When working in the early years sector, it is clear to see that there are a wide variety of issues that practitioners will encounter. These challenges that practitioners face in the early years are ongoing and continuous, and will affect the children and their parents, therefore, practitioners need to ensure their provision and support is of the highest quality. (Beckley, 2013). This essay will show two different current early years issues. The two issues will be discussed in detail in terms of, how we could overcome it, and the impacts it can have on children, parents and practitioners in an early years setting. The first issue which will be discussed is ‘Men working in childcare’. This seems to be an issue as working with children is seen …show more content…
Men in the early years has been an issue which has been growing over many years for various reasons. For example some men are dissuaded from the career choice, and as it is a predominantly female occupation, some men feel they do not wish to work in that environment. As much as we have attempted to overcome this issue, the percentage of men working in childcare decreased rapidly over the years. Also, the cost of childcare for parents has increased over the years, with the average parent now paying £115.45 in Britain for their child to attend a nursery part-time. If the adult is 25 or over, working 40 hours per week at a rate of £7.20 an hour, this would be just under half their weekly earnings. This is seen as an issue for all involved. If parents are unable to afford the cost, children are unable to attend a good, high quality nursery, which will have great impacts on their learning and development. Also, practitioners are also on a low rate of pay for the amount of skill and responsibility this job requires. Through all the issues the early years face, the children should always be put first, as they are always at the heart of education. (Gillard,
1. Setting the standards for the learning, development and care, ensuring that every child makes progress and that no child gets left behind. Parents, providers should deliver individualised learning, development and care that enhances the development of the children in their care and gives those children the best possible start in life. Every child should be supported individually to make progress at their own pace and children who need extra support to fulfil their potential should receive special consideration. All providers have an equally important role to play in children’s early years experiences and they have to ensure that the provision they deliver is both appropriate to children’ needs and complementary to the education and care provided in child’s other settings.
Throughout history we have had people that stood up and fort for young children’s needs and these people have influenced the UK current early years provisions.
Approaches to working with children and how has this influenced current early years provision in the UK?
It is very important to recognise that parents and practitioners have different kinds of relationships with the children in their care. Practitioners need to develop consistent, warm and affectionate relationships with children especially babies but they should not seek to replace the parents. Babies need to be with the same people each and every day to develop social relationships. This is why the EYFS requires all early years settings and schools to implement a key person system. Parents and practitioners have one thing in common that is very important: they all want the best for the child. The roles involved are not the same yet they are complementary. Parents know their own child best. Practitioners have knowledge of general child development.
As an early years practitioner it is your job to ensure that you meet children’s learning needs and understand and work with all children’s learning needs. It is important that you provide different kinds of opportunities also focus on individual children’s learning needs each and every child is unique and all learn at different rates. When in a setting it is important that you plan an enabling environment that children will find challenging but will allow them to learn in different areas.
The early years framework emphasises a personal and individual approach to learning and development because valuing a child’s individuality, ideas and feelings is an important part of developing an individual approach to the learning and development. A child has universal physical needs such as food, drink and shelter and psychological needs such as love, affection, security, friendship which are essential to maintaining their quality of life. In recognising and trying to meet an individual child’s needs each child’s age, physical maturity, intellectual abilities, emotional development, social skills and past experiences and relationships need to be considered.
Effective practice can support children’s well-being and development when looking at a child’s health and physical development. Effective practice means ‘About ensuring that all children get optimum benefit from their experiences in the EYFS. This apparently simple outcome can only be achieved when adults work together to get to know the children s that they can support their play, development and learning.’ (Early years’ matters,2017.) Children’s well-being means the quality of the child and how their life is, and to ensure that they child is happy, comfortable and stable throughout their everyday life. Children all develop at different stages, whether this is through additional needs or family issues or they might have a gap in there learning.
The role and responsibilities of an early year’s practitioner follow a number of codes. When working with children there are many care needs of children, such as special needs, safeguarding children, children’s learning, behaviour, and working with parents. Early years practitioners have set responsibilities when working with children, like meeting the learning needs of a child, providing an environment which is welcoming and also they have to work together as part of a team to provide good service for both children and parents.
‘Early years practitioners have a key role to play in working with parents to support their young children. This should include identifying learning needs and responding quickly to any difficulties. Wherever appropriate, practitioners should work together with professionals from other
This Act which is born from parent’s needs has a specific impact on childcarer's practice, but not only, as course handout 1a (2012, p2) confirms This Act is ‘for all those who are responsible for planning, running and using early childhood services’.
By studying a child and early year practitioner can spot any issues that may be present and make sure that the child is given the best support should this require.
Theories of development and frameworks to support development are incredibly important to us working with children and young people. They help us to understand children, how they react to things/situations, their behaviour and the ways they learn. Different theories and ways of working with children have come together to provide frameworks for children’s care, such as Early year’s foundation stage (EYFS) which is used within all child care settings. This encourages us to work together, help and check the development of babies, children and young people, to keep them healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to
In order to be a successful early years practitioner, they should be able to demonstrate key skills, these include showing that they are patient, considerate, caring, flexible and consistent. What’s more, it is imperative that ‘every practitioner working with young children needs a sound and thorough
This assignment is based upon my understanding of child development and children’s learning, considering the curriculum for the Early Years and the curriculum for the Early Years Foundation Stage/Key Stage One. I propose to outline a rationale for effectively continuing children’s learning, from the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage into Year One and include strategies to support transitions, effective curriculum delivery and links between the EYFS and the National Curriculum. Throughout the assignment I will refer not only in general but also to how my research has help me as a practitioner help my setting to effectively continue children’s learning.
The ‘Children’s Act 2004’ was continuously updated and developed into the ‘Children’s Act 2006’. This act states that all settings have to follow the Early Years Framework Stages (which were renewed in 2012). The Early Years Framework Stages (EYFS) is aimed to fulfil the five aims of ‘every child matters’ and the previous children’s act of 2004. The intentions are to achieve these aims by setting standards, promote equal opportunities and through a framework of partnerships, improve quality and consistency and lay secure foundation for all learning and development, present and future. By improving the quality the service and experiences are improved for all children and families. Safeguarding children is a vital part of improving all childcare services/settings.