Hi Andy
Firstly don't panic
An operational plan is simply that .. it is everything you have in place that makes your setting work the way it does.
It's easy to get bogged down by everything that's available so if you begin slowly by writing a list of everything that at this very moment makes your nursery operate you'll be starting on the looong pathway that occassionaly has an end to it :wink: !!
For a beginning example...
- What policies and procedures you currently have.
- What risk assessment forms you have.
- Prospectus, welcome pack.
- Enrolement and consent forms
- Parent communication methods you have - newsletters, diary sheets, parent surveys?
- Planning ~ what planning scheme you have in place
- What forms of record keeping you have for the children.
Don't necessarily keep a copy of personal information in these documents, a format with the basic content is all that is required.
Once you've a list of everything go through the national standards one by one and check off what you have in place and make another list of what needs to be looked into.
At this point grab your self a wine and flake out then come back here to tell us what you need next
Do you have other staff members that can help you through this step by step ?
ETA:
A link to Janie's Operational plan document
Downloadable National standards from
Sure Start~ Childcarelink