Quality Improvement Tool

[Deb]

Hi

 

I am looking for a quality improvement tool to work through in my setting as a staff team to assess our environment. I have heard of ECERs and Wellbeing and Involvement scale (Leavers). I was wondering if any of you have used these or indeed know of any other quality improvement tools?

 

Would it be preferable to complete a SEF before completing one of these tools or vice versa?

[finleysmaid]

i have done ecers and sef - i feel they highlight different areas -sef is for self evaluation and ecers is done in our area by an external audit so more quality improvement. You can use the ecers toolbook to look at your environment and anything that makes you look critically at your practise is good but it doesn't cover some of the areas that are covered in the sef. I had completed my sef before i did ecers, as it is assessed so differently i did not use the information for ecers project.

[mundia]

DEb, from what you describe, ECERS is more suited to thinking about your environment, especially if you have certain areas in mind, and in terms of resources and where they are placed etc.

 

Well being/involvement is more about the children (which of course is influenced often by the environment too), and how they are, how engaged they are, and is a lot about reading body language. On a personal level, I would go with this every time, and use that every day as part of my practice, whereas ECERS you would do periodically.

 

But Im sure others use them in different ways.

[Annie-pops]

Hi, I know in our area (Cheshire) we have a self evaluation toolkit called 'Moving On'. It's a fairly chunky binder but quite simple to use. I don't know if this is specific to our area or whether other areas have it too?? Our Early Years Consultant gave us ours, it might be worth asking yours if they have a similar thing which they can direct you to use? It's not environment specific tho - it's accross all areas of practice. As far as I know (which I have to admit, is not very far at all!) ECERS is environment focussed and I think it's what our EYC's use when evaluating us! - so I would guess it should be usefull! x

[Guest Devsy]

In my settings we have used the EYQISP (Early Years Quality Improvement Support Programme) and I think there are other National Strategy documents that are useful (am sure I have seen an Environment Audit in one of those??)

 

Good Luck

[Deb]

Many thanks for all your fab replies.

 

What I want most at the moment (apart from a large gin and tonic) from a quality improvement tool is to help staff understand the perspective of the child and develop empathy. I am passing on information as I am learning myself whilst undertaking the Foundation Degree but I wondered if there was a process we could go through rather than listening to my voice all the time.

 

Which do you think might do this best? Has such a tool been developed yet?

[hali]

the borough i am working in uses the equisp - which evidently is what Ofsted will look pre inspection

[nickylear]

I've recently completed an ECaT audit in my setting & although this National Strategy look as Talk & Language the audit did highlight other areas for development.(I completed an environmental plan, deconstructed the time table & completed a number of audit activities with the other staff members I've used the finding from this audit, the well-being & involvement scales & recently I'll been using the mosaic approach to try & assess my setting. We will be starting a process of peer monitoring too.

 

I’m not sure if that’s helpful as we used a number of methods.

[Deb]

Thanks Nicki

 

I'm also using the Mosaic approach at the moment as part of studying E215 with the OU.

 

In the module material it mentions other evaluative tools (KEEP and EXE), which lead me to the ECERs.

 

I am wondering if perhaps a combination of tools are required?

 

I also thought about developing a peer mentoring process, similar to 3 stars and a wish.

[nickylear]

Hi Deb

 

I think your right to try a combination of tools. Maybe I’m a little biased as that is what I have done. I think that by picking a mix of techniques you can tailor your assessment tool to your settings specific needs. I think that if you are following a particular method & you chose to miss out a section of that particular method, as long as you understand the consequences of that it should not have any significant effect.

 

I think that quiet often most practitioners really understand their own settings & using assessment tools just confirms what we already know.

 

Hope you find a suitable approach. Nicky XX