Summer 2015
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Food for thought Caring for children with allergies
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Tea’s ready Eat E at better, better start better: s help to h establish e healthy eating h habits for life h
Let’s talk Boost B oost children’s communication skills for starting school
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Tasty makes Create C ffun food characters c tthat will make children c smile! p43 s
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Opinion
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Building blocks survey What is the state of the childcare profession in England?
Chris Underwood highlights some of the collated responses from PACEY’s latest survey.
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e are excited to reveal some early results from PACEY’s sector-wide survey, launched at the beginning of this year. The survey, which was completed by 2,442 childcare professionals (alongside a similar survey completed by 180 parents), gives a detailed picture of the state of the childcare profession across England. The PACEY survey, called Building blocks, asked you about the main challenges affecting you as a childcare provider, your views on your profession, as well as about your overall confidence in the sector. It also asked you how others associated with the sector, such as healthcare professionals and schools, perceive your role. The full report will be published shortly, but we can reveal some exciting early results to Childcare Professional readers.
In tune on quality One of the goals of the survey was to develop a shared understanding – among PACEY members, other childcare providers and parents – on what ‘high-quality childcare’ actually means. Using PACEY’s Professional Standards as a baseline, we tested out definitions of what quality in childcare provision is, and also what it means to be a high-quality childcare professional. Encouragingly, almost all of you (over 90 per cent) agreed with PACEY’s definition of what being a quality childcare professional means. We received incredibly useful feedback and comments on
The survey gives a detailed picture of the state of the childcare profession across England our definition, and have used this to develop the following definitions of childcare quality. We will continue to get input on these from our expert contacts and partners in the sector to develop a shared understanding of quality, so do let us know what you think at pacey.org.uk
Definitions of childcare quality A childcare professional delivering high-quality care is one that: ● delivers developmentally appropriate care and education ● supports individual children to reach their potential ● continually reflects on and improves their practice ● works closely with parents, and other professionals ● responds to parents’ needs. High-quality childcare provision is: ● developmentally appropriate and supports the child as a whole ● based on the latest, and best, evidence of how children learn ● centred on secure, rewarding relationships ● effective communication between providers, parents and other professionals ● creating safe and stimulating environments, as well as demonstrating good practice.
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More than 87 per cent of providers responding to our survey are very confident that their own practice meets this definition, and almost twothirds (63 per cent) believe their practice fully meets the definition.
Funding challenges PACEY has long argued that a simplification of the funding support system is urgently required, and this view was mirrored in your own responses. Of the three main forms of childcare funding: employer-supported childcare vouchers, childcare tax credits, and funded early years education places, tax credits scored most poorly. Both childcare providers and parents rated them as the most difficult scheme to access and understand, with a third of parents reporting problems in the last 12 months. Despite the fact that more than half of you reported increased costs across the board, almost everyone who completed the survey expressed resistance to increasing their fees. The survey paints a clear picture of increased financial pressures on providers, with pressures of increased business costs and training, as well as the shortfall in early years entitlement funding places all taking their toll. Most worrying, of those who responded, one in five group settings and one in 15 childminding settings
Parents are willing to recommend their provider to other families pacey.org.uk
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reported a loss in the last 12 months. Providers’ level of confidence in their business is clearly associated with a setting’s plans for growth and plans to stay in childcare, for both group and home-based providers. The survey reveals more group than home-based settings have plans for growth, with two out of five group settings as compared to one in three childminders planning to grow their business in the next 12 months.
Barriers to cooperation Findings revealed that there are still substantial barriers to cooperation between childcare providers and other professionals working in the sector; this being particularly true for home-based professionals. Group providers were generally more positive about their experiences of working with healthcare professionals and schools, and rated both as more willing to work with them than homebased providers. Overall, confidence in Ofsted was low, with more than one in seven of you expressing concern that your last Ofsted inspection was inconsistent with that of other similar settings. Furthermore, provider confidence in Ofsted’s complaints procedure received a low total score, with two in five of you expressing concern that complaining about your Ofsted inspection could negatively impact your relationship with the inspectorate.
Thumbs up from parents Significantly, of the parents who completed the survey, almost all of them gave
strong approval ratings for their childcare provider, with an impressive 93 per cent expressing a high level of satisfaction with their childcare provision. Similar numbers were willing to recommend their provider to other families in their area. One in three also said they found their childcare provider to be the most valuable source of information about changes in childcare policy. The fact that parents place childcare professionals above their employer or local authority in keeping them up to date with policy changes, demonstrates the high esteem in which many parents hold their childcare provider.
The data demonstrates the high esteem in which many parents hold their childcare provider
Our survey in figures
2,442 childcare professionals completed the survey
90% + OVER
90%
of respondents agreed with PACEY’s definition of highquality childcare
2 OUT OF 5 group settings and one in three childminders are planning to grow their business in the next 12 months
Looking to the future A full and detailed rundown of the survey results will be published in the next issue of Childcare Professional, and the final report will be available to download from pacey.org.uk shortly. Over the coming months, PACEY will be actively working to share the results of the Building blocks survey with the new government. We will be building our case for why supporting those childcare professionals working tirelessly to give our children the best start in life is more important than ever before.
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OVER
1 IN 7
expressed concern that your last Ofsted inspection was inconsistent with that of other similar settings
93% 93% of parent respondents expressed a high level of satisfaction with their childcare provision
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Your skills
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hildren’s early years are a crucial time to create a foundation for their future health. Early experiences can strongly influence many aspects of wellbeing. Children’s tastes and eating habits are formed early in life with consequences for growth, development, health and academic achievement in later life. Early years settings provide an ideal opportunity to help children learn about and practise healthy eating, as well as to engage families to encourage development of healthy eating habits at home. In England, all regulated early years settings are required to follow the mandatory standards for learning, development and
care of children from birth to 5 years, as set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework. The framework includes a welfare requirement for the provision of “healthy, balanced and nutritious” food and drink, but, until recently, there was no national guidance in England to explain what this meant in practice. An Advisory Panel on Food and Nutrition in Early Years in 2010 found limited evidence on current food provision in early years settings across England. Research assessing food provision in nurseries found that they often followed healthy eating recommendations for older children and adults, for example, a low-fat, high-
Eat better, start better
fibre diet characterised by the Eatwell plate. This type of diet is inappropriate for toddlers and young children. Consequently, the food provided by nurseries was generally too low in energy, carbohydrate, iron and zinc and too high in salt and added sugar for children in their early years. These findings are also reflected in the most recent national dietary survey, which suggests some children aged 1 to 5 years have small intakes of fruit and vegetables, and low micronutrients such as vitamin A, iron and zinc. Some children have high intakes of salt, saturated fat and sugar. There are signs that this dietary imbalance has affected children’s health. Over a fifth of children in Reception year are categorised as overweight or obese. Type 2 diabetes is now occurring in children, and one in eight 3-year-olds has some dental decay. To address the imbalances in the diets of some children and
The ‘Eat Better, Start Better’ programme provides a national benchmark for food provision in early years settings. Dr Patricia Mucavele, Head of Nutrition at the Children’s Food Trust, explains.
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the under- and over-provision of food by some settings, the Panel recommended that national guidance should be developed for early years settings. This included age-appropriate advice on how to meet the nutritional requirements of young children, and called for a well-trained, knowledgeable, skilful and confident early years workforce.
Eat better, start better In April 2011, the Children’s Food Trust was awarded a Department for Education (DfE) grant to develop and deliver the ‘Eat Better, Start Better’ programme. The main aims of the programme are to support healthier food provision in early years settings and in families with young children, and increase the food, nutrition and healthy cooking knowledge, skills and confidence of early years and health practitioners and parents. The training programme is accredited by the Royal Society of Public Health and includes three train-the-trainer courses, which cover how to use the food and drink guidelines, healthy cooking with families and healthy cooking with children. The programme also disseminated national guidance entitled Voluntary Food and Drink Guidelines for Early Years Settings in England. In addition, the programme includes practical resources and promotes regular monitoring of the impact using standardised evaluation tools. The Trust’s training acknowledges the unique role of early years practitioners in delivering both education and health services. The training emphasises the need to work collaboratively with health professionals and in
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partnership with families. The overarching aim is to ensure children receive consistent messages about food, helping them to establish healthy eating habits for life. The continuing professional development training is also available as three e-learning courses. These have been endorsed by the Council for Awards in Care, Health and Education (CACHE) and are accessible via the Trust’s Learning Network.
Meeting food and drink welfare requirements From September 2015, settings will be inspected under Ofsted’s new Common Inspection Framework. This includes a judgement on the personal development, behaviour and welfare of children. Settings will continue to evaluate the extent to which their provision is successfully supporting children to eat healthily. Childcare providers are encouraged to use the Trust’s Eat better, start better resources to help them to demonstrate they are meeting the welfare requirement for food and drink and supporting children to eat well. The food and drink guidelines are evidence based and provide age-appropriate nutrition advice on why and how to provide healthy, balanced and nutritious food for young children. The guidelines encourage dietary diversity, provision of appropriate portion sizes and consistent approaches to manage special dietary requirements and fussy eating. The practical tools include two seasonal recipe books and two checklists to evaluate the approach to and provision of food. Providers are also
The overarching aim is to ensure children receive consistent messages about food, helping them to establish healthy eating habits for life encouraged to sign up and follow the Early Years Code of Practice for Food and Drink as this helps to demonstrate to children, parents, and other visitors, including Ofsted, that they are following national best practice.
Nutrition in practice Food is a powerful way for settings to engage with families and can be used to support the delivery of national initiatives, for example, consulting the guidelines when undertaking the integrated health and education review at age 2, and using the Early Years Pupil Premium funding to provide cooking sessions for young children and parents. Involving families and young children in food activities will help establish healthy eating habits for life.
New book from PACEY We have worked with the Children’s Food Trust to create a great new book called Get Set to Cook about children’s food and nutrition, updating you on the Voluntary Guidelines for Food and Drink in Early Years Settings. Keep an eye out at pacey.org.uk/shop
References For the article references, visit pacey.org.uk/ cftreferences
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Features PACEY Local
Valuing our volunteers It’s Volunteers’ Week from 1 – 7 June, and we thought it would be a great time to talk about our fantastic volunteers across England and Wales. What do they do, and how can you join in?
Maxine Forrest PACEY Local – Leeds
Linking up widespread workers I wanted to create a group that supported each other, sharing their wealth of knowledge and experience, which would be of particular benefit to newly registered childminders who often feel daunted in the first few months. Making contact with others has been a real challenge as
Leeds is a huge area with over 1,000 childminders. I’ve used social media to grow the group and I’ve made email contacts too so my contact list is increasing steadily each week. My initial idea was that the group would meet once a month to discuss current issues and share good practice, but this didn’t meet with the needs of my contacts who all attended local groups. The feedback was that they would prefer to get together for training that was relevant to their roles and would be of use to their settings. As the local council no longer
provide free training, my role seems to have developed into becoming a training organiser and I have had some success at sourcing free training through my contacts or charities. Over the past few months, we have held sessions on Autism awareness, Makaton, Supporting children with Down’s syndrome and Phonics awareness. Although it can be challenging and stressful at times when I’m trying to coordinate sessions, I gain great satisfaction from knowing that by organising events, I am supporting my colleagues who are in turn making a difference to the lives of the children we care for.
BECOME A FACILITATOR Are you an experienced member of PACEY looking to take the next step in your professional development? Are you organised, motivated and sociable? Do you have 10-15 hours a month you could dedicate to a good cause?
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We’re looking for enthusiastic and motivated childminders, nannies and nursery workers to become Peer Network Facilitators. Facilitators will be involved with PACEY’s online community. A facilitator role typically involves: ● organising local events and meetings ● bringing a local matter to the attention of others in your area
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managing local content on our online community. There are already lots of successful local networks up and running, so there are models to work with and others to support you. To find out more, email facilitators@ pacey.org.uk with your contact details and a brief CV. We’d love to hear from you. ●
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Sue Meadows PACEY Local – Havering
Building friendships I decided to apply to become a PACEY Local facilitator last year after becoming frustrated at the level of local authority support available in my area. And after spending 10 years as a childminder, I wanted the opportunity to offer help and support to others in the area.
Christine Emery PACEY Local – Nottingham
Nurturing professionalism I became a volunteer because I’ve always felt strongly that it’s important to share ideas and learn from each other. Volunteering has given me confidence and a sense of achievement, but, most of all, it has given me opportunities to do things that I wouldn’t have done otherwise.
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I didn’t really know where to start at first, all facilitators seem to have their own way of doing things, but I have found that’s the key. As a facilitator, you have to find what works for you and your peers in your local area. I’ve found being a local facilitator has really helped me to develop as a person and I’ve made some good friendships and connections. Tendring Childminders meets once a month at a community hall in Harwich. This offers the minders and their children the opportunity to meet up and socialise together.
We recently had a session with Tesco’s ‘Farm to Fork’ children’s healthy eating programme making fresh fruit kebabs. We also held an Easter crafts session where the children made hats, masks and eggs. We hold coffee evenings without the children which is a good time to chat, ask questions, share experiences, as well as information sessions where we discuss the latest guideline changes.
I was one of PACEY’s first facilitators and I run a successful group in Nottinghamshire. When new people attend my meetings, they sometimes think that I am a member of PACEY staff because of my confidence and professionalism, and don’t realise that I am a volunteer. The group meets regularly and I choose a central location in Nottinghamshire that means everyone, including myself, has to travel to get to the meetings. The room we use is free of charge and provided by the children’s centre team who I have a great working relationship with. Unfortunately
the room only holds 25 people at a squeeze and often more people want to attend. I have tried a variety of ways to enable more people to attend meetings, even running the same meeting on different days. I make sure to actively encourage others to come forward as volunteers or to link their existing groups into the PACEY Local network. I know from my own experience that as practitioners we learn so much from one another. I have recently had a new recruit, Mary Docherty, Assistant Facilitator, so we have someone available as a backup in case of emergencies.
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