Guest Dannik26 Posted October 22, 2014 Posted October 22, 2014 Hi all. I am new to this forum so forgive me if this turns up in the wrong place! I have recently attained my EYT status and I am enjoying all the support received through reading your posts :1b and i was wondering if you could all help! I need help regarding policies. We have at our setting a lot of policies and although the manager has worked very hard on devising and reviewing them when necessary, i feel that there are are many that could be linked together. The manager feels they are all vital and whilst I understand that it is hard to know what is required (EYFS does not stipulate what policies need to be in place) I was wondering what the general consensus was. Also our policies and procedures are very lengthy and follow the PSLA layout. Is this still the preferred layout? Thanks in advance :1b
Mouseketeer Posted October 22, 2014 Posted October 22, 2014 hi and welcome, there was a thread not so long ago about the policies people had, will try and and find it, I like to keep mine short and to the point, the only policy I have that is more than 1 side of A4 is safeguarding 1
Mouseketeer Posted October 22, 2014 Posted October 22, 2014 http://eyfs.info/forums/topic/40978-policy-renewal-time/ This may help
Guest Dannik26 Posted October 22, 2014 Posted October 22, 2014 Thank you for your input and the link Mouseketeer :1b . Roughly how many policies and procedures do you have? and do you follow PSLA? :-)
lashes2508 Posted October 22, 2014 Posted October 22, 2014 Personally I find the psla ones too long , some unnecessary bits and not parent friendly , therefore we have tried to gradually reduce, revise and reword . 2
lashes2508 Posted October 22, 2014 Posted October 22, 2014 Meant to say we have linked some aspects together and are just about to introduce a ' nurturing' policy defining appropriate touch etc that we use at our setting.
Guest Dannik26 Posted October 22, 2014 Posted October 22, 2014 Thank you that is very helpful. I feel too that the PSLA layout is lengthy and the policies need a revamp! Lashes2508, you say you have linked aspects... do you mean that all safeguarding aspects are on one policy etc?
Mouseketeer Posted October 22, 2014 Posted October 22, 2014 I have less than 30 (27 I think). How many do you currently have ?
Guest Dannik26 Posted October 22, 2014 Posted October 22, 2014 I think 40+. Looking at the link (thank you) I know the amount varies but I will look at ours to see if any can be put together so that there aren't as many.
eyfs1966 Posted October 23, 2014 Posted October 23, 2014 (edited) I have 26 as follows 1. Admissions 2. Behaviour Management 3. Safeguarding and Child Protection ( incl. Social Networking Policy, Physical Contact with Children Policy and Baby Sitting Policy) 4. Complaints 5. Confidentiality 6. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion 7. Equipment and Resources 8. Evacuation 9. Food and Drink 10. Health and Safety (incl. lost or missing child, accidents, bodily fluid handling, administration of medication, incidents, illness and outings procedures). 11. ICT, Cameras and Mobile Phone policy 12. Non Collection of Children 13. Parental Involvement 14. Settling In 15. Special Educational Needs (incl. copy of local offer) 16. Staffing and Employment (incl. Staff Supervision Policy and Prevention of Bullying and Harassment at Work Policy) 17. Student Placement 18. Visitor policy 19. Whistle Blowing 20. Pandemic Flu Policy 21. Transition 22. Two Year Old Check Policy 23. Smoking, Alcohol and Drugs policy 24. Notifying Ofsted Policy 25. Racial Harassment Policy 26. Home Working Policy I cross reference related policies. eg at end of policy I say please also refer to x,y and z policy. I have to admit the pandemic flu policy seems a little out of date now. Edited October 23, 2014 by eyfs1966
Guest Dannik26 Posted October 23, 2014 Posted October 23, 2014 Thank you eyfs1966 I appreciate your list. I will use this to compare our policies and see what can be put together. Are your policies set out like the psla format?
Mouseketeer Posted October 23, 2014 Posted October 23, 2014 I have the same number'ish as you eyfs1966 but don't have 8 of them ...I have fees, social networking, emergency closure, data storage, behaviour management, E-Safety and a couple of others, but cant remember what
thumperrabbit Posted October 23, 2014 Posted October 23, 2014 I have 26 as follows 24. Notifying Ofsted Policy 26. Home Working Policy I cross reference related policies. eg at end of policy I say please also refer to x,y and z policy. I have to admit the pandemic flu policy seems a little out of date now. I have virtually the same as you, just wondered what was in the 2 mentioned above though? Think Pandemic Flu will now be taken over by Ebola?! 1
eyfs1966 Posted October 23, 2014 Posted October 23, 2014 Notifying ofsted is literally lifted from the various ofsted publications on what needs to be notified and when, plus the normal jazzing up to look as though I know what I'm talking about! Includes things like notifying of lost child incident, changes to premises, serious accidents, safeguarding issues, changes of management and committee, disqualification of staff etc. Home working policy is a recognition of the fact that occasions do arise where staff take children's records off the premises to complete at home and what our rules are to ensure confidentiality is maintained..safe storage, prior permission from management, timescales for return etc. I would rather not have this policy as would love for there to be enough hours in the session for all records to be competed inhouse, however, that's just not the case for us. Funnily enough I was wondering when we might be required to have an Ebola policy! I have already put the Dept of Ed information for schools on our health noticeboard. Please god we never have to do any more than that...... 2
eyfs1966 Posted October 23, 2014 Posted October 23, 2014 Thank you eyfs1966 I appreciate your list. I will use this to compare our policies and see what can be put together. Are your policies set out like the psla format? Old PSLA format. I have rewritten most of them over the years and indeed when I last looked at the updated PSLA ones, decided to just keep what I have as found them most unwielding!
Guest Dannik26 Posted October 23, 2014 Posted October 23, 2014 Thank you all for your support, it is great to have a forum that supports everyone and gives ideas ?
Wildflowers Posted October 23, 2014 Posted October 23, 2014 (edited) I'm sitting with ours now! (Just got the last pages back from the neighbour who has proofread it all.) Our contents list is attached. Policies and procedures contents list sample.pdf Edited October 23, 2014 by Wildflowers
Mouseketeer Posted October 23, 2014 Posted October 23, 2014 crumbs wildflowers ...glad i don't have to review that lot :blink:
Wildflowers Posted October 23, 2014 Posted October 23, 2014 Yet we're a very small group. The Forum is partly to blame for its expansion! Though from this thread I realise that there are several policies I don't have... 1
Guest Dannik26 Posted November 13, 2014 Posted November 13, 2014 Thanks again to you all, our previous policies are now under review ?
Guest Calv Posted November 17, 2014 Posted November 17, 2014 I am confused! I very recently attended a 'Getting ready For Ofsted' course which was led by an Ofsted inspector. We were advised that we now only need to have the statutory policies and were advised to trim them as much as possible as all staff should be completely familiar with all of the setting's policies and are likely to be questionned about them by Ofsted. It is however probably a good idea to rename the unstatutory policies as 'Setting Guidelines' - for staff to refer to as and when required, rather than discard them. I am now trying to find a list of statutory policies so I can do as advised. Has anyone else been told this and does anyone know where I can find a list of the required statutory policies?
Guest Calv Posted November 17, 2014 Posted November 17, 2014 I am confused! I very recently attended a 'Getting ready For Ofsted' course which was led by an Ofsted inspector. We were advised that we now only need to have the statutory policies and were advised to trim them as much as possible as all staff should be completely familiar with all of the setting's policies and are likely to be questionned about them by Ofsted. It is however probably a good idea to rename the unstatutory policies as 'Setting Guidelines' - for staff to refer to as and when required, rather than discard them. I am now trying to find a list of statutory policies so I can do as advised. Has anyone else been told this and does anyone know where I can find a list of the required statutory policies?
Guest Dannik26 Posted November 17, 2014 Posted November 17, 2014 Thank you for your input Calv, i will try and locate the statutory list! It seems the policy saga continues ?
finleysmaid Posted November 18, 2014 Posted November 18, 2014 I am confused! I very recently attended a 'Getting ready For Ofsted' course which was led by an Ofsted inspector. We were advised that we now only need to have the statutory policies and were advised to trim them as much as possible as all staff should be completely familiar with all of the setting's policies and are likely to be questionned about them by Ofsted. It is however probably a good idea to rename the unstatutory policies as 'Setting Guidelines' - for staff to refer to as and when required, rather than discard them. I am now trying to find a list of statutory policies so I can do as advised. Has anyone else been told this and does anyone know where I can find a list of the required statutory policies? oh my ...you can't win can you!!!! i'm afraid i will be sticking to my fairly long list unless i find more evidence to say that this is not the case.
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