As an early years setting we have a responsibility to help the children in our care achieve the 5 outcomes of the UK Government Initiative Every Child Matters (ECM) – Be Healthy, Stay Safe, Enjoy & Achieve, Make a positive contribution and Achieve economic well being.
Whilst we do everything we can to achieve this it is important that we contact and utilise other professionals to help us achieve these outcomes.
This is where multi-agency and integrated working comes in. By working together with different sectors, professionals and agencies we can help improve the outcomes for children in their development and learning, which is a requirement of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
One of the four principles of the EYFS is ‘A unique child’’ which states that ‘Every child is a competent learner from birth who can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured’. We had a child attend our setting who had Special Educational Needs (SEN), the child was delayed in certain areas of their development such as speech and cognitive development by 12 - 18 months. This sometimes meant that the child, although physically capable, sometimes struggled to participate fully in the activities and quieter times such as story time. As we are an independent setting and not part of a children’s centre, which may have multi agency teams in the same building, we contacted an educational psychologist who was able to come in to the setting and observe the child and give us strategies and information to ensure that we were able to uphold ‘Inclusive practice’ which is a vital part of the EYFS. The child also had mild food/drink intolerances which we were able to understand and accommodate by communication via the parent with the child's medical specialist. Liaising with other professionals helped tremendously with the child and we were able to work with the parent to also support the child at home. Please refer to CYP3.1 – 3 for other external agencies and their roles
There may be times where we are not the only setting a child attends and this can sometimes cause the child some confusion and possibly upset at the transitions between settings. If everyone involved in the child's care can share key information about the child such as their likes and dislikes, developmental stages it means that the child will have more consistency and feel more included and provided for at each setting. We have introduced communication books for each child that go home with the parent and to other settings so that we can be informed if there any issues or concerns that we can work together to overcome.
As an Early Years setting we have external agencies that we are involved with who are able to help us, such as the Local Education Authority, we have an advisor who is able to come to the setting and give guidance on what should and could be improved ranging from the way we give children the choice of resources to helping us ensure our policies and procedures are in place and correct and that we are achieving the 4 principles and 6 areas of learning in accordance with the EYFS.
We are fortunate not to have needed the assistance of the Gloucestershire Safeguarding Children Board but we know how to contact them and the correct procedures should we believe there is a child at risk or a safeguarding issue.
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