Increasing the focus on supporting families and carers.
Ensuring necessary intervention takes place before children reach crisis point and protecting children from falling through the net.
Addressing the underlying problems identified in the report to the death of Victoria Climbié - weak accountability and poor integration.
Ensuring that the people working with children are valued, rewarded and trained.
E4. The principles and values that establish when working with children include keeping confidentiality, and to share information correctly when needed. It is essential that the worker should not discuss any child to anyone other than colleagues and the child’s parent and it should be under agreement to discuss information. If you ignore this principle when working, then action would be made. Another principle is to promote the well-being of a child; this is understanding the child’s development in their families and attending their needs at possible times. Children and parents should have their views listened to and they should be informed with any changes and decisions that affect them. It is an important value to ensure emotional and physical safety for the child. Emotional safety allows the child to feel comfortable in their environment and to wear a natural face instead of a fake one. Physical safety ensures that all hazards are located in the setting. Young children are protected from the control of infectious diseases and follow the Guidance on Food Hygiene and Safety.
E5/C. All children should have their own right and value, they should have the deserving to be treated equal, and opportunity to establish them to increase their potential. Although not all children are born with the same potential, every child should be taken in to consideration, and it is the workers job to do this. The child should never be judged on race, religion, sex, or their family’s background. In some settings, the child may have a learning difficulty this is the key workers job to respect and attend to, children in wheelchairs and with hearing aids should have resources supplied to them. If a child has more attention in a setting, this would affect other children, the child with the most attention would have more potential, as the neglected children would not achieve as much as they could. The best way to encourage a child is to respect and value them; the child will learn and achieve more if they are treated right. In a setting the environment should allow the child to learn freely, and feel comfortable on their first days. In some cases the child might come from a bad home life, so they would need the comfort and care from a nursery to ensure they feel safe and that their home life is not their fault so they should be treated the same. The practitioner, should be a good role model to the children, and set a good example helping the child develop life skills. The practitioner should listen to the child’s ideas and views, it they would show artistic interests and should give them more art inspired activity’s to interest them, and help them to develop their skills. If they child wanted to play outside, it is important to respect their view and plan a activity outside to interest their idea, the child might learn better outside and this would help increase their learning ability. (http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/strategy/deliveringservices1/multiagencyworking/multiagencypanels/multiagencypanels)
E6.A important professional skill that will support working with children is patience, you must look at the circumstance causing you to be impatient and choose if you are the one making mistakes or if it’s the child’s own doing. You must identify why the child could be impatient, they may be tired, bored, or seeking attention if so then you must care to the child’s needs. In some cases, a lack of concentration in a child could indicate a learning difficulty. You must consider the age of the child, if they are 9 and have the majority levels of a 7 year old, and then you must have patience for them. Another professional skill is to be a good communicator, in order to communicate properly with a child you must talk to them at their level of understanding. You cannot use vocabulary that they will not understand; some children may have English as their second language. So they will need pictures with words to help them communicate with you. Some children may have sensory difficulties such as a hearing impairment. This learning difficulty can be addressed by a hearing aid. In some cases the child may need to go to a specialist school, where sign language or makaton (another type of sign language) will be used. Another form of communicating would be lip reading, this helps to compensate for not hearing properly. Therefore we need to speak clearly and allow the person to have a clear view of the person talking. Children with sight impairment will need to wear glasses when needed. It also effects where the child is sat, if they cannot see the board very well then they should be moved closer to the front, but without making them feel an outcast from the rest of the children.
''The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is a term defined in Section 39 of the British government's Childcare Act 2006.'' (1) The EYFS have four principles:
A Unique Child - Every child is different from another child; they will learn and mature differently.
Positive Relationships - Children will learn positively with a good based relationship around them.
Enabling Environments - A good environment will provide the child with better outcomes.
Learning and Development - Children learn at different rates.
E7. My preferred learning styles are kinaesthetic and musical. Kinaesthetic consist of good co-ordination, and an interest of physical movement and activity. Working in a placement, I think this skill would help me interact with the children, to help them learn through physical activities and learning through movement. I would learn which children find the different activity’s useful and others that don't to compromise to their preferred learning styles. As a practitioner I would listen and observe the child, on how the activity affects them if they are distracted during the activity I would make note on what other activities interest them and expand on their interest. Musical skills consider of learning through singing, playing instruments, and learning through sounds. In my placement I could introduce to the children learning through rhymes to allow them to pick up patterns and develop skills. The children could learn through different songs and rhymes so they would have fun, and learn at the same time. It is important to listen to the child during activities because they may not find kinaesthetic and musical learning useful, as they may prefer to learn in different styles. It is important to notice any different patterns in the child’s development, if they struggle to learn at a slower speed than the other children, this might indicate a learning difficulty or their behaviour might show there is trouble at home. During my training I would also learn different learning techniques and skills for teaching children in the future.
D1. Relationships between practitioners and parents at a setting can affect work. Parents need to have a good understanding of how their child is being taught and cared for, practitioners can help parents have an inside by holding parents evenings and sending reports home with information about how their child is learning. Questionnaires can be posted to parents to assure they are happy with what they know about the setting. Parents will sometimes bring up concerns about their child to the practitioner, so the practitioner needs to provide and have knowledge of the problem. Many parents may also have assumptions on how the school should be run, due to their own background simply just discuss their ideas, and come to an agreement putting the child first. It also must be into consideration what information about the child is told to the parent, the practitioner cannot talk about any other child with the parent, as the other child’s well-being and confidentiality is affected. In schools/settings gossiping is prior, so no matter how well the practitioner knows the parent they cannot speak of any child or parent as it will cause disturbance. Practitioners working in the same setting also cannot speak about any child unless it is at an attention of health or care. The parent needs to have trust in the practitioner, the relationship building will be long-term but after small discussions with the parent will start to trust - anyone who is leaving their child with a stranger will find it hard.
D2. The key characteristics of working in a multi-agency team are:
The panel is managed by a coordinator or chair. This may or may not be their full-time job.
There is a good mix of education, health, and social care and youth justice practitioners represented on the panel.
Panel members remain based in and employed by their home agencies. They continue to 'identify' as members of these agencies, rather than as workers in a multi-agency initiative.
Panel members get together at regular meetings (e.g. monthly or termly)
Meetings are usually organised by the manager of the panel. Alternatively, they may be organised on an ad hoc basis, for specific cases as the need arises. In these cases they may be organised by the agency registering the concern.
In some panels, in particular youth inclusion and support panels (YISPs), the panel is supported by a core team of key workers and administrative support. The panel members refer, discuss and plan the support on offer, while the key workers carry out the case work, sometimes supported by panel members and other services.
Practitioners are likely to focus on individual support for the child, young person or family, though some may undertake group or whole settings work.
They are likely to carry out joint assessment and information sharing. Some practitioners may continue to use their home agency systems.
This type of multi-agency model goes by a range of titles, for example 'panel', 'network' or 'team around the child'. (4)
To be a good multi-agency team, a practitioner should follow these characteristics to provide a good way of working. Practitioners will experience a different way of working and will learn from their new environment. The children will also benefit as they will have more one on one attention in the setting. (http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/strategy/deliveringservices1/multiagencyworking/multiagencypanels/multiagencypanels)
B. On a child’s first day in a setting they need to feel welcomed the worker should aim to make a first good impression for the child and the parent. When the worker greets the child, they should maintain eye contact, call the child by their preferred name, show them round to their new environment, explain routines, talk to the child about their interests, and find out about any health issues. The worker should watch the child, to make sure they are settling in and finding the setting enjoyable. Although the child/children are new there should not be any favouritism, only to be welcomed and comforted. In a setting many children are going to learn, and behave differently so the practitioner should adapt to their preferred learning style. If a child misbehaves in a setting, the practitioner cannot spend all their attention on this child as the other children will feel isolated and unwanted. Working in a setting, practitioners will feel more attached to vary children either some behave better, or the practitioner may know the child. Although the practitioner has more of a connection with this child, they cannot let this show; the practitioner cannot pick up and cuddle this child as the parent/carer would not like this relationship. Every child matters, and should be treated the same with care, respect, boundaries and education.
A. The importance of a child cantered approach in early year’s settings is that the child is considered more important than anyone else. Each child is an individual and should be treated with respect; they also approach at different levels of learning and have their own preferred learning style. The child has the zone of actual development, what they can do for themselves. The zone of proximal development by a Soviet psychologist and social constructivist Lev Vygotsky states that a child follows the example of an adult and gradually learns to do things for themselves (http://starfsfolk.khi.is/solrunb/vygotsky.htm). Development of a child consists of help from an adult which eventually decreases as the child learns to tend for themselves. If a child finds it hard to run as fast other children the practitioner would help them by letting them have a head start, although over a period of time the child would develop skills by learning and run as fast. This is described as 'scaffolding' by Lev Vygotsky. (http://starfsfolk.khi.is/solrunb/vygotsky.htm)
