Identifying and developing appropriate referral routes capable of supplying the right type and number of clients is crucial which then makes it vital to have joint working agreements detailing local referral protocols which will then help to avoid misunderstandings on the part of referring agencies regarding the work of the service and then leads onto clients being referred inappropriately. By having multi professional teams families have one point of entry for services which offer support and/or make appropriate referrals to other agencies.
A multi agency assessment is then undertaken on all parents where there is a level of concern about the safety and welfare of children and there is now a common assessment framework that can be used by all practitioners at the earliest onset of problems which is called a CAF and helps to identify children’s needs, the needs of family members and the ways of tackling problems to ensure the children’s needs are being met and works in line with the five Every Child Matters outcomes. All professionals working with the parent and/or the child must also be aware of their respective roles and formulate work together by sharing regular updates which then in turn provides and ensures clarity for parents.
Pascal et al. (2002:9) believed in multi agency being ‘integrated’. “Multi agency working can take place at many levels and its effectiveness will depend on how well it is integrated”.
E4/D1/- Describe the benefits of developing reflective practice within the setting./Explain the importance of reflective practice for improving your own performance.
Reflective practice is when a person looks over on what they have done and tries to improve for next time. The benefits of developing reflective practice within the setting are that it identifies your strengths and weaknesses. By identifying this, practitioners can plan and work to improve their weaknesses and build on their strengths which improve outcomes for children. This can also improve planning as practitioners can evaluate where they have gone wrong and do something different to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
In 1998, Gibbs designed a reflective cycle where practitioners can “review and improve their practice after thought and discussion” (Tassoni et al, 2007, page 228). This cycle can help solve a problem and consider what could happen next. This is a good way for practitioners to improve their practice as they can be reflective and know that if a bad situation happens again, they will have an idea of what to do.
Another benefit is problem solving. It focuses on the positive side and this can be done by “team meetings, focus groups, delegation of responsibility and carrying out research” (Tassoni et al, 2007, page 229). It is important to be self-reflective as you can think about how to repeat something good that’s happened or how to improve something for next time.
By being reflective it improves relationships and teamwork with parents and other practitioners. It helps with planning for each child. Other practitioners can identify where you could improve in practice which you may not have identified yourself. This is teamwork as your co-worker has been honest with you and helping change your needs to help fit the child.
The importance of reflective practice for improving your own performance is that you can learn from your mistakes. By doing for example an activity that hasn’t gone well in the nursery, practitioners can identify areas to improve. They can change or develop the activity, so the children are still learning/doing what the practitioners want them to but in a different way
Another reason is that it helps set goals and targets for personal and professional development. It will keep the practitioner motivated to try and improve their skills to become a more effective team member. Reflecting is an “opportunity to look over what you have done, see what needs to be improved and what worked well” (answers. Yahoo, 2010a).
Each activity is a learning curve because for example, if you do the same activity with two different groups of children the outcome may be different. Every child is unique and their needs are different so by being reflective will improve your knowledge of each child therefore will improve practice. It’s also learning from experience.
E5 - Summarise the main principles that underpin work with children
- The Welfare of the Child
The Children Act 1989 makes it very clear that the welfare of the child is paramount. Therefore children must come first. Children must be listened to and their opinions respected and treated seriously. In managing children’s challenging behaviour the practitioner should emphasise the positive aspects of behaviour and physical punishments must never be used.
- Working in partnership with parents and families
Practitioners must respect children’s parents and family and work with them in planning the care of the child. It is to be remembered that the parents and family will know more about the child than anyone else and in addition to respecting opinions from parents and carers they must be given regular information about the child’s development and progress. Practitioners must also comply with parents’ wishes for their child and family and cultural and religious values must be respected.
- Children’s learning and development
The first five years of a child’s life is a period of rapid growth and learning. Therefore children will need activities which will stimulate their holistic development. The early years’ curriculum should be linked with the child’s stage of development which can be ascertained by careful observation of the child and discussions with the parents and family. The child’s progress should be monitored, recorded and shared with the parents.
- Equality of opportunity
The individuality of each child must be recognised and each child should be treated according to its needs. Each child should have the same opportunities to play, learn and develop according to its potential. Every child should be treated with equal concern thus avoiding stereotyping and labelling on the basis of gender, religion, culture, race, class or disability.
- Anti-discrimination
Early years workers must not discriminate against any child/group/family. They must respect a child and its family/race/religion and gender etc. Expressions of prejudice by staff members must be challenged and the victims should be supported. Practitioners must also adhere to work within the requirements of the laws, i.e. Children Act, Race Relations Act, Human Rights Act, and the policies of the setting.
- Confidentiality
Policies in the setting relating to confidentiality must be adhered to. Information relating to a child and/or its parents must not be disclosed unless it is in the interests of child protection. In the latter circumstances any disclosure should only be to other professionals about working colleagues is not disclosed without permission.
- Keeping children safe
It is the responsibility of every practitioner to ensure that the setting is safe for the children and fellow workers. Daily work practices should ensure the prevention of accidents and the protection of health. Familiarity with emergency procedures and the recording of accidents must be adhered to. It is also part of the role of the practitioner to protect children from abuse.
- Celebrating diversity
The UK is a pluralistic society and it is important that cultural diversity is appreciated and viewed positively; no one culture should be viewed as superior. Children should be helped to develop a sense of their own identity within their race or culture group. Children should be introduced to other cultures in a positive way and encouraged to sample food, art, stories and music from different cultures.
- Working with other professionals
Reflecting their own practice is an important part of the role of practitioners. Practitioners should confer with colleagues and other professionals’ from outside the setting for support and advice. Respect for other professionals’ opinions should be maintained and confidentiality observed at all times.
- Reflective practitioner
Reflecting on their own practice is an important part of the role of practitioners. This reflection should result in extension of their practice. Continuing professional development would be part of this extension as would be advice and support sought from colleagues or other professionals
E6- Explain the importance of valuing children’s interests and experience.
To be “heard” refers to the child’s right to speak, participate and decide. The child has a right to be “heard” during all types of activity. This means that adults are listening, observing and respecting children’s viewpoints when a child is speaking, gesturing, playing, creating and choosing.
Children need to be “heard” at all stages of development. Young children rely on the adults to care and cater for their specific and individual needs. In order to develop a sense of security that these needs will be met, children will need to feel that the adults understand them and value them.
When children feel heard they develop a stronger sense of self esteem and then realise that others value what they have to say and therefore feel accepted as individuals with their own feelings and thoughts.
There are many ways that early learning and childcare practitioners can help children to feel “heard” and learn to develop respect and trust in their self and others which help children form significant bonds.
During placement week, I observed how my setting used circle time to create this bond and encouraged the children to express themselves as well as demonstrating a specific interest which then practitioners can follow up further especially when children are involved as participants, they are actively engaging and learning from the experiences and especially when the children participated in singing and dancing and learnt new vocabulary from the song and started to gain physical awareness through dancing; they learn that they can move in original and creative ways to the music and express themselves through dance.
By then being given opportunities to make decisions, children learn to discuss choices and consequences. Even if their proposed option is not the one selected, they will learn to express their opinion and recognise that others may have different views. The consultation process is fair if everyone has a chance to share their ideas and if the reasons for the final decision are explained well.
“The study of children in the first years of life opens our eyes to such wonders that no-one seeing them with understanding can fail to be deeply stirred. Our work as adults does not consist of teaching but in helping the infant mind in its work of development” Dr. Maria Montessori
D2- Discuss TWO (2) strategies for improving your own learning and performance
1) Differentiation
Dean (2000:94) believes that as a practitioner it is important to realise each child will learn at a different rate and it is essential to take this into account. This is to avoid progressing too quickly as some children may not be able to grasp a skill properly or a set instruction properly.
However, practitioners will need to avoid being too slow as some children will get bored. This strategy illustrates that the practitioner must achieve a good balance and progress at a rate that is appropriate for the children. Meeting individual needs can be further enhanced by ensuring that similar participants work together.
2) Self-evaluation
McNair (2004:60) declares that practitioners need to adopt a self-review after each session will also contribute to further improvements and even if they identify weaknesses. Therefore practitioners need to always ask the same questions.
Self-evaluation will also help to identify any future training needs and lets a practitioner update skills through SMART goals will be achieved and beneficial in improving my own learning and performance.
This approach is often referred to as the “plan-do-review” approach because the practitioner is planning what they are going to do, then completing it and finally reviewing how it went. Effective practitioners continually undertake this process by delivering them and discovering how a specific event went.
C1- Analyse how the main principles that underpin work with children can support the practitioners’ practice in the setting
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Anti-discriminatory/anti-bias practice –
An integral part of maintaining an anti-bias setting is taking action when incidents arise. Siraj – Blatchford (2000) offers the following short term action strategies which can be implemented as soon as the incident takes place. However, in her book Combatting Discrimination (2001) Babette Brown offers in which practitioners are able to challenge children’s hurtful remarks to other children through the use of persona dolls. A persona doll is a tool that can be used to help a child empathise with another child or what is happening to a child. Practitioners use the dolls as vehicles in order to facilitate powerful story telling sessions and this leads the children to empathise with the doll and offer solutions. Thus persona dolls empower children to respect the feelings of others.
- Celebrating diversity-
This area is about children feeling of worth and self-esteem within the setting regardless of their cultural backgrounds. This can be achieved by the staff presenting a variety of cultures in such a way that they are viewed by the children and adults positive images which are valued and integrated into the ethos of the setting. Celebrating festivals with children can be fun and may help them to learn something about other cultures but as Brown (2001) points out festivals are unlikely to have much effect on children’s attitudes towards adults and children from these festivals. Bisson (1997) offers the following objectives in the celebration of festivals:
- To promote connection among children, families and practitioners
- To learn about important events in the lives of all children and families
- To support and validate the experiences of children
- To reinforce cultural roots
- To celebrate similarities and differences in children’s lives
E7/B1/A1- Collate information about ONE (1) recent initiative and ONE (1) piece of current research which relate to provision for children/ B1- Evaluate how the recent initiative supports practice within early years settings/ A1 Evaluate how the current research can support practitioners’ professional practice
One initiative is Play England and it was created in 2006. “Play England aims for all children and young people in England to have regular access to and opportunity for free, inclusive, local play provision and play space.” (Play England, 2006). It improves outcomes for children as they will have access and the opportunity to play. It supports diversity and inclusiveness as it is open for all ages, race, sex and children with disabilities will also have access to it.
Play England is a national initiative and “the strategy focus is not just on places where children play, including parks and green spaces, schools and children’s centres, but also considers how communities and neighbourhoods can become more child-friendly.” (Play England, 2006). This gives the children an opportunity to feel safe and promotes independence. Some settings may have been given better facilities and the children might have been given more access to toys and playing areas which gives children an opportunity to spend more time outside.
The outdoors promotes risk and challenge which lets the children develop life skills, confidence and teach them to take responsibility for themselves. It teaches children to learn about the environment and according to the theorist Froebel “children should be able to explore on their own” (DCSF, 2009).
Without Play England, children will not have as many opportunities to play or they will play with the facilities that will not help them reach to their full potential. Children and families benefit as they can bond through playing with each other. The disadvantage of Play England is that it doesn’t help every community and school. There are still schools that don’t have to facilities for children to enjoy and achieve.
This can be further addressed in Appendix 1.
One research is I CAN. I CAN is the children’s community charity. “I CAN's mission is to make sure that everyone in contact with children knows how important communication is, what a communication difficultly looks like and what they can do to help.” (I CAN 2010). It gives practitioners the skills and knowledge about the vital areas of children’s communication. I CAN works with children and their families and practitioners so that children can learn to communicate so they can get the best start in life. I CAN support inclusive practice by supporting children with needs and works with practitioner to help the child become confident individuals and effective contributors.
This benefits the child as, I CAN is giving them and their families the best support, teaching the child how to communicate. Without communication it could cause the child to have social problems, no independence, confidence or self-esteem and it could lead to big problems in the future. If practitioners and parents don’t help their child from an early age, then they “could reach school age without even speaking their first words” (I CAN, 2010)
This can be further addressed in Appendix 2.
Bibliography
CACHE UNIT 5
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Unit, London (document no. ITB2); available online from the Publications page of the Surestart website:http://www.surestart.gov.uk/publications.
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR UNIT 5
Submitted by
Andrea Fernandes
The principles underpinning the role of the practitioner with working with children
Unit 5
DIPLOMA IN CHILDCARE AND EDUCATION
Centre Number: 306.000
CACHE DCCE LEVEL 3 UNIT 5
