Creche Within A Children's Centre

[Guest]

Hi

 

I work in a creche within a chidren's centre that provides 1 or 2 2-hour long sessions every day. Many of the children use the creche on a weekly basis and the creche is often these childrens first and only experience of an early years setting before they start preschool.

 

I would be very interested in hearing about any other chidren's centres that operate creches, and in particular whether they manage to operate a key worker system (we don't) and/or have any particular quality standards that they work to, since creches fall outside the remit of EYFS and compulsory Ofsted regulation.

[Guest Wolfie]

Hi Starburst - yes, I work in a Children's Centre that has creches within it. We work to the same standards with the creche as we do with all the other groups, to ensure consistent quality across the Centre for all families and children that use it in whatever capacity.

 

That means that the creche work to the same set of policies and procedures as the full daycare nursery and all the other groups. In fact my last major project was a review and rewrite of the whole set of policies to make them Centre wide rather than "bitty" for different groups. I've just finished!

 

As for a key person system, we try our very best to implement that in the creches but it is very hard because contact with the children is often only temporary, for example whilst their parent/carer attends a 6 week I.T. course. But we do try! We also have a Respite Creche, running once a week, for children referred by the Family Support team - we do have a key person system working well in that creche.

 

Feel free to ask me more questions!

[Guest matkat]

Hi Starburst - yes, I work in a Children's Centre that has creches within it. We work to the same standards with the creche as we do with all the other groups, to ensure consistent quality across the Centre for all families and children that use it in whatever capacity.

 

That means that the creche work to the same set of policies and procedures as the full daycare nursery and all the other groups. In fact my last major project was a review and rewrite of the whole set of policies to make them Centre wide rather than "bitty" for different groups. I've just finished!

 

As for a key person system, we try our very best to implement that in the creches but it is very hard because contact with the children is often only temporary, for example whilst their parent/carer attends a 6 week I.T. course. But we do try! We also have a Respite Creche, running once a week, for children referred by the Family Support team - we do have a key person system working well in that creche.

 

Feel free to ask me more questions!

Hi wolfie i work as part of the childrens centre innitiative as out of a school my boss is the chair for the childrens centres here, like you i have the same high standards we have in foundation. We dont have an ofsted inspection either.

[Guest Wolfie]

since creches fall outside the remit of EYFS and compulsory Ofsted regulation.

I think that it would be very remiss of us to treat creche provision with any less importance than any other group at the Centre offering childcare and want our parents to be assured of high quality provision for their child whichever groups and/or services they use at the Centre.

[Guest matkat]

I think that it would be very remiss of us to treat creche provision with any less importance than any other group at the Centre offering childcare and want our parents to be assured of high quality provision for their child whichever groups and/or services they use at the Centre.

i agree with you wolfie Matkat

[Guest]

Hi Starburst - yes, I work in a Children's Centre that has creches within it. We work to the same standards with the creche as we do with all the other groups, to ensure consistent quality across the Centre for all families and children that use it in whatever capacity.

 

That means that the creche work to the same set of policies and procedures as the full daycare nursery and all the other groups. In fact my last major project was a review and rewrite of the whole set of policies to make them Centre wide rather than "bitty" for different groups. I've just finished!

 

As for a key person system, we try our very best to implement that in the creches but it is very hard because contact with the children is often only temporary, for example whilst their parent/carer attends a 6 week I.T. course. But we do try! We also have a Respite Creche, running once a week, for children referred by the Family Support team - we do have a key person system working well in that creche.

 

Feel free to ask me more questions!

[Guest]

Hi Starburst - yes, I work in a Children's Centre that has creches within it. We work to the same standards with the creche as we do with all the other groups, to ensure consistent quality across the Centre for all families and children that use it in whatever capacity.

 

That means that the creche work to the same set of policies and procedures as the full daycare nursery and all the other groups. In fact my last major project was a review and rewrite of the whole set of policies to make them Centre wide rather than "bitty" for different groups. I've just finished!

 

As for a key person system, we try our very best to implement that in the creches but it is very hard because contact with the children is often only temporary, for example whilst their parent/carer attends a 6 week I.T. course. But we do try! We also have a Respite Creche, running once a week, for children referred by the Family Support team - we do have a key person system working well in that creche.

 

Feel free to ask me more questions!

 

Hi Wolfie

 

Thanks for your reply. I would be really keen to find out more about how you operate the key worker system - we have creches for courses such as you and also once a week drop ins when the children tend to come quite regularly. I have always been told that a key worker system is 'impossible' for a creche - so would love to find out how you do it - and present some evidence that it is possible and can work.

 

Would also be interested to find out how you do any planning - is it just in the morning of the session after a look to see what children you have? And whether staff have any paid time for planning focussed activities or how this is done?

[Guest Wolfie]

Hi Starburst! We operate our key person system, as far as possible, in just the same way as we do in the nursery. We only have two creche workers -when a parent/carer registers their child for the creche, they are assigned a key person who fill out all the forms with them. During the sessions, that creche worker is responsible for observing the child, collecting information about their interests and needs and observing evidence of learning and development. They also, hopefully, build a relationship with the parent/carer over the weeks that they use the creche - usually a minimum of 4-6 weeks.

 

The creche workers keep Learning Story folders for all the children in creche as they do in the nursery, containing observations, photos, etc. Planning for each session can be done in advance to some extent because the creche workers tend to know in advance who they are likely to have - places on the adult courses, and related creche places, have to be booked in advance. Both creche workers are full time and so have time to plan inbetween the two hour creches that they provide. They do plan adult focus activities, usually concentrating on a particular age range and then making sure that the continuous provision provides for the needs and interests of the whole age range in the creche. Does that make sense?

[Guest]

Thank you so much Wolfie your creches sound great.

 

Your comments are really useful and certainly give me something to aim for in the future

[Guest Wolfie]

If you've got any more questions, just ask!

[Guest]

I support creche provision im my LA and as Wolfie has said it shouldnt be treat as any less important than other childcare, especially as we find the children spend long periods of time at the creche as parents tend to come back time and time again.

 

All creches in our area have accessed training in EYFS and are using the statutory requirements and practice guidance and continuing training and development to ensure their practice is of a good quality.

 

Also (despite what OFSTED say!!) there are 5 creches in my area who have actually managed to get themselves placed on the EY register as they have kept on to OFSTED about the importance of what they provide!! It has confused me but thats no change where OFSTED are concerned.

 

I know most creche providers in my area are disheartened by the fact that they wont be regularly inspected now on the vol register and that if they are inspected they wont be graded or given recognition about the importance of what they provide however they are still keen to maintain the same standards and quality which was required previously.

 

It seems that your provision will be very important and influencial in the lives of these children and families if it is there first experience of childcare and im sure you will provide them with a quality and enjoyable experience.

 

Best wishes

[Guest]

Thanks Paula and Wolfie

 

It is so encouraging to hear you say something that I also believe - but until now seemed to be the only person saying or thinking it - the government has set up these children's centres which are supposed to offer high quality child care (surely that must be one of their aims??) but where they are providing 2 or less hours of childcare in each session they somehow become defined as 'creches' and drop out of Ofsted regulation and EYFS covereage - it just doesn't seem right. Our staff don't even qualify for funding for their level 3's when staff from all other sectors do (some staff have taken out personal loans to get qualified) - and we find ourselves banned from a lot of training because we are a 'creche'. It just seems mad to me. I have tried to make a case to our local LA but they say their hands are tied by central government.

 

So thanks for your words of encouragement - but it is a shame that there doesn't seem to be anybody overseeing CCs nationally that can make this case on our behalf? Or is there??

[HappyMaz]

So thanks for your words of encouragement - but it is a shame that there doesn't seem to be anybody overseeing CCs nationally that can make this case on our behalf? Or is there??

Well Wolfie's always up for a challenge!

[Guest Wolfie]

I completely agree with you starburst -Maz, I'll put it on my "Jobs" list!

[Guest]

Thanks so much Wolfie and Maz - I'll watch this space then!

[Guest]

I was just wondering how much do you charge for your creche and who can use it. Just interested as I am not sure where it would fit in. Be really interested to hear from you. And yes I do agree that this is where we should be providing quality.

Nikki

[Guest Wolfie]

At the Children's Centre I have just left, all creches were free!

[Guest matkat]

I was just wondering how much do you charge for your creche and who can use it. Just interested as I am not sure where it would fit in. Be really interested to hear from you. And yes I do agree that this is where we should be providing quality.

Nikki

At the centre that i work with creches are free matkat

[Guest]

Thanks very much for that. Must cost a lot of money to run though - how does this fit in with your SEF? Don't think I have the resources to do this and not too sure what the outcomes would be and how they would be measurable - really interesting how each centre does things differently though.

thanks again

Nikki