Childcare Professional Winter 2015 Sample

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ENTER! OUR READER SURVEY AND PRIZE DRAW See p9

Sugar How it's hidden in children's food

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Feeling good

Conference

Professionals f share tips for staying on top of your game p14

N News and pictures p ffrom our PACEY meet P up in York u p19 p

Love maths M Measure and d pour: having p ffun with maths in the m mud kitchen m p20 p

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Advertisement PACEY

Books from PACEY Perfect your practice with PACEY publications Essential books for childcare professionals. From frameworks and legislation to best practice and creative ideas, PACEY has a range of publications produced speciďŹ cally for you.

Great savings savi available for members at pacey.org.uk/shop 6 Publications filler ad FINAL.indd 6

Winter 2015

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Feature Conference

One hundred delegates felt the power of the tribe and got swept away on a conga train of positive energy at the PACEY conference on 7 November in York.

Penny Tassoni is really engaging.

Melanie Shepherd, nursery manager

Wish you were here?

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iz Bayram, PACEY Chief Executive opened the conference with a celebration of PACEY’s achievements in 2015 and launched our new early years emotional health campaign #earlymindsmatter.

Next was PACEY President Penny Tassoni, whose downto-earth delivery and commonsense, children-centric messages really chimed with the audience.

Keith Chambers of MindEd reminded the room how important it is to support the people supporting children with mental health problems. The free e-learning at minded.org. uk has a pathway tailored for childcare workers.

Also keen to join our tribe was the Institute of Health Visitors, who committed to joined up services, respecting the work of childminders and their shared responsibility for Personal development, behaviour and welfare in the Common Inspection Framework.

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Lee Owston, Senior HMI took lots of questions from the audience, and gave his interpretation of British values: “values we want people in Britain to live by”. He agreed: ● Inspectors should not be coming into settings with preconceptions, they should be coming in with fresh eyes. ● The timeframe for re-inspection for childminders should be reconsidered in terms of a common approach for all.

Andy Cope, happiness expert championed the delegates’ hard work and reminded us that happiness can be found in the moment.

For further details and audio recordings of the full programme and to download resources, visit pacey.org.uk/york2015

I loved Andy Cope who has given me lots of positive energy to take back to the children. I was reassured that Lee from Ofsted said, “the paperwork mustn’t take time away from being with the children”.

Yvonne Jeffery, home-based childcare practitioner

The workshops were also a hit I enjoyed mindfulness.

I will give it a go with my boisterous boys.

Mick McGeown, childminder

The Boogie Mites workshop was exhilarating, lots of fun and easy to replicate at home.

Gemma Tasker, childminder

Winter 2015

The best conference I have been to so far.

Claire Warrington, childminder

19 17/11/2015 08:20

Your skills

Spotting the signs

Be head smart You can help spot brain tumour symptoms in children.

Symptoms in the under-5s Recurrent vomiting ● Abnormal balance, walking or coordination ● Abnormal eye movements ● Behaviour change, particularly lethargy ● Fits or seizures (not with a fever) ● Abnormal head position such as wry neck, head tilt or stiff neck ●

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n the UK, where nearly all children have access to vaccinations, clean water, food and healthcare, death in childhood has become a rarity. We’ve come a very long way in looking after children’s health, and families are usually safe from the trauma of infant mortality. If a child is affected by a life-threatening condition, such as a serious infection or cancer, they will often recover with treatment, and go on to lead a full and long life.

Although very rare, cancer is one of the leading causes of childhood death in the UK, and brain tumours kill more

children than any other type of cancer. Brain tumours can often be treated, but the outlook is much better with an early diagnosis. The HeadSmart campaign run by the Brain Tumour Charity is aiming to improve survival rates by raising awareness of the key symptoms in children, and achieving earlier diagnosis.

Making a difference As a childcare professional, you are uniquely placed to help spot the early signs of a brain tumour, because you know the children you look after. Brain tumour

symptoms in children are often less than clear-cut. The disease can sometimes cause obvious and dramatic problems such as seizures, but there may well be no single indicator of the kind which immediately rings alarm bells.

Juliet’s story It was Christmas Eve in 2010 doc o tors delivered dell when doctors the news J uliet Taylor Tay y that Juliet had a brain tumo m ur. Then The e aged three, tumour. sh he had be e she been seen by a GP G twic c in previous twice we eeks an n referred to weeks and ho ospital with w hospital symptoms incl c udin headaches including and vomiting. vo o R Re p Repeated visits to tthe th he hospital h proved frus s frustrating, as doc c doctors there were unc c unconvinced that

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anything was seriously wrong. But Juliet’s mother Emma, a speech therapist, refused to give up.

“We just kept going back and making ourselves a bit of a nuisance. In the end, the doctor said: ‘Let’s scan Juliet just to put all of our minds at rest.’”

“So they sent her for a scan and that’s when they found the tumour.”

Juliet, now aged 8, spent Christmas Day in hospital before surgery to remove the large, lowgrade tumour. “She still gets a lot of really severe headaches and

is often quite tired,” says Emma.

Emma believes HeadSmart would have made a signifi cant difference to her experience.

“From very early on, Juliet had three of the symptoms listed on HeadSmart cards for her age group. As time went on, it was four. That would have been very powerful. But we didn’t have that knowledge and that information at the time. It would have given us much more strength and confi dence to say: “Please can you take this further?”.

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Early identification process for childcare professionals Responding early to emerging difficulties in health or learning can help children achieve the best possible outcomes. Here is a summary of the “Assess, plan, do, review” process as detailed in the SEND Code of Practice in England:

1 has trouble, and things they do well.

Plan: speak to parents and colleagues 2 to plan targeted support for the child.

Do: put the support in place, and 3 continue observations.

Review: check against planned 4 outcomes, talk to parents and

Image provided by NDCS

Assess: note the areas where the child

professionals.

Begin the process again. > For full details of this process, visit pacey.org.uk/SENDcode to read the PACEY SEND Code of Practice factsheet.

Spot the gradual changes If you have a child in your care who is usually a bundle of energy, with no need for an afternoon nap, you will be the one to realise that he or she is increasingly lethargic and falls asleep over lunch. If a child is normally agile in the playground, with age-appropriate fine motor skills, you could spot that he or she is now tripping over regularly and dropping small toys.

Working with parents If you think there may be something wrong, ask the child’s parent or carer whether they have noticed other problems.

Some brain tumour symptoms can occur regularly at a particular time of day – for example, a child may experience head pain during the night or vomit on waking because lying down for a long period has caused an increase in pressure in

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the brain. You may not see those symptoms if you care for that child during the afternoon, but you will know that he or she is much less lively than previously.

By putting together the pieces of the jigsaw with a parent or carer, you are more likely to identify those children who should see a GP for either reassurance or further investigations.

Of course, broaching this subject is never going to be easy.

Using a HeadSmart card (see Resources) at that stage can make the conversation more straightforward. Don’t feel that you are scaremongering.

The card contains scientific information and will help you discuss the facts with parents.

What next?

There are certain types of brain tumour for which, sadly, there is still no effective treatment.

When to take action This article describes some of the warning signs of brain tumours and is not a comprehensive guide.

You should discuss any concerns with parents or guardians and advise them to see their GP.

But for many, early detection can mean that the condition is caught while the area of brain affected is still small, increasing the chances for children to grow up without disabilities.

Sarah Mee of the Brain Tumour Charity said: “Since HeadSmart was launched four years ago, the average time it takes to diagnose a childhood brain tumour in the UK has fallen from more than nine weeks to less than seven. So we’re on the right track – but we need to make more progress, quickly. Our aim is to bring down the average to below five weeks, in line with the bestperforming countries including the USA and Poland.”

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Resources HeadSmart raises awareness of brain tumour symptoms in children. Download the HeadSmart symptom card at bit.ly/ HeadSmartCard or email info@headsmart.org.uk to request a copy.

HeadSmart works in partnership with The Brain Tumour Charity thebraintumour charity.org

23 16/11/2015 14:02

Feature Employment law Live links on our p! app!

Nursery HR professional Kate Stevens shares her tips on staying clued up about the law when you employ an assistant or nursery staff.

Is it legal?

Good employment practices for childminders and nurseries

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Kate Stevens worked in corporate HR before starting a family, and now works as the HR and Administration Manager at Cuddly Bear Day Nursery, Sydenham (cuddlybear daycare.co.uk)

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hether you employ one person or a hundred, you need to be aware of the laws governing employment. But it’s important to point out that knowing the law is one thing, and putting it into practice fairly and consistently is another. It’s not all about the paperwork, although that’s important too. In fact, a huge amount depends on your skills in working with people and creating good relationships with staff.

As an employer, your guiding principle is to be fair and consistent with your

Winter 2015

employees. Employment law is there to help both employers and employees to understand what their responsibilities are, and what their rights are.

Employment law is updated twice a year, and the changes are published in April and October. In this fast-moving environment, it’s the employer’s responsibility to stay up to date with the law and best practice. ● I’ve only got one assistant, why do I need to know about the law?

All employees are entitled to certain rights, such as having a contract and a safe workplace.

As a manager, you want to build a good relationship with your staff, and having clear employment conditions is part of that. Good employment practices will give you credibility in the eyes of your staff and clients. At the same time, being a great employer with good business practices will also reduce financial and reputational risk to your nursery or childminding business.

● I don’t have a business background, how can I get to grips with all the rules and regulations?

It can seem a bit daunting but actually there’s quite a bit of help and information out there.

A really good start would be to find some training in basic business skills (see opposite page for details of PACEY training).

A great source of information that’s easy to read and offers resources targeted at small businesses is the ACAS website. ACAS is the UK organisation promoting good practice and relationships at work, and it provides free advice to employers and employees. Try the ACAS guide for new businesses at bit.ly/AcasNew and this ACAS guide for small firms – see bit.ly/AcasSmallFirms The gov.uk website has a vast array of accessible information on all aspects of employment law – visit gov.uk/ browseemploying-people

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managing absence, and dealing with flexible working requests.

Two to try are AVENSURE avensure.com, and Simmons and Simmons – see bit.ly/ SimmonsAndSimmons. You can also subscribe to HR and advice services such as XpertHR.co.uk Follow the news – magazines and newspapers often report on HR stories, including tribunal cases on discrimination and dismissal.

You’ll often be able to learn something new by reading about these cases.

I’m confused about using the DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) when hiring This is an area where you need to do your research or get some training, because we found that information was not always shared with us by our local authority. Our nursery owner completed her advanced safeguarding course in order to become the nursery’s safeguarding lead, and from this she learned about the rules on “disqualification by association”.

We talked to some contacts in our local authority who were good enough to share the information they received in training sessions with us. We used this to amend our policy documents and processes. It also changed the questions we ask in job interviews, supervision meetings, and our job application form. When we were implementing these changes, we involved the whole management team, fed it through to room leaders and all our staff in meetings.

For more information, visit gov.uk/government/ organisations/disclosureand-barring-service You can sign up to a DBS newsletter at bit.ly/DBSupdate ●

Try to stick with the better-known and trusted sources of information on employment law, such as ACAS, gov.uk and Citizen’s Advice Bureau. Your local authority may have useful documents and templates online. ● Where can I turn if there’s a problem?

Don’t sit on it! Even if it’s hard to face up to a dispute or disciplinary problem, it won’t go away if you ignore it. When we had a disciplinary issue with a member of staff at my workplace, as an experienced HR professional, I knew that the best thing to do was to seek advice before attempting to deal with the problem. We had to ensure that we were doing the lawful thing, the right thing for our staff plus the right thing for our business.

We got advice from the legal helpline and consulted ACAS. We also examined our own staff disciplinary process to make sure that the action we decided to take was fair and transparent.

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It was hugely reassuring to speak to someone candidly about the issue, and relay it back to the management team so that our plan of action worked in practice. It was also important to show our team of nursery staff that we were a strong management team, capable of making tough decisions. Our nursery team were amazing as this issue actually increased morale and pulled us all together.

When you are speaking to an advisor, such as a legal helpline, remember to give them the whole picture to help them give you the right advice. ● Help! Things keep changing.

How can I stay up to speed?

ACAS provide a list of biannual changes – visit bit.ly/ BiAnnualChanges for these.

It’s a good idea to get on mailing lists with the large UK law firms, which often provide free workshops and useful guidance about practical employment matters, such as

Winter 2015

PACEY resources for employers • Course: Building your childminding business pacey.org.uk/shop • Personal and professional helpline for all members: 0808 178 0332 • Legal plus helpline for childminders: 02921 156458 • Factsheets on Working with an assistant, for England and Wales

More resources • ACAS guide for new businesses: bit.ly/AcasNew • ACAS guide for small firms: bit.ly/ AcasSmallFirms • Free ACAS helpline: 0300 123 1100 • Register as an employer with HMRC: gov.uk/ register-employer

Log into MyPACEY for: ● Employment

rights factsheets ● PACEY tax information

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