Unit_1

E1/E2 There are three different types of settings which provide care and education for children in a care setting which are a statutory sector, voluntary sector and a private sector. A statutory sector is a setting that is funded by the government. For example schools and NHS hospitals are funded by the government, these are called statutory sectors, it is funded by people who pay taxes this organisation aims to meet and supports children and their families needs by giving children a free education and it enables families with a low income to send their children to school for free. A voluntary sector also known as a community sector, is an organisation that is not funded by the government and also an organisation that does not make any profit or make a business out of it. An example of this is UNICEF or the NSPCC; they help children that do not have access to main basic health and education needs. Private sectors are a business that people make profit out of, it is the opposite of a statutory sector as a parent would have to pay to send their child to a private school. Private schools and nursery’s are examples or a private sector. These organisations are more for those parents who have high incomes to get their child a private education. E3 There are many laws and legislations that support children’s rights the main one in the UK is children’s act 1989. Legislation is something that can be defined as society’s rules on how we should behave to ensure people can live orderly and peaceful lives. Children’s act 1989 is the main law used by social workers. It sets out the rights of children under the age of 18. It is considered to support the principle that children have rights as in UNCRC 1989. This act looked forward to a position in which children were seen to have rights, with parents having responsibilities towards them rather than parents having rights and children being passive recipients of their care and control, The children’s act had key principles such as the welfare of the child is paramount in decision making. Children tend to do best if brought up in families, parental responsibility towards children is more important than parental rights over the child; partnerships should be the basis for working with children and families. The children act 1989 is the law which sets out the duty of local authorities to safeguard children. In 2004 the children’s act changed once again because of a case which was called the Victoria Climbie case, this was about a child who died due to abuse, children act 2004 came by after her death to inquire the circumstance of her death. Lord Laming did the inquiry of every child matters (ECM). There were a lot of concerns about how the child protection system failed to protect Victoria and an agreement that this system needed to be reformed. Every Child Matters Green Paper, 2003 which contained Lord Laming’s report on Victoria was then discussed by the government then became law in 2004. Children’s Act 2004 contains sections that specify children's rights to health, safety and security, this law has its centre outcomes for all children from birth to 19 years of age. All care settings need to support children in achieving the five main outcomes. Safeguarding children, since then there has been the development of the concept of 'safeguarding children'. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is the process of protecting children from abuse, neglect and preventing any impairment to their health and development and to also ensure that they are growing up with being in safe and effective care that these children can then enter successful adulthood. (HM government ,2006 ,pg6). 'All those who come into contact with children and families in their everyday work, including practitioners who do not have a specific role in relation to the child protection have the welfare of children' (department of health 2003) Early Year Foundation Stage (EYFS), the child care act 2006 made it legal that schools and early years providers in Ofsted registered settings (from birth to five) implement the early years foundations stage framework. The overachieving aim of the EYFS is to help young children achieve the five outcomes of the ECM document. One of the welfare requirements of the EYFS is that providers safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in their care. E4 values and beliefs are those things which you judge to be important in life. The needs, rights and views of the child are at the centre of all practice and provisions. Values can also include your attitude towards child care practice the needs, rights and views are at the centre of all practice provisions (walker,2006,px). Children’s personal and physical safety is safe guarded, whilst allowing for risk and challenge as appropriate to the capabilities of the child. Self esteem reliance and a positive self image are recognised as essential to every child’s development. Principles are a set of moral rules guiding personal conduct. Principles are a set of moral rules guiding personal conduct. The welfare of the child is paramount (the children act 1989). Practitioners contribute to child’s care, learning and development this is to be reflected in every aspect of practise service provision. In the early years foundation stage there are four themes and four principles. Children learn more to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships with parents and/or a key a person. The environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children’s development and learning. Children learn and develop in different ways and not at different rates and all areas of learning and development are equally important and interconnected. Everyone working with EYFS framework must remember that “children learn best when they are healthy safe and secure when their individual needs are met and when they have positive relationships with three adults are caring for them. (Wilcox,2007,p11) E5 It is extremely important to value and respect all children at a care setting because every child has a right, under the children act 1989; it was the first international agreement in which rights of children worldwide were detailed in one document (united nations convention on the rights of children). If all children have a right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, then they also have the obligation to respect others thoughts or religious principles. After the death of Victoria climbie from child abuse in 2000, led to an inquiry chaired by lord laming which made 128 recommendations. This led to Every Child Matters, every child has a say and valuing and respecting all children is important because that makes children more confident in that they do. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was formulated in 1954 and it Posits 7 needs which all human beings seek to satisfy. The 7 needs are self actualisation, aesthetic needs, cognitive needs, esteem needs, social needs, and safety needs physiological needs. Each child may have particular care needs, at any point in time, as well as needing to meet basic needs, as described in Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. E6 It is important to have professional skills while working with children, there are many ways to keep professional however i feel there are three main skills that i would put to use while working as a practitioner. The first would be valuing and listening to children’s views and opinion, this is because a child is most important and at the centre of everything, to value and view their opinion it will keep them engaged in what’s going on, a child will feel they are being listened to an that will help them socially and emotionally. Another would be understanding the limits and boundaries of your role, by this i mean not getting to attached to the children for example not having a favourite child more than others this is because it will make the other children feel as though they are not important and the child will feel as though they can do what they want and not get in to trouble for bad behaviour. The third would be working as a multi agency team, to work together with social workers and police officers to meet the needs of a child is most important to ensure that the child is getting all the help they need and not being harmed in any way to make sure that the child is not being neglected. E7 I believe there are three main study skills that can support my learning during my training. The first one would be organization; this is because being organised will help you get things done on time for example giving yourself a timetable for when to study and when to have a break would be a form of being organised, because you have set times for when you study best and when it’s time to have a break so that you’re not working all at once and putting stress on yourself. “If you study to remember, you will forget if you study to understand you will remember”. (barnes,2007,pg22). Another study skill would b time management, by this i mean keeping track of time for example i would leave my house a little early so that i could get to get to placement ten minutes before my placement starts this is because it leaves me time to organise myself and prepare for what i have to do during the day. Also another example of time management would be to set times for when you think you learn best, some people find that they work best in the evening they feel they are more refreshed at that time whereas some people feel that it is best to work in the mornings. To have a set time for when you work best will really help you get things done on time and also help you learn more. My third study skill would be effective communication skills, if you have positive body language it gives you the ability to state your point clearly and be assertive, when working with other team members. Also it makes you more confident and helps you find out who you work best with, some people find they work best with friends others find they work better with their families also communication is a key point because by communicating effectively you are helping yourself and others around you. Effective communication gets both your needs and the child’s needs across by this i mean if there is a problem with the child you will only find out by communicating with that child. Overall organisational skills, time management and effective communication skills are all positive ways of supporting your learning during placement. And in college, i believe organisational skills are the best study skills i feel this way because without being organised it is hard to understand what you need to get done, what is going on and you will find it hard to get into routines and getting things done on time. E8 Bibliography Books: (walker,2006,px) (Wilcox,2007,p11) (barnes,2007,pg22) (Tassoni etal,2010,pg162) (Bruce and Meggitt,2007,p24) Bruce T and Meggit C, 2006 Child Care and Education, Hodder Arnold, London. Internet: (HM government ,2006 ,pg6) (united nations convention on the rights of children) D1 “All those working with children and young people are bound by the law to respect the rights of children, young people and their families.” (Bruce and Meggitt,2007,p24) Being a professional means you must ensure that all children feel, included, secure and valued. You must adhere to the principles and values of the early year’s sector and to the policies and codes of practice in the work setting. It is important to maintain appropriate relationships with parents and other professionals because we need to ensure that good communication is possible in order to support the needs of the children. When there is a lack of communication with the people involved in a care setting it can cause danger, for example information can be passed on inaccurately or information can be withheld because you may not have a positive relationship with another practitioner or they might not trust you. When parents are concerned it is an essential that we build positive relationships so that you can work closely together with them to insure that a child is benefiting in a variety of ways. (Tassoni,etal,2010,pg162) D2 The term multi agency working is used to describe the way in which many early years settings work closely with other professionals from a variety of organisations such as health visitors, speech and language therapists and social workers. This is because it is recognised that children and families may need a range of support. Some centres such as Children’s Centres have been set up with this in mind. Working as a multi-agency team helps benefit the child to insure they are not being neglected and the child is getting all the help they need. The common assessment framework also known as CAF is a shared assessment tool for all children’s services in all local areas in England. It aims to help early identification of need and promote coordinated service provision. Its implementation requires effective multi agency working. The purpose of the CAF is to give all practitioners working with children and young people a holistic tool for identifying a child’s additional needs before crises point is reached and a shared language for discussing and addressing them to ensure that important needs are not overlooked and to reduce the scale of assessments that some children and young people undergo. To work successfully with children and young people it is important to be clear about your role and be aware of, and respectful of, the roles of the workers and agencies you should actively seek and respect other peoples knowledge and input to deliver the best outcomes for children and young people. These behaviours should apply across the public, private and voluntary sectors. You must understand that different factors may combine to cause particular risks for a children and young people and that it may be appropriate to seek support from other colleagues in other agencies early, before problems develop. C As a practitioner you should listen to children’s views and opinions, because if a child is listened to they will feel that they are important. By listening to children it builds up on their self esteem, it is important to build a child’s self esteem to make them more confident it will help them with various things such as socialising and interacting with other children etc. B While working with children you must be aware of the law that applies to the setting, this provides boundaries of what you can and cannot do. There are four important areas to understand these limits, and they safeguarding children, health and safety policy, confidentiality policy and the data protection act. Under the children act 1998 practitioners work in partnership with the parent’s policy to meet the needs of the child. It is important to value and respect each child in a setting; this would include valuing and respecting the child’s family, religion and culture. It is very important that you do not give out any information about a child that is at your care setting unless it is with a safeguarding officer and the child is at risk. Information needs to be kept in files or on computers; information needs to be kept away hidden where any unauthorised person cannot access it, this is part of the confidentiality policy (the data protection act) to keep all children safe. If you find a child is being abused at home you must tell your manager and safe guarding officer. A practitioner should never in any circumstances take matters into their own hands and try to sort out the problem alone, if this was to happen it would cause a number of different problems for the practitioner and may also put the child’s life at risk. Limits and boundaries must be acted upon at all times. You must be aware of the amount of physical contact you have with a child. If a parent does not hug their child or does not want you to hug their child or does not want you to hug their child you as a practitioner must respect what the parents say as the parents know best for what is right for their child. Also keeping a professional role with parents is advised because getting to friendly with a parent may cause conflict and the parent may take it in the wrong way a practitioner must not mix work with their social life you must be aware of the policies and procedures at your care setting. A Each child is unique; a child centred approach supports and promotes each child’s care, learning and development. Children come from diverse backgrounds. It is important to value and respect each child in a setting. This would include valuing and respecting your outline child’s family, ethnic background, religion and culture. All children will have basic care needs. Each child will have individual care needs. Each child may have particular care needs, at any point in time, as well as needing to meet basic needs, as described in Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. “As children grow and develop, different care needs come into focus, this is particularly true when a child differs from the developmental norm.” (Bruce and Meggit, 2007) Normative development tends to make professionals compare children with one another, it is also very important to compare the child with his or her previous development. It is essential to treat the child as an individual and plan to meet the child’s holistic needs. Research indicates that children thrive, learn and develop when a child centred approach is used for example evidence from the Reggio Emilia approach in Italy. Children who are helped appropriately at their optimal or best times of development, in a stimulating environment by people who are sensitive and observant of what an individual child can manage (regardless of norms and average ages for doing things) usually do better than survive. They flourish in their own unique way. Malaguzzi the Italian who pioneered this approach calls these “rich” children. “Adults working with children need to know about child development so that they are informed enough to use their observations of children to encourage them into appropriate activity at the appropriate point of development.” “Because development is uneven and each child is a unique person, different from everyone else in the world, each child will need what is just right for them.” (Bruce and Meggitt, 2007)