Our seasonal news updates summarise the latest childcare news plus which MindingKids resources have been added or revised so you can easily keep on track and up to date.
Yippee! Spring is here! The Easter eggs have been eaten and the kids are enjoying the lighter nights in the garden. After this chilly spell…hopefully the warmer weather will be on it’s way! Fingers crossed!
Hello and Welcome to all our new visitors, and a BIG THANK YOU to those who have recently purchased resources or signed up for Gold or Platinum Membership. We hope MindingKids is helping with the amazing work that you do.
So what’s in the news?
New Tax-Free Childcare Scheme
HMRC are to introduce a new Tax-Free Childcare Scheme from early 2017. The new scheme will replace the existing Childcare Voucher Scheme and for eligible families, will offer to cover 20% of childcare costs (up to £2000 per child, per year) for children aged 12 or under. If you are a registered provider, keep a look out for a letter from HMRC explaining how the scheme will work and inviting you to sign up. This will be of great importance to families using your service. Further information about the new scheme can be found on the Tax-Free Childcare Info Hub.
National Living Wage
The National Living Wage came into effect on 1st April this year. If you employ any staff or assistants within your service, you must ensure that you are paying them no less than the newly introduced living wage. Anyone working in the UK aged 25 or over must now be paid a minimum of £7.20 per hour, however the rate is less than this for anyone under 25 and for apprentices. For further information and to check you are paying your staff the correct amount, go to https://www.livingwage.gov.uk/
Whistleblowing advice line
A new whistleblowing advice line was launched by the NSPCC in February. The advice line offers free advice and support to professionals who may have concerns that children within their own organisation or another organisation are at risk. Whether it is an incident that has happened in the past, something that is going on just now or if you are concerned that something may happen in the future, professionals are encouraged to get in touch for advice to help minimise risk for children. All childcare settings should have a whistleblowing policy in place which should be made available to all staff. Full details of the Whistleblowing Advice Line can be found here.
You will now find a template Whistleblowing Policy in our Policies & Procedures Pack in addition to the Childminder Assistant Employment Pack.
Upcoming Events
Child Safety Week takes place from 6th to 12th June this year. Child Safety Week is ran by the Child Accident Prevention Trust and aims to raise awareness of potential hazards to children and help to prevent accidents from happening. The theme for this year’s safety week is ‘Turn off Technology!’ which focusses on how distracted we can be when using smart phones and other devices. Accidents often happen when parents and carers are distracted so by switching technology off at certain times of the day we can help to minimise risk.
You can find out more information and download your FREE child safety week action pack here.
Child Saftey Week is also an excellent opportunity to review your setting’s risk assessments and safety procedures. MindingKids has the following resources to help:
FREE Daily Risk Assessments & Safety Checks
FREE First Aid Contents Checklist
Save the Children’s Den Day takes place between 17th and 18th June this year. An excellent event to get children and families involved, have fun, get creative and raise money for charity all at the same time. Find full details, inspiration and fundraising ideas here.
In the North (Care Inspectorate)….
Excellence In Care
You may have received information from The Care Inspectorate explaining that they are are changing the way they inspect services. A useful animation is available to watch on the Care Inspectorate website here. The most important thing to note is that inspections for Childminders will not change and are to remain focussed on the SHANARRI Wellbeing Indicators.
New National Care Standards Progress
Following a consultation at the end of 2015, the overarching principles for the New National Care Standards were signed off in February by MSP Shona Robison. The next phase of development for the National Care Standards Review Group is to put together set of general and specialist standards linked to these defined overarching principles. It is expected that a draft set of standards will be published in Autumn 2016 followed by a further 12 week period of consultation and engagement. The final standards are expected to be rolled out from April 2017. The latest update bulletin on the development of the National Care Standards has now been published and can be found here and further information about the review can also be found at http://www.newcarestandards.scot
My World Outdoors
According to the Care Inspectorate, services which encourage outdoor play are delivering better outcomes for children. They have therefore put together ‘My World Outdoors’ to help support all childcare services across Scotland deliver more outdoor play experiences. The new resource includes examples of effective practice linked to the SHANARRI wellbeing indicators where children are safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible, and included. You can download a copy of the My World Outdoors resource here.
–
In the South (Ofsted)….
Consultation on 30-hours free childcare
Seeking views of how the 30 hours free childcare entitlement for 3 and 4 year olds can be best implemented, the government has published a consultation to establish the most appropriate methods for its operation and delivery. The consultation asks for views on specific issues such as how places could be delivered more flexibly, how provision will be provided for children with special educational needs or disabilities, what role local authorities will play in securing places, and how information about childcare and the free entitlement should be delivered to parents.
The consultation document highlights childminders as being critical to the delivery of the funded entitlement and states “we want to support smaller providers such as childminders to enable them to offer the extended entitlement.”
The closing date for the consultation is 6 June. Should you wish to contribute your views, you can access the consultation and response form online here.
Conduct During Inspections
At the end of February, Ofsted published a document outlining the conduct expected from both inspectors and providers during an inspection.
Amongst other requirements, the document states that inspectors should:
- be impartial
- inspect without favour or fear
- evaluate objectively and base their evaluations on clear and robust evidence
- make fair, reliable judgements and report honestly on their findings
- take all reasonable steps to prevent undue anxiety and minimise stress
As providers, we are obliged to:
- be open and honest, enabling inspectors to carry out their visit appropriately
- provide inspectors with sufficient evidence to enable them to evaluate against frameworks, standards or regulatory requirements and report fairly on their findings.
The full document can be downloaded from the Ofsted website here.
Should you feel that you have been treated unfairly during an inspection or you find that your inspector has not followed the rules of conduct, you should contact Ofsted.
Ofsted Inspections coming back in-house
At the beginning of March, Ofsted announced that inspections are to be brought back in-house. Currently Ofsted early years inspections are contracted out to companies called Tribal and Prospects but when these contracts come to an end in March 2017, Ofsted will once again directly manage inspections. This move is being welcomed by the majority of childcare providers and organisations who believe that inspections have been inconsistent and that it is only fair that they are treated with the same standards of inspections as schools.
For more on this subject, read this article from Gill Jones, Ofsted Early Education Deputy Director.
And what’s been happening in MindingKids?
WOW! We have had a very busy start to the year with a lot of new Gold and Platinum Members signing up. We have been overwhelmed by positive feedback and are so happy to hear how our resources are helping hard working childcare providers. As the business expands further, we will continue to add more helpful resources and are of course always happy to hear suggestions and ideas. We are here to help!
MindingKids would like to say a BIG HUGE thank you to Fiona Murr of Story Club English. Fiona is my very talented sister who lives in Spain and teaches English to both children and adults. She is very enthusiastic in her work and always comes up with exciting methods for children to learn through games and craft activities. This month Fiona presented her ideas and techniques to the CEP (The Centre for the Professional Development of Teachers in Spain). Fiona has very kindly allowed MindingKids customers and members access to her Adaptable Games and Activities Book, an amazing inspirational resource that will never leave you short of ideas. Whilst Fiona’s concentration is first most to teach English as a second language, her techniques are equally as useful to support children with social skills, communication and language, literacy, maths, being imaginative and learning about the world. We hope that Fiona will continue to work with MindingKids in the future and pass on some more of her amazing ideas!
Since our Winter News Update the following resources have been added, updated or improved…
Remember MindingKids Members have unlimited access to all MindingKids resources immediately as they are added or updated! Click here for further details!
New Resources
Updates / Amendments
Seasonal Planning Sheets updated to include Spring 2017.
Accounts Pack revised to include Invoices & Receipts Templates!
Whistleblowing – Raising Concerns Policy from Childminder Assistant Employment Pack also added to Policies & Procedures Pack.
Coming soon…
Following the success of our first activity packs (Under the Sea & People Who Help Us) we intend to produce further packs like this to help with planning, activity and observation ideas. As the warmer weather comes in and we can get exploring outdoors, the next activity pack due out very soon will be the Minibeasts Activity Pack. If you have any ideas or topics you would like us to cover, please get in touch and we will add them to our list of things to do!
The MindingKids Web App is continuing to grow in popularity and the feedback has been excellent. We are now looking into ways that we can build on this success and introduce further features. As mentioned in the Winter News Update we are looking into further development of the observations section and adding in an option to link observations to specific Early Years Outcomes or the Curriculum For Excellence codes. If there are any other areas of the App that you feel could be improved or a feature you would like to see added then please get in touch with your ideas. The more feedback we receive, the better it will help us to concentrate developments in the correct areas.
Requests & Suggestions
As always, we love to hear from our customers and welcome any feedback or suggestions that you may have. We are always looking for new ideas or for ways in which we can improve our products and services. Remember… MindingKids may be able to provide you with a resource you have requested for FREE! Please email us at contact@mindingkids.co.uk with your ideas!
Thank you to all for your continued support! Keep a look out for more MindingKids News soon!
Many thanks! Cheryl & The MindingKids Team! xxx
