- 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.