The Impact Of Socio Political Factors On The Management And Leadership Of Early Childhood Settings

The Common Assessment Framework 2009 aims to identify additional need and promotes information sharing and coordination of services. Working Together to Safeguard 2003 outlines legal requirements for safeguarding, promoting welfare, roles and responsibilities of professionals and working together to keep children safe. The Munro Review 2012 regards the rights, wishes and feelings to shape the provision of services. The Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements of the Statutory Framework for EYFS 2014 outlines responsibilities for childcare providers for children 0-5 years. Special Educational Needs and Disability Code 2014 provides guidance relating to promoting the welfare of children and young people with special educational needs and

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.

All Early years’ settings have policies and procedures that staff need to work with and follow they need to be up to date and be in line with the current framework of current legislation. Every policy has a procedure to follow and how to respond if you have any concerns about your key child or any other child that attends to the setting. The following procedures must be completed to ensure that the correct method is actioned.

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’.

In this assignment I am going to explain the roles and responsibilities of two members of the work force that look after children and young people and evaluate the regulation of care provision for looked after children and young people.

Ofsted give clear guidelines on how the setting should run on a daily basis. This is evaluated by ongoing paperwork and meeting targets. Policies and procedures put into place guidelines on all care standards and regulations that all staff should adhere too. This is evaluated through appraisals and reflective practice. For example: When starting in the setting, I observed a staff member ‘doing for’ the children, rather than encouraging them. This was regarding the children’s independence and found that rather than staff giving out the children’s cutlery and cups during lunch- the children help each other to hand it out. I enforced this by having an informal chat with my Manager after careful observation.

Leadership is a sociocultural construct underpinned by the beliefs and values of a society (Waniganayake, Cheeseman, Fenech, Hadley, & Shepherd, 2012). Leadership in early childhood have shifted the focus from one designated leader into a more collective approach – distributed leadership, which is not about delegating. As Cheeseman (2012) states, in early childhood settings, attention is often directed at administrative and management leadership (Waniganayake et al., 2012); however it is important to have a designated leader in the areas of development and implementation of curriculum and pedagogy – being the educational leader as a requirement of the National Quality Framework – whilst at the same time see educational leadership as a

The duty that a setting has to safeguard its children, staff, parents carers & support its community and regulators in their inspection processes is paramount, this means that recommendations within serious case reviews offer the opportunity to examine current practice, what's happening and how it happens, within the setting and externally with other organisations, agencies and service providers.

Literature states that leadership is displayed as a persistent and positive activity (Fitzgerald and Gunter, 2008 cited in Siraj-Blachford and Hallet, 2014, pg.9). According to Rodd (2006), early childhood practitioners need to be effective leaders to make sure their roles and responsibilities are carried out effectively. Although leadership can be learned or developed, it is important that all individual gains access to professional training and opportunities to practice, refined and broadened (Rodd, 2006). Therefore, the importance of leadership and implementation to the setting is recognized by all Early Years Leaders. Leadership can be displayed as a process in which one person, usually it is the leaders role and responsibility to set the purpose or direction for one or more other persons. Then later on gets them to move along together with him or her and with each other in that direction with competence and fill commitment. (Jacques and Clement, 1994, cited in Briggs and Briggs, 2009). Siraj-Blatchford and Hallet (2014) adds that leadership is also known as a process for personal and professional learning and development; organizational change and improvement. Rodd (2013) defines leaders working in early childhood sector as people who are able to influence the behaviours of others to achieve a certain goal or planned outcome. Similarly, leadership in the early childhood sector appears to be more of a result to groups of people who work together to influence and inspire

My responsibilities as a trainee nursery practioner include: providing physical and emotion support and care for the

Risk assessments should be carried out regularly to make sure that there are no safe guard threats towards the children in the setting. Childcare settings need risk assessing for example is there entrances and exits to the building that an unauthorised person could use? Could a child leave the setting without anyone noticing? Could a child get seriously hurt due to a broken piece of equipment?

All people working with children are governed by legislation that is in place to protect your children and the child care provider. In this document I have listed four important legislations that are of particular importance to home based child care providers and noted how I aim to incorporate them into my practice. Child care practitioners also have a regulatory body; in England it is Ofsted. This document gives you a brief description of their supervisory role in child care settings. However, the list of legislation is not comprehensive and nor is the short description of Ofsted’s Role, if you would like more information or would like to discuss

Staff will be encouraged to refer to The Child Minding and Day Care (Wales) Regulations 2002; CSSIW National Minimum Standard 4; SEN Code of Practice for Wales 2002 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Part 3); Wales PPA Playgroup Guidelines for Good Practice 2004 our insurance policy and guidance on The role of the SENCO (see below). Other considerations will include referring for Early Years Action/Early Years Action Plus

The responsibility of the practitioner is to work as part of a team with other professionals and staff members effectively to bring children and parents the best possible service i.e. working with social workers, speech and language therapists, and family support workers. Practitioners must also have a working partnership with parents, to work effectively with the child as the parents are the primary carers and they will know what the child is like at home and what the child’s interests are. For example they would have a policy called ”parents as partners”.

There are regulatory requirements that underpin a positive environment for young children. There are two compulsory register for child care providers working with children under 5 years: