Baselining Of Children

[surfer]

Hi all - our Children's Centre team in our authority has advised us that we need to be baselining ALL children who access services in our centre however short a time they attend!!

Has anyone got any really simple, practical ways that we can do this?

I have had some ideas but hope someone else out ther is doing something fab already!

 

(I think its crazy and an impossible task to do accurately but it seems to be what will be expected from us as we need to be able to demonstrate impact!!)

Edited September 9, 2010 by surfer

[surfer]

PLEASE - has anyone any advice?

[mundia]

Hi Surfer, I agree with you that you cannot realistically do this for all children, and I am wondering why you are being asked for this. In out LA, we do have to show impact of groups and activities for example but this can be done through case studies and other more qualitative data.

 

Is it something you are able to get clarification on exactly what is being asked for ?

[surfer]

Baseline Data: All children should be ‘base lined’ on entry to the centre across all activities they and their families attend, no matter how short the stay or brief the involvement with the Centre. Progress towards outcomes should be reviewed midway and at the end of children’s centre intervention and, with regard to the EYFS, children should be tracked through partners in schools at the end of foundation stage. The centre should be able to demonstrate the processes in place for this tracking and provide some examples of specific children and families as evidence – data to support this is particularly important.

 

 

this is the sttement that we have recived following an insopection in our authority and has been addressed as a key area to be addressed.

[mundia]

OK, hopefully if we have any members here who are currently doing that effectively, they will come along and share how.

 

In the meantime, I might be tempted to try a couple of things (and probably you have already?)

 

Get together with other CCs locally to share good practice, and work on a way forward together.

 

If this is a requirement set out by the LA, get clarification/advice as to exactly what is expected and how you should achieve it...is there someone who can advise on this?

 

This is more of a number crunching exercise, but can you/your admin sort your children into

those who attend regularly and frequently (eg via your childcare if you have any)

those who attend regularly but not frequently (eg weekly for stay and play)

those who attend regularly for short period (eg a project or intervention for say 6 weeks )

those who attend ad hoc/irregularly, one offs etc.

 

Then go through what you currently have for each group eg learning diaries for the first two, action plan/impact measures for the third and nothing for the 4th. What proportion of your chidlren fall into this category..and more importantly why is this?

 

Once you break it down in this way you can see at a glance how many children that you currently don't baseline or track(how I hate that word!). Its impossible to measure progress of a child who attends once only and then never comes again, and you can stand your ground on this one. (or at least try). But you can then look int why you have xyz number of children who access service once and never return (just an example)

 

Im not sure this will help, and you have all this info already and have already analyzed it, but it might promote some thinking or spark some ideas from other members.

 

Id love to hear what you decide to do in the end!

[surfer]

Sorry that I didn't reply before - just wanted to say that your ideas were really useful and I am currently sharing them with others and also going through the process of number scrunching to look at the children involved in each group.

Thanks for this,

Surfer