Family Child Care

Mixed Bag

A short sharp summary of some new documents: <ul><li><a href="https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/Working%20TogetherFINAL2.pdf" target="_blank">Working Together to Safeguard Children: A Guide to Inter-Agency Working to Safeguard and Promote the Welfare of Children</a> is new guidance from the DfE covering the legislative requirements and expectations on individual services to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. A summary of its content can be found in <a href="http://www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/1076705/revised-working-together-guidance-introduces-checks-local-safeguarding-boards" target="_blank">this article</a>.</li></ul><ul><li> <a href="http://www.wavetrust.org/key-publications/reports/conception-to-age-2" target="_blank">Conception to Age 2: the Age of Opportunity</a> is a report examining the importance of mothers bonding with their babies at an early age; again, you can read a summary of its content in <a href="http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/rss/1175541/Study-highlights-importance-bonding-baby/" target="_blank">this article</a>.</li></ul><ul><li>The Office of the Children's Commissioner has just published <a href="http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/content/publications/content_654" target="_blank">"They go the Extra Mile": Reducing Inequality in School Exclusions</a>. </li></ul>

Mixed Bag

A short sharp summary of some new documents:Working Together to Safeguard Children: A Guide to Inter-Agency Working to Safeguard and Promote the Welfare of Children is new guidance from the DfE covering the legislative requirements and expectations on individual services to safeguard and promote the…

22Mar2013

Latest Childcare Developments

Posts tagged 'childcare' have begun to dominate this blog lately, but then the issues of how childcare should be delivered, how it should be funded etc have been in the headlines a lot! There have been a couple of new developments today, so here's the latest on what's going on... The government has announced plans to allow parents to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21833929" target="_blank">claim back up to 20% of childcare costs</a> - but not until 2015. To help you get your head around how this might work in practice, the Guardian has published a couple of very useful short articles entitled <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/mar/19/childcare-support-what-does-mean" target="_blank">Childcare Support: What Does It Mean for You?</a> and <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/reality-check/2013/mar/19/childcare-deal-winners-losers" target="_blank">Childcare Deal: Who are the Winners and Losers?</a> Also in the news, Professor Cathy Nutbrown, author of last year's Nutbrown Review (see <a href="http://bcftcschildhoodeducation.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/nutbrown-review-final-report.html" target="_blank">previous post</a> for details) has been <a href="http://www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/1076667/nutbrown-scorns-government-childcare-changes" target="_blank">strongly critical of the government's plans</a> to reform early years provision, arguing that many of her recommendations have effectively been rejected. You can read her response - Shaking the Foundations of Quality? - in full by <a href="http://togetherforquality.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/shaking-the-foundations-of-quality-nutbrown-18th-march-2013.pdf" target="_blank">clicking here</a>.

Latest Childcare Developments

19Mar2013

Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years

Today sees the launch of a new organisation for childcare professionals, or at least the rebranding of an existing one. From now on the National Childminding Association (NCMA) will be known as the <a href="http://www.pacey.org.uk/" target="_blank">Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years</a>, in a move designed to <a href="http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/1174852/NCMA-re-brands-widen-membership-include-nursery-workers/" target="_blank">allow nursery workers to become members too</a>. To mark the occasion, the new organisation has released <a href="http://www.pacey.org.uk/PDF/Childcare%20not%20just%20a%20job%20a%20vocation%20-%20FINAL_16%203%2013.pdf" target="_blank">Childcare: Not Just a Job, A Vocation</a>, a short report designed to "explore what childminders, nannies and nursery workers see as the benefits and challenges of their childcare profession." The news comes just days after the announcement that another new organisation called the <a href="http://www.icm-se.org.uk/" target="_blank">Independent Childminders Social Enterprise</a> will be launched later this month.

Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years

18Mar2013

Summer Born Children

A consistent theme of research on children who are born during the summer months is that they can be at a disadvantage throughout their education. Now a new report from the <a href="http://www.ioe.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Institute Of Education</a> argues that streaming children by ability at a young age <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-21699054" target="_blank">can exacerbate the problem</a>. The research team used data from the Millennium Cohort Study to compile their study, and you can read the full report by <a href="http://www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/shared/get-file.ashx?itemtype=document&id=1618">clicking here</a>. There have been a number of other reports looking at the issue of summer-born children's education in recent years. For further reading ideas, have a look at my <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/davidrenfree/summerbabies" target="_blank">bookmarks on the topic</a>. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzNeUppDpQYTt1XL8vtOmGIuXg4qm2x-WfZCrU4aHqSnJEib7FtA3_xTYWnLsz8nEV799xQccCMz0DtPNGyZANZiwZP5bMDcWM1R27CAHRo1bKLamkO6lUIcQr5l6XVgWzShU4RAJ87Q/s1600/RocketPic2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzNeUppDpQYTt1XL8vtOmGIuXg4qm2x-WfZCrU4aHqSnJEib7FtA3_xTYWnLsz8nEV799xQccCMz0DtPNGyZANZiwZP5bMDcWM1R27CAHRo1bKLamkO6lUIcQr5l6XVgWzShU4RAJ87Q/s200/RocketPic2.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>

Summer Born Children

A consistent theme of research on children who are born during the summer months is that they can be at a disadvantage throughout their education. Now a new report from the Institute Of Education argues that streaming children by ability at a young age can exacerbate the problem. The research team u…

08Mar2013

Childcare Costs Survey 2013

Childcare Costs Survey 2013

Today sees the publication of the Daycare Trust's annual Childcare Costs survey, which examines prices charged by nurseries, childminders and after-school clubs in different parts of the UK. Already the report has generated headlines in a number of media outlets for claiming that the average cost of…

06Mar2013

EYES Search

Ever wondered  (or even noticed?) what the little search box on the right hand side of this page called 'EYES Search' is for? Read on... One of the most frustrating things about doing a Google search is the amount of irrelevant or non-academic material which appears in your results. EYES - named because it stands for 'Early Years, Education and Social policy', and also because it looks for things - tries to get around this problem by only searching through almost 100 relevant websites which I've handpicked for the quality and reliability of the information that they provide. It's still using Google software to order the results, but will only show material from the sites I've selected, so in theory should be much more likely to find you something suitable for research purposes. To test it for yourself, try doing a search for an essay topic in 'normal' Google, then do the same search in EYES and compare the results. See the difference? I don't pretend EYES is perfect, but I'm confident that in most cases it will point you towards useful information that you may not otherwise have found. Further information about the service is <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_1_DXfzcBJ8MDk2YmJmOTYtMGRkNi00Zjg5LThjNmItMmZiZGY1ZDhiNTc1/edit?hl=en" target="_blank">available here</a>, and feedback with suggestions for improvements is always welcome - email me at: <a href="mailto:D.Renfree@ucb.ac.uk">D.Renfree@ucb.ac.uk</a> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMm1ldSQHCDi4ZAXa-SjAiEMRg3HZGjUlq-2Zqkam45YuKwCBBh3nIyElsdCv3BZUf20E9pD9nrslgexPPhhx5CbSs3BNhyphenhyphentF9vrerBqXx6IOihbQv_6Ht7wgmyN0eAsu17U4NyJdQ0Q/s1600/GoogleEYES.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMm1ldSQHCDi4ZAXa-SjAiEMRg3HZGjUlq-2Zqkam45YuKwCBBh3nIyElsdCv3BZUf20E9pD9nrslgexPPhhx5CbSs3BNhyphenhyphentF9vrerBqXx6IOihbQv_6Ht7wgmyN0eAsu17U4NyJdQ0Q/s320/GoogleEYES.png" width="320" /></a></div> Comparison of Google (on left) vs EYES (on right) search results - click on image for larger version

EYES Search

Ever wondered (or even noticed?) what the little search box on the right hand side of this page called 'EYES Search' is for? Read on... One of the most frustrating things about doing a Google search is the amount of irrelevant or non-academic material which appears in your results. EYES - named b…

05Mar2013