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The Early Years Framework: Learning Together: Positive Start, Positive Outcomes

6 Putting quality at the heart of service delivery

At present, staff working with children in pre-school centres have a range of levels of qualifications. A stronger focus is needed on developing a wider skills set to prepare staff to work with other professionals and engage in partnership working to support families and communities. Continuing professional development has to reflect the new skills set needed within the voluntary, private and council sectors. There are early signs of staff accessing training to help support their skills in working with other agencies and build on partnership working. Benefits to staff and children are evident when staff have a strong commitment to continuous professional development. Through attending certificated courses as well as non-certificated training, staff develop their expertise and learn about new initiatives. In best practice, they share their learning and expertise with others to improve outcomes for children and families. An increasing number of early years staff are pursuing nationally accredited additional qualifications. There are improvements in the range and quality of professional development opportunities across some councils. The introduction of degree-level childhood practice standards is already resulting in significant numbers of manager-level staff accessing these work-based courses. The registration requirements and Continuous Learning Framework of the Scottish Social Services Council for all staff working in early years services has been a key driver in staff seeking qualifications. There are signs of staff increasing their engagement with Curriculum for Excellence, taking a lead in developing flexible and challenging learning experiences for children. There is continued need for higher level and relevant qualifications for staff to deliver this curriculum.

Curriculum for Excellence needs teachers and other well-qualified staff to engage fully in the implementation of principles and practice, as well as the outcomes and experiences in this transformational national initiative.

Scottish Government is committed in its concordat with local government to improving early years provision with access to a teacher for every pre-school child. Recent guidance for local education authorities makes this clear. Education authorities are, overall, supporting this commitment. However, there are still inconsistencies in whether teachers are deployed, the extent to which each child has access to a teacher and how teachers’ skills and expertise are used to support other staff in centres. Some councils have removed full-time teachers from pre-school settings in order to share their expertise across a wider number of partner centres. This, in turn has meant much reduced access in some centres to a teacher. Many partnership centres have only limited or inconsistent access to a teacher with much variability in the contribution and impact of the teacher when present.

The early years is a sector where parents can make their first steps to training and gaining qualifications which can then lead to a career in childcare. Helping in their child’s playgroup or nursery can nurture the enjoyment of working with groups of children. Across Scotland, many workers in the early years sector have started in this way. Many others come into the early years direct from school, often with few school qualifications but with the ambition to work with children. This approach can be very positive in supporting people into work and, in turn, result in benefits to the economy. However, their training needs to take place in high-quality centres or services with highly effective practitioners and leaders to ensure the best professional development takes place.

This high quality training programme had provided an opportunity for many adults to take a first step to re-engage in learning and employment. Community Learning and Development (CLD) staff organised the training and provided very effective support and guidance for learners. Participants gained a qualification which led to employment as crèche workers. Many had moved on to other learning as a result, including further and higher education. They reported gains in confidence and self esteem and improved family relationships. They were able to use their experience to enhance their own parenting skills through a greater understanding of child development.

Springvale Nursery Centre offers a high quality service to children and families from various backgrounds. The experienced staff identify needs and empower vulnerable families through universal and targeted services. By using North Ayrshire Council’s Integrated Assessment Framework, staff adopt a systematic approach to meet individual family needs. Parents, nursery staff and other professionals are continuously engaged in planning and evaluating services to ensure the best possible outcomes for families.

Individual work with families can take place in the family home, local community or within the nursery centre. Time spent with individual parents or carers provides support in a variety of ways, for example accessing resources, modelling adult-child interactions, referring to appropriate agencies, using the advocacy service, accessing health appointments and accompanying parents to local community groups and further education.

Parents and carers are able to get further support and advice through joining specific groups such as fitness classes, play sessions, computing classes, healthy lifestyle group, Fit Ayrshire Babies and health visitor groups.

As a result of this skilled intervention, the nursery can demonstrate improved support by targeting services to vulnerable children and their families. Respect and effective collaboration is the key to their success in working with families to make a more positive impact on children as learners.

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