Winter News Update!

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.

WoW! Where did January go? I can’t believe we are so far into 2017 already. A big HELLO to all our new visitors, and a huge THANK YOU to those who have recently purchased resources or signed up for MindingKids Membership. Whether you are just starting out in the world of childcare or have years of experience, we hope you have found something on our website to help you on your journey.

We have been very busy here at MindingKids with lots of developments going on behind the scenes. So much so that our news update is a little later than planned! You can read more about the goings on at MindingKids below but first of all, here is a little summary of the latest childcare news…

Car Seat Rules

Are you ready for the changes to car seat rules coming into force soon? From March 2017, it will be illegal to buy backless booster seats for use by children who are less than 125 cm tall or weighing less than 22 kg. Please note that it will not be illegal to use booster seats purchased prior to March but you need to be aware of the change in law and should consider how you can best ensure the safety of all children in your care. By law, all children must use a car seat until they are 12 years old or 135 cm tall, whichever comes first.

Read the law on child car seat safety here.

Keeping Children Safe Online

The NSPCC have teamed up with 02 in a campaign to improve awareness and online safety for children. As registered childcare providers, we have a duty to protect children from potential threats online and from viewing inappropriate material. You will find some very useful advice on both the NSPCC and O2 website including information on setting up parent controls and tips on how to talk to children about online safety. You can even pop into your local 02 shop and they will help set up parent controls for you.

You should have adequate measures in place to ensure the online safety of children within your setting. We have an Internet Safety Policy template included in our Policies & Procedures Pack that you may find useful.

New Handwashing Guidance

New handwashing guidance has been released by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for all children and young people. The guidance recommends that all children from pre-school and above should be taught when and how to wash and dry their hands properly. The main aim of the guidance is to improve people’s knowledge and awareness of infection control which will in turn help to reduce the increasing problem of drug-resistant infections. Recommendations include:

Displaying information about handwashing, hygiene and infection control
Ensuring good food hygiene
Providing adequate facilities for all children, staff and visitors to enable proper hand washing including liquid soap and tepid water or British standard approved handrubs.
Educating children about the importance of thoroughly washing and drying hands

You can read the new guidance here.

We have now updated our Hygiene Policy template within the Policies & Procedures Pack to include this information.

Tax Free Childcare – Don’t forget to register!

If you have not already done so, you will need to sign up for the new tax free childcare scheme in order to receive payments. The scheme is being introduced as a means of helping working parents with the cost of childcare and will eventually replace the current voucher system. All registered providers should by now received a letter from the government with a code to allow you to sign up. If you have not received this or perhaps misplaced your letter, you should contact the childcare service helpline on 0300 123 4097.

A summary and reminder of the top things childcare providers should know about the scheme can be found here.

It may also be useful to remind parents about the scheme and point them towards this information guide.

In the North (Care Inspectorate)….

Ready to Read Guidance

A new campaign has been launched to help improve children’s early language skills. Research has shown that children who are encouraged to read and enjoy books from a very early age will have a head start in the early years of primary school. It is a very sad statistic that currently one in five children growing up in poverty in Scotland will leave primary school unable to read well, something that we as childcare providers can help to prevent.

You can view the Ready to Read guidance here.

Annual Returns

The Care Inspectorate require all annual returns to be submitted before Friday 17^th February. If you were registered before 1^st October 2016, you must submit a return, even if you are currently inactive. Annual Returns provide a means for the Care Inspectorate and Scottish Government to collect valuable statistics and gain an overall insight into childcare provision in Scotland. If you have not already done so, you can complete your annual return online via the eForms system.

The SCMA also has a helpful article about completing your annual return here.

In the South (Ofsted)….

Ofsted – Facebook Childcare Registration Page

Ofsted have set up a new facebook page to help new childminders with the registration process. The new page aims to answer any questions and offer advice and assistance on what Ofsted agrees is a very complex process. Ofsted have also announced that they will be changing the terminology on their website to provide a clearer explanation of registration requirements.

You can visit the Ofsted Childcare Registration Page here.

Ofsted Inspection Focus 2017

What strategies do you have in place to promote positive behaviour in your setting? As highlighted in their annual report, Ofsted’s inspection focus this year is to be on children’s behaviour. Inspectors will be collecting evidence to show how behaviour management in the early years can impact on children’s attitude to learning later at school. Inspectors are most likely to observe listening and communication skills, how children relate to and interact with others, whether children are motivated and engaged in activities, what techniques are used to promote positive behaviour in the setting and what measures are put in place to challenge negative behaviour.

If you do not already have one in place, you might want to put together a Behaviour Management Policy whilst also re-assessing how you encourage good behaviour in your setting.

There is a Behaviour Management Policy template included in our Policies & Procedures Pack.

30 Hours Free Childcare

From September this year the free childcare entitlement for some 3 and 4 year olds is set to increase from 15 to 30 hours. This helpful guide from madeformums.com will help parents see what they will be entitled to receive. There is still lots of controversy however as to how this new scheme will work and whether the funding formula used by local authorities will pay enough money to childcare providers to ensure sustainability. In addition to this there are major concerns that the government has underestimated the potential take-up by parents of the scheme which could lead to a 30 hour capacity crisis.

You can find several interesting articles regarding the 30 hours funding on the Nursery World Website here.

To see how the new formula is expected to be applied in your local authority and what rates you can expect to receive for funded places, use the Pre-School Learning Alliance’s Early Years National Funding Formula Calculator here.

New Oral Health Toolkit

A toolkit has been published by Public Health England to support supervised toothbrushing within early years settings and schools. With recent reports showing that almost a quarter of 5 year olds have tooth decay, Public Health’s aim is to raise oral hygiene awareness in children aged 2 to 4 years. A study undertaken by 4Children looked into the feasibility of delivering a supervised toothbrushing programme across a variety of childcare settings with the results showing that it would be easily manageable and provided at a low cost. Childcare settings in Scotland already deliver a toothbrushing programme through the Childsmile programme with very positive results.

You can read 4Children’s feasibility study here and you can download the toolkit here.

Some helpful toothbrushing resources can also be found on the Foundation Years website here.

You can also find a toothbrushing consent form and log within the Care Plan section of our Logbooks & Forms Pack.

And some exciting news from MindingKids…

Our software experts have been working extremely hard behind the scenes making good progress on developments to the website and web app. With an ever increasing number of members and amount of resources on offer, we are looking to improve member experience by introducing a download button on each product description page. This will mean that members can download resources as they see them rather than having to look through the downloads tab every time within the account manager. We are also considering ways in which we can improve the navigation of the website to make it easier for our customers to find what they need.

To add further to this great news, we are almost there at putting some new web app features together. These include increasing the capacity of the app from 12 to 20 children, adding a prominent reply button to email reports to encourage parents to respond with comments and feedback and most excitingly adding a facility to record and track individual outcomes within the observations section of the app. Very soon app users will have the option of linking observations to the Early Years Outcomes, Characteristics Of Effective Learning, the Scottish Curriculum For Excellence or the SHANARRI Wellbeing Indicators. In addition to this, the app will also be able to generate Outcome Reports for every child therefore easily tracking which outcomes have been achieved to date. We hope to announce arrival of these new features very soon.

As ever we are also incredibly busy creating more helpful resources and making updates and improvements where required. We are delighted to hear such positive feedback from customers and also to receive so many requests and suggestions. It is always really useful to hear what resources you are looking for or which areas of childcare you find difficult. We are forever looking for inspiration of how we can further assist our customers so don’t be shy in asking…we are here to help!

Since our Autumn News Update the following resources have been added, updated or improved…

Remember all of our resources are available to purchase separately, however MindingKids Members have unlimited access to all MindingKids resources immediately as they are added or updated! Click here for further details!