- The Care Council
for Wales is a Welsh Government sponsored body which is responsible
for supporting the development of a confident and competent
workforce in social services, early years and childcare. We
support the sector and the Welsh Government in implementing the
Draft 10-year Plan for the Early Years, Childcare and Play
Workforce in Wales
and Building a Brighter Future: The Early Years and Childcare
Plan
and the Social Services and Well-Being (Wales) Act, 2014. The
latter has a number of important provisions in relation to support
for children and families.
- Our key messages
are:
- To provide
effective services a well qualified workforce is needed. To
support this we are working with the sector and Qualifications
Wales to introduce a new set of qualifications for the early years
and child care sector which will include clear references to the
importance of a holistic approach to the first 1,000
days
- The workforce
needs to continually improve and reflect on practice. To
support this we produce a range of resources to support the early
years and childcare workforce
- To support
children’s well-being it is vital to maintain the social care
aspects of early years and childcare provision
- Sustainability in
the sector is required to support children’s attachment and
development. There are concerns regarding the financial
stability of the early years and childcare sector
- Concerns for the
safety of children need to be identified early and social workers
and other staff need the requisite knowledge and skills to keep
them safe.
- We welcome the
committee’s interest in this area. At a time when the
Welsh Government is set to expand the number of childcare places,
it is important that a holistic approach to the early years is
maintained.
Care
Council’s role
- In order to
sustain and improve services for the first 1,000 days of life, a
skilled and qualified workforce is required. The Care Council
for Wales provides support to the early years and childcare
workforce by providing training resources, by developing
qualifications and by managing a sectoral network.
- The Care Council
for Wales works alongside the sector to develop resources which can
be used to promote best practice within early years and childcare
settings. Our resources include guides for recruiting, inducting,
supervision and continued professional development.
The aim of these documents is to highlight the importance of
remaining up to date with practice, and to ensure that workers are
aware of new policy areas and legislation such as the importance of
the first 1,000 days.
- The Care Council
has developed a multi-agency Early Years and Childcare Workforce
Development Network to support its work in this area. An
important part of this work is development of a new suite of
qualifications to better meet the needs of the sector and to ensure
child centered care is at the heart of the workforce. More
information on the qualifications is provided in paragraphs
17-21 below.
Promoting and
protecting the health and wellbeing of children from
pregnancy
- Parenting in
Wales: Guidance to Engagement and Support
highlights the
importance of early intervention and prevention as a means of
developing a relationship with expectant mothers. Programmes
such as Flying Start have adopted a partnership approach to
engagement with families. This includes intensive midwifery
and health visiting. However this programme is a targeted
programme and not a universal model. The proposed introduction of
Children’s Zones to tackle adverse childhood experiences
could allow this model to be rolled out more widely. By
establishing a relationship with expectant parents at an early
stage, services are able to maintain contact with them throughout
pregnancy and the early stages of a child’s life.
Delivering
improved child health outcomes across Wales
- Building a
Brighter Future outlines a
commitment to ensuring children in Wales have the right foundations
for good health and are actively engaged in learning and equipped
with the skills to reach their full potential. Section two of this
plan highlights the importance of good health and well-being during
the first seven years of a child’s life. The plan draws
together the social, economic and environmental factors which
contribute to the quality of child’s start in life.
Within early years and childcare settings, schemes such as the
Healthy and Sustainable Preschool scheme (HSPSS)
and Designed to Smile
encourage children to be active, eat healthily and have good oral
health. Alongside intensive health visiting; which is offered
in Flying Start; these schemes aim to support achieving and
maintaining a healthily weight. They also support the development
of learning environments which actively promote and embed,
physical, mental and social health and wellbeing. Although
HSPSS is a universal programme, Flying Start area were targeted
first. With the introduction of Children’s Zones, there
is an opportunity to more universally role out these programmes and
support the Early Years health outcomes of children in
Wales.
Tackling child
health inequalities
- Working with the
sector we are developing qualifications which respond to the Welsh
Government’s policy priorites on tackling health
inequalities. As Building a Brighter Future
highlights, one in three children in Wales are living in poverty,
with 20 percent living in absolute poverty. Prevention and
intervention at an early stage in children’s lives can
improve their outcomes in the future. Therefore,
consideration of these factors and issues such as adverse childhood
experiences and knowledge of Children’s Zones have been added
to the core content of the new qualifications (see below for more
information). There is also an optional unit within the
Children’s Care Learning and Development qualification which
specifically focuses on child poverty and the factors which can
affect children living in poverty.
Reducing child
deaths and injury prevention
- The Care Council
has a responsibility for regulating the social care workforce and
promoting high standards of practice and of training. In
April 2017 the Care Council will transform to become Social Care
Wales. Fundamental to our work will be ensuring we safeguard
children’s well-being. Concerns for the safety of
children need to be identified early and staff appropriately
trained. The Care Council will be reviewing the social work
qualifying programme next year and this will include a review of
the content in regard to safeguarding.
- The
Children’s Commissioner’s report
into residential childcare highlighted the importance of
safeguarding children in residential child care. Parenting
in Wales also highlights the importance of early interventions
with parents and the use of positive parenting strategies to
encourage parental behaviour based on the best interests of the
child. The Social Services and Well-Being (Wales) Act, 2014
supports this, with its emphasis on early intervention and
prevention. The Care Council is supporting the social care
workforce in rolling out best practice in this area, in particular
around conversations with people about what matters to
them.
Supporting
effective child development and emotional and social well-being and
improving learning and speech and language development through the
home learning environment and access to early years’
provision
- The ability to
support children’s learning and development is fundamental to
the work of the early years and childcare practitioner.
Therefore, within the core units of the new children’s care
learning, development and play qualifications practitioners are
provided with knowledge and understanding of speech and language
and the role it plays in a child’s
development.
- Strong, supportive
families are important to build resilience in children and provide
the starting place for their communication skills to develop.
Building a Brighter Future highlights the importance of
encouraging parents to provide a learning environment at home for
their children. Building a child’s speaking and
listening skills from an early age gives them the best start in
life.
Reducing the
adverse impact on the child of psycho-social issues such as poor
parenting, disruptive family relationships, domestic violence,
mental health issues and substance misuse through effective
safeguarding
- A high quality
workforce is key to deliver the best outcomes for children.
The Draft 10-year Plan for the Early Years, Childcare and Play
Workforce in Wales highlights how the early years and childcare
workforce is wider than just those who work within childcare
settings. A workforce which adopts a “team around the
child” approach with services integrating and working in a
joined up way to achieve the best outcomes for the
child. This would include liaising with social services
and health professionals who may best be able to meet the needs of
a child.
- It is important
that policy makers do not to lose sight of the social care aspects
of early years and childcare settings in the current drive across
the UK to make children “school-ready”. Whilst
the school-ready approach can ease and aid transition, it is
important not to lose sight of the child’s safety, overall
well-being and parental engagement which can determine a
child’s future development. A child who is abused or
does not feel safe, is unlikely to be able to learn and develop to
their full potential. There are some innovative examples of
how local authorities are using their early years pupil deprivation
grant to this effect.
- Effective
safeguarding involves social workers working with people and other
agencies to provide the support necessary to protect children and
others. The Care Council will be reviewing the social work
qualifying programme next year and this will include a review of
the content in regard to safeguarding. We will also be
reviewing safeguarding training for the wider social care
workforce.
Early years and
childcare qualifications review
- The Care Council
for Wales has developed a list of required qualifications to work
within the early years and childcare sector in Wales
in partnership with the sector. It was published in 2009 and
reviewed in 2012 and 2014. The list provides guidance for
early years and childcare employers, practitioners, learning
providers and other organisations about the required occupational
qualifications for those working in early years and childcare with
children below the age of 8 years.
- Alongside a range
of other social care organisations and training providers, we
provided evidence to Qualifications Wales in their recent Sector
Review of Qualifications and the Qualification System in Health and
Social Care including Child Care and Play Work.
In response to our evidence Qualifications Wales found that found
that there were a number of potential improvements which could be
applied to the qualifications system across the
sector.
- The Care Council
for Wales is now working with Qualifications Wales, the NHS’
Workforce Education Development Service and other partners are
developing a new suite of qualifications for the health, social
care and childcare and early years sector. New draft core content
for the has been developed and are currently out for consultation
with the sector.
- Within the
proposed new suite of child care and early years qualifications the
are optional units which aim to support early years and childcare
practitioners to imbed principles from key initiatives including
Healthy Child Wales; Building a Brighter Future; Flying
Start (including language and play); the Foundation Phase; Families
First and Healthy Schools.
- Within the
proposed core of the new child care and early years qualifications
there is reference to play, nutrition and hydration and positive
environments to support the health, well-being, learning and
development of children. The core also highlights the
importance of partnership working with parents and other
professionals. In the development of the new qualifications, we
have worked closely with our colleagues in health to ensure the key
messages from Ten Steps to a Healthy Weight and Welsh Government
programmes such as Healthy and Sustainable Pre-School Scheme are
incorporated into the core and optional units.
Financial
stability
- The Welsh
Government’s 30 hour children offer could provide children
who may not have the opportunity to attend childcare where they can
integrate with other children and engage in early education
activities. However, there are concerns within the early years and
childcare sector in relation to financial sustainability. There is
anecodotal evidence that settings are unable to remain open unless
they are Flying Start or Foundation Phase providers. The proposed
introduction of an increased free childcare offer provides an
excellent opportunity for universal roll out to aid sustainability
in the sector and provide more parental choice. This scheme
is currently being piloted across Wales in various formats.
It is important that Welsh Government reflect on the pilots to
ensure that the universal 30 hour childcare offer best aids
sustainability of provision, ensures consistency and continuity of
care for the child and also supports a high quality Early Years and
Childcare Workforce.