Guest Posted April 19, 2006 Posted April 19, 2006 I have been looking through the policies at my setting and seen that most of them haven't been updated since the setting opened 2 years ago. Every other place I have worked in have updated them anually and in some instances, the staff have been consulted on them and their content. I would like to update them but am unsure as to where I would find new legislation that needs to be covered as I'm new to all this! I have looked at other policy posts here and have realised that we don't have half of the ones that others have! So I'm going to be a busy bee sorting them all out! Just a couple of questions.... 1. Where can I find new legislation relevant to policies? 2. Do I need to keep a separate file for policies? Ours are currently in with our National Standards folder. 3. What, generally should I include in a Health and Safety Policy? 4. Would it be worth consulting with the staff as to the content of policies, even though most of them are students and some staff aren't really interested in policy writing ('That's the manager's job')? I would be really grateful for any suggestions! Thanks!
Guest Posted April 19, 2006 Posted April 19, 2006 Sorry. One more! As a pre-school setting, should we consider having a policy about children transferring from us to school? If so, what kind of information should it include? Thanks!
Guest Posted April 19, 2006 Posted April 19, 2006 Have you come across the long list that someone made in a post? I used to review my main ones ( some are statutary requirements as stated in the standards) every time I sent them out to new parents, making slight adjustments, but this didn't cover all of them. I have about 20 at present, but not all are given to parents. I have them in a seperate file but I don't see why they can't be in a file with standards. Recently I have started a "rolling programme" of review. We ( all staff ) look at a policy once a fortnight, we pencil in any changes we want to make. We include parents by asking parents we know would have an interest/comment for example we recently reviewed our SEN policy and asked the parent of a child who attend who has special needs to make any comments. I then type up the "new" policy and parents are informed of the changes in our next newsletter. How to keep up with new legislation. The forum members are GREAT at flagging up new legislation ie: the recent ( January) food hygiene standards. Unfortunately there isn't a one stop shop for this important responsibility. I have a folder in my "favourites" called Government Sites, I have all the main ones that I access regularly ie: DTI here for employment law. I also have email alerts from Ofsted which are very useful, you can register for this on their website. Surestart site is useful for policies. Also I am a member of PLA, and have access to free legal advice. I'm sure other EY organisations offer this sort of service too. However, really it is a metter of doing your own research. ( and of course asking on here) Just to re-iterate, I think it is very important to consult with staff, they are the ones who should be working to these policies, so the more they are involved the more they will understand and follow them. plus they will see just how much work it entails if you were left to do it on your own. Device a way that is user friendly for them, maybe give them one policy each to read, make comments on and them to lead a discussion at the next staff meeting, all good "skills" to learn, they should be grateful of the opportunity and feel motivated because their opinions are valued. I'll try and remember to get back to you on the Health & Safety policy. Peggy
Guest Posted April 20, 2006 Posted April 20, 2006 Hi Clare We review our policies annually and add any new ones we feel we need as we go along. All staff are involved-I might make a rough draft of what needs to go in but the we all sit down and make adjustments, add bits here etc. As Peggy has already said all the staff have to work with the policies so it's no use if they don't feel they are appropriate. Once reviewed all staff then sign the policy and it is dated, one copy for our operational plan, one for the parent folder. I am at the moment putting together a transfer policy, which we will discuss at our next staff meeting and hopefully adopt fairly soon. Linda
Guest Posted April 20, 2006 Posted April 20, 2006 Thanks Peggy and Linda for that. I want to try and include the staff as much as possible, but I don't feel that they will want to contribute to the updating of the policies. I will give it a go though, because as you have both said they will be the ones implementing them and it's no good if they don't 'get' them. Thanks again, to both of you. You've made a lot of sense!!
Inge Posted April 27, 2006 Posted April 27, 2006 And do you all have a policy or something included in one of your current policies about what you do when a member of staff turns up unfit to work? particularly thinking about being 'under the influence' or still from the night before!! What would you do, how would you maintain ratios, what would be follow up procedure (disciplinary action is what they are looking for!) many settings in our area have had comments on reports from Ofsted for not having this!! Also, once you employ staff and consider them suitable, how do you ensure and monitor they remain suitable while in your employment? Another one picked up by inspectors who want you to demonstrate staff are still suitable to be employed !! Early years in our area have discovered that an annual health declaration by all staff can demonstrate this alongside the annual appraisals. Currently waiting for the forms they have devised to cover this!! As it turns out I discovered I actually do this in an annual update of staff details including emergency contacts and medical details, but will probably use the one from early years when it turns up! Inge
Sue R Posted April 27, 2006 Posted April 27, 2006 Just a suggestion, but we have recently rearranged all our documentation, so that it's under the Every Child Matters headings; this includes Policy Folder, and Operational Plan. In fact, we combined those two to create a new Operational Plan. Each divided ECM area has a front page showing relevant Standards, Aspects and legislation. We thought it would help us to be sure we were meeting the new Ofsted criteria. And thanks for that, Inge! Sue
Inge Posted April 27, 2006 Posted April 27, 2006 Your welcome Sue. Just thought everyone needed a bit more work to do!! Inge
Guest Rouse1 Posted January 1, 2007 Posted January 1, 2007 hi claire im in the process of updating our polices and trying to link them with every child matters there has been 3 usefull articles in the nursery world which you may find helful i certainly did. Although this is a slow process i may link my without transfering them from the old files by using my every child matters folder and making a written link in there (signposting the inspector to the relevant policy) with a written description of what policy links with every child matters AND birth to 3 and curriculum guidance and our nursery policies. I think im making it sound like another laguage now but if you've read the nursery world article it may become clear. I would be interesting in exchanging more info if you like. We are a day nursery 0-5 yrs and this is the first time i have used the forum..... I have been looking through the policies at my setting and seen that most of them haven't been updated since the setting opened 2 years ago. Every other place I have worked in have updated them anually and in some instances, the staff have been consulted on them and their content. I would like to update them but am unsure as to where I would find new legislation that needs to be covered as I'm new to all this! I have looked at other policy posts here and have realised that we don't have half of the ones that others have! So I'm going to be a busy bee sorting them all out! Just a couple of questions.... 1. Where can I find new legislation relevant to policies? 2. Do I need to keep a separate file for policies? Ours are currently in with our National Standards folder. 3. What, generally should I include in a Health and Safety Policy? 4. Would it be worth consulting with the staff as to the content of policies, even though most of them are students and some staff aren't really interested in policy writing ('That's the manager's job')? I would be really grateful for any suggestions! Thanks!
Guest Posted January 1, 2007 Posted January 1, 2007 Welcome to the forum Rouse1 and for your helpful first post, which makes sense to me. Peggy
Recommended Posts