Everyone who works with young children recognises the need to continually enhance their skills, knowledge and understanding of how children learn and develop.
Local authorities are responsible for providing training and development opportunities for all their early years practitioners such as Foundation Stage practitioners, special educational needs co-ordinators (SENCO) and childminders. This provision should include equal opportunities and inclusion training, NVQ training, and more recently Birth to Three Matters training.
Over the last year, a great deal of work has been done to support local authorities in the onerous task of providing these training and development opportunities. A new set of guidelines, Key Elements of Effective Practice (KEEP), presents an agreed view within and across the sector of the knowledge, skills, understanding and attitudes practitioners need to support young children's learning effectively. It also provides a benchmark against which all local authorities can evaluate the training and professional development opportunities they deliver.
The KEEP document is now available for practitioners to download (see reference) and provides a framework they can use to outline their expertise, consider their development needs and record their qualifications. It can also form the basis for an individual self-development plan.
Development needs
So how are local authorities using KEEP, and what training and development opportunities are being made available to practitioners?
KEEP statements remind practitioners that in order to improve their practice they need to reflect on their development needs, plan their learning journey and use that learning to improve the work they do with young children and their families.
Northamptonshire Early Years Service has developed systems and documentation to help practitioners to do this. All practitioners are encouraged to complete a Portfolio of Professional Development, which enables them to plan and record their development. The Early Years Service has also provided a 'Self-evaluation and Reflection of the Foundation Stage' document to help practitioners evaluate practice in their setting.
Of course, self-evaluation and development are a continuous process. While practitioners need to complete initial training to enable them to achieve the required skills to work with children, this is only the minimum standard. They need to undergo further development in order to continuously improve their practice.
Career pathways
Local authorities provide training and development opportunities that suit all those working with young children, from unqualified volunteers to degree-level qualified practitioners. Many authorities have developed 'Pathways', systems which support new entrants to the sector.
An inquiry or request for an information pack on, for example, becoming a childminder, triggers a system of support and logs the prospective childminder's progress from initial briefing and training sessions through registration with Ofsted and further training, such as NVQs. As the case study of Will Pearson demonstrates, practitioners are also being supported to gain higher level qualifications such as the foundation degree.
According to KEEP, early years practitioners need to be 'sensitive, positive and non-judgemental'. These attitudes are vital if they are to develop good relationships with both adults and children and understand children's individual and diverse needs. Local authorities also place great emphasis on helping practitioners to develop inclusive, anti-discriminatory practice.
Nottinghamshire's Early Years Service provides equal opportunities training for Foundation Stage practitioners. This is the result of a collaboration between their team of early years support teachers and MUNDI, the global education centre based in the School of Education at the University of Nottingham. This collaboration ensures that the course 'Global Perspectives for Early Years' is directly relevant to early years settings. It has been so successful that a second course, 'Creating and Sustaining Anti-Discriminatory Early Learning Environments', has been developed and it is hoped that this work will develop into a project based in early years settings. This will focus on disseminating good practice for anti-discriminatory provision across the authority.
KEEP will promote a consistent approach to early years workforce development that is in line with the Principles for Early Years Education in the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage and Birth to Three Matters framework.
Local authorities are just beginning to evaluate their training and development opportunities against the KEEP statements. In the future, you will see KEEP in training directories and hear about it on training courses. Practitioners can also use KEEP to self-evaluate and managers will find it useful to plan the development of their setting and its staff. NW
Chris Stevens was Foundation Stage regional director for local authorities in the East Midlands
Reference
Key Elements of Effective Practice can be downloaded from www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/foundation_stage/keep/
Ten key questions
1 Do you reflect on and evaluate your work with the children, striving for continuous improvement?
2 Do you identify and plan your own training needs?
3 Do you use your local authority's training directory and take advantage of the opportunities on offer to you?
4 Do you keep a record of the courses you have attended?
5 Do you discuss your development needs with your line manager?
6 Has your setting completed a self-evaluation? Does it have a development plan which includes staff development?
7 Do you use Sure Start, Primary National Strategy materials and locally produced materials to help improve your practice?
8 Do you have a copy of KEEP?
9 Do you know who to contact in your local authority to discuss your training needs and possible sources of funding?
10 Do you know what higher level qualifications are available to early years practitioners?
Workforce consultation
The Government has launched a consultation into the future of those working with children and young people. The consultation document, Children's Workforce Strategy, can be accessed online at www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations/. You can respond via the website or by e-mail to cws.consultation@dfes.gsi.gov.uk or you can download the questionnaire and return it to Department for Education and Skills, Consultation Unit, Area 1A, Castle View House, East Lane, Runcorn, Cheshire WA7 2GJ.
Responses must be received by 22 July. Copies of the strategy can also be obtained from DfES Publications, tel: 0845 60 222 60, e-mail dfes@ prolog.uk.com, quote ref:DfES/1117/2005.
Case study: The Elms
Developing your practice entails more than just attending training courses. There are also opportunities in many local authorities to become involved in exciting projects that develop early years practitioners'
skills and help the settings in which they work.
Trent College is an independent school taking children from three to 18 years. The Foundation Stage department of The Elms, its junior school, recognises the value of individual practitioner development and has also recently been involved in a creative arts project with Derbyshire's Early Years and Childcare Service.
Staff at The Elms are encouraged to attend training and development opportunities. Will Pearson works at the school as a teaching assistant. He qualified with an NVQ 3 in 2001 and since then has updated his skills and knowledge by attending a number of courses run by Derbyshire's Early Years and Childcare Service. Will isalso completing the second module of the Early Years Foundation Degree with the Open University.
Will's setting is committed to improving its practice and was happy to become involved in the Creative Arts Project. Staff wanted to focus on developing their outdoor space and the outdoor curriculum. An artist who specialises in environmental art and the use of recycled materials worked with the children and staff to explore the themes of islands and space both indoors and outdoors.
The children created a number of 'islands' from a range of natural and found resources, and also created woven structures. Parents were actively involved in the project and they now plan to use the children's completed 'islands' design to create a permanent outdoor play area.
The setting is holding a training event for other local providers to share their experiences and promote this good practice.
