explains how they can only achieve their potential with adult support along the way. With such adult support children will learn they are capable in the ability and their feelings of self efficacy will be greatly increased. For children to feel they can do things we must support them so they feel they can achieve without our support in the future.

(Tassoni 2007/ http://www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html)

B1; Discrimination is an important topic to discuss in settings and has a profound effect on the way a setting should be run and organised. There prevention of discrimination should drive a large among of practice within good settings. Discrimination in the stopping of getting the same rights as others is centred on unfairness and we as practitioners should always have fairness in mind in all we do when working with children. Firstly in any setting there should be policies linking to procedures that help inform us of how to prevent discriminatory practice. There is a lot that should be in place within any setting. Challenging discrimination should be in settings in the form of policies such an equal opportunities policy. Tassoni States;

An equal opportunities code or policy will inform practitioners of how to deal with things such as non English speaking families i.e.; use of translators. Staff and adult role has a large part to play in preventing discrimination in a setting. In this we as practitioners should have an understanding of values and attitudes as well as the effect it has on children as well as discrimination. We can use notes to help record and better notice or track behaviour changed and using listening skills to help prevent discrimination. Tassoni States;

Also staff development can help settings to prevent discrimination. This can include training and courses for all staff on a regular basis. This helps a setting to keep up to date with changes in ways to tackle discrimination and issues such as non English speaking families, and bullying. Training could also be helpful to settings in increasing staff knowledge and understanding. This could include culture and backgrounds learning about faiths as well as celebrations. When ensuring that setting are doing all they can to prevent discrimination, we rely heavily on good practice. As part of good practice it is essential we strive to respect all children and families, it is also part of preventing discrimination. A large part of anti discriminatory practice is making people feel they are respected and valued. All children are special and different allot celebrate different faiths and have vast cultural backgrounds. Tassoni States;

A1; There are many practices that have effects on practice and that have come about because of certain pieces of legislation. Legislation and regulations directly effects the practice we conduct in, settings and when working with children.
We are expected to respect the rights of children at all times. It is one of our duties to make sure children’s rights are respected. It is another of our statutory rights duties to ensure children remain educated in a safe environment and that they are safe at all times. The basic of these duties is the values that we present in our work with children. One legislative document especially as cache practitioners that implement such duties and values states and supports this by;

This impacts on settings because to achieve this we should empower children by encouraging them and employing strategies that empower them. For example allowing children to dress themselves and learn to dress them self such as putting on a coat or doing up buttons without always being aided. Another piece of legislation impacting on the working practiced of childcare, is “The children’s Act 1989” This act speaks of how services should be made readily available to “Children in need” Meaning impacts on the settings such as more wide range of economic background children involved in activities an services.

The health and safety at work act is another piece of legislation that impacts settings. From this act we must, ensure our care environments are safe and appropriate for use. This act has impacted settings in that we must have policies and procedures that instruct us. For example safely storing equipment and making sure the building is in god condition. Settings now should produce practitioners that are health and safety conscious; training will ensure staffs are aware of health and safety procedures and any health and safety statement.

Settings must now ensure high standards; to ensure such high standards are kept we use regulatory bodies for monitoring settings. Monitoring by such bodies comes about because of legislation such as the childcare act and the human rights act. Bodies that conduct inspections will look for ad ensure the principles of these pieces of legislation are kept to. They will look or safe environments that comply with the health and safety act. They look for children’s rights being respected, such as allowing them dignity , empowering children and slowing children opportunity for choice and discussion in there education. Complying with the Children’s Act 1989 Such regulatory bodies include Estyn, and Ofsted, who go into settings and ensure standards as well as ensuring the law is being kept to.

The discrimination of ethnic minorities and other members of the community is no longer tolerated in good practice settings. This primarily due to the legislation and following regulations, placed on settings by The Equality Act 2006. This impacts settings because we now in setting must show respect for all families and put families first allowing them to access all facilities available. As a result we now have setting that are mixed in cultures and effectively include all children.

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