Getting the best startThe Early Years Foundation Stage –an introduction for health and social care professionals

Every child deserves the best possible start in life. Children benefit from quality integrated support – with professionals and agencies working together to meet their varied needs. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) has been developed to provide a robust framework for providing this support. Early years providers will be delivering the EYFS, but as health and social care professionals you have a lot to offer in supporting them in that delivery. This leaflet outlines the EYFS and how you can link in with providers to help ensure the best outcomes for all young children.

The overarching aim of the EYFS is to help young children achieve the five Every Child Matters outcomes of staying safe, being healthy, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution, and achieving economic well-being by:

• Setting the standards for the learning, development and care young children should experience when they are attending a setting outside their family home

• Providing for equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice and ensuring that every child is included and not disadvantaged

• Creating the framework for partnership working between parents and professionals, and between all the settings that the child attends

• Improving quality and consistency in the early years sector through a universal set of standards which provide the basis for the inspection and regulation regime

• Laying a secure foundation for future learning through learning and development that is planned around the individual needs and interests of the child, and informed by the use of ongoing observational assessment.

The EYFS is a central part of the Government’s ten year childcare strategy Choice for Parents, the Best Start for Children and the landmark Childcare Act 2006. The Act provides the context for the delivery of EYFS and, taken together with the other elements of the strategy, EYFS will be central to the delivery of the new duties on improving outcomes and reducing inequalities. The Act gives EYFS legal force and it will be mandatory for all schools and early years providers from September 2008.

The EYFS brings together Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage, the Birth to Three Matters framework and the National Standards for Under-8s Daycare and Childminding, building a coherent and flexible approach to care and learning. It means that all providers of early years education and care, including reception classes, will be following the same framework.

Early Years Foundation Stage - why get involved?

Linking with Every Child MattersEvery principle in EYFS links in to one of the five Every Child Matters outcomes of being healthy; staying safe; enjoying and achieving; making a positive contribution; and economic well-being. The EYFS will help to bring together services supporting children and families.

Children’s centresSure Start Children’s Centres are already providing integrated education, care, family support, health services and support with employment. Health visitors and midwives are delivering ante-natal checks and appointments, and some children’s centres provide a base for other specialist health services such as community paediatricians or speech and language therapists.

This integrated approach is working to deliver more coherent services for families. But children’s centres aren’t available in every area and more needs to be done for the different sectors involved to understand and support each other’s work.

Key changesMuch of the EYFS will be familiar to early years practitioners used to working with existing guidelines. However, there are some new elements.

One of the most fundamental elements is to remove the current divide between care and learning so that the experience for the child is a unified one. There is an emphasis on working in partnership and communication between early years settings, so that children attending more than one setting still get the best out of their care and learning, and to ensure that the child is experiencing all areas of the EYFS. Also, the EYFS stresses the importance of observation and learning from the children themselves when planning their care and learning. This emphasis on observation will help with assessment and early referrals and intervention, benefiting the child.

Who will be delivering the EYFS?Early years settings looking after children from birth to 5 years old will be delivering the EYFS, including:

• Childminders

• Children’s centres

• Day nurseries

• Nursery schools

• Pre-school playgroups

• Reception classes.

Registration and inspectionAll early years settings providing care and learning for children from birth to the end of the EYFS will be registered by Ofsted. The requirements for schools vary depending on the age of the children and whether the school is independent.

TimescaleThe EYFS materials are available now and every local authority will support early years providers with training in the run up to September 2008, which is when the EYFS becomes statutory for all early years providers.

“We want to make sure that whatever setting parents choose, they can be confident that their child will get the best possible start in their learning and development. The EYFS is about ensuring quality and consistency across all settings where care is provided for young children.”Beverley Hughes MP, Minister for Children, Young People and Families

EYFS principlesFour guiding themes work together to underpin effective practice in the delivery of EYFS. They put the legal requirements into context, and describe how practitioners should support the development, learning and care of young children. The themes are:

A Unique Child – every child is a competent learner from birth who can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.

Positive Relationships – children learn to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships with parents and/or a key person.

Enabling Environments – the environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children’s development and learning.

Learning and Development – children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates and all areas of learning and development are equally important and inter-connected.

Learning and development The Childcare Act 2006 provides for the EYFS learning and development requirements. There are three elements:

• The early learning goals – the knowledge, skills and understanding which young children should have acquired by the end of the academic year in which they reach the age of 5.

• The educational programmes – the matters, skills and processes which are required to be taught to young children.

• The assessment arrangements – the arrangements for assessing young children to monitor their development.

Assessment arrangementsAll effective assessment involves analysing and reviewing children’s development and learning. This is used to make informed decisions about a child’s progress and to plan the next steps to meet their development and learning needs. These assessments and observations could be vital in early intervention for children with additional needs, resulting in earlier contact with health and social care professionals.

The Common Assessment Framework (CAF)The CAF helps with effective communication between the various agencies involved with children who have additional needs, or a child about whom there are concerns. It is used alongside the EYFS assessments.

Welfare requirementsChildren learn best when they are healthy, safe and secure, when their individual needs are met and when they have positive relationships with the adults caring for them. The welfare requirements are designed to support providers in creating settings which are welcoming, safe and stimulating, and where children are able to enjoy learning through play, to grow in confidence and fulfil their potential.

This part of the EYFS sets out the legal requirements that all early years providers must meet, regardless of type, size or funding of the setting. They cover safeguarding and ensuring children’s welfare, staff, premises, environment and equipment, organisation, documentation and reporting. Guidance and supporting resources are available to help practitioners meet these legal requirements in a way that reflects the needs of individual children in their care and appropriate to their setting.

The benefits of workingin partnershipThere are many benefits of services for children and families working together. The most important one of all is the joint focus on keeping the needs of the child central to our work. By adopting a multi-agency approach, it means that we can build a better future for our children and work cohesively to deliver the outcomes in Every Child Matters.

“Wherever appropriate, practitioners should work together with professionals from other agencies, such as local and community health and social services, to identify needs and provide the best learning opportunities for children. Partnership working may be required in particular for a child with disabilities or a child who is looked after in care.”The EYFS framework

Through health and social care professionals working in partnership with early years providers, we can:

• Identify learning needs and other potential difficulties early on, quickly putting appropriate support in place for the child

• Provide the best learning opportunities for children

• Make sure that everyone’s views are heard and taken into account

• Build long-term relationships and develop other collaborative approaches

• Share resources and save duplication

• Have a coherent, integrated local assessment system for individual children

• Share skills and learn from each other’s areas of expertise

• Access more resources, networks, support, knowledge and information

• Plan and deliver better services for young children and their families

• Share and build on best practice.

Practitioners building relationships Lavender Children’s Centre in the London borough of Merton has a qualified early years practitioner working as a health coordinator. The coordinator, who also has specialist health training, delivers a programme of health workshops to parents and expectant parents. The health coordinator is a joint appointment between the centre and Sutton & Merton PCT. The post is linked in with the local GP surgery and family support service, and gets to know families before they start coming to the Children’s Centre.

Not only is the coordinator’s early years experience valued by parents, but the role is more sustainable as the Centre doesn’t need to employ a separate health visitor. This means that health visitors are able to focus on core health visiting.

The early years practitioners in the Centre work with health visitors who appreciate their understanding of working with children and what this means day-to-day for parents. Health is a specific interest of a number of the early years practitioners working in the Centre nursery. They work with the children on health awareness such as healthy eating and good personal hygiene.

Michelle Rahman, Head of Lavender Children’s Centre, has a background in health and says, “Since we started working so closely with midwives and health visitors we are now working with many hard-to-reach families who are really benefiting from our service.”

There are lots of ways in which health and social care professionals can support early years providers in delivering the EYFS. You are probably doing some of this work already, but there is still a long way to go in terms of partnership working and the EYFS gives a useful framework for this. Here are some suggestions.

Be availableEarly years practitioners need health and social care professionals to be available for advice and to discuss particular issues and concerns. Being available to give advice might mean visiting the early years setting, holding regular advice surgeries, or simply having a dedicated phone line and a certain morning of the week when you’re available to answer calls.

Value others’ skills and experienceEarly years practitioners have a lot to offer in terms of their knowledge of child development, their observation skills, and the regular day-to-day contact they have with children and families. Working together can help when assessing and making decisions about a particular child, ensuring better outcomes for the child.

Work in partnershipFind out about the early years providers in your area, and make contact with them. Set up multi-agency network meetings. Involve early years practitioners when having meetings about a particular child; ask for their support and professional opinion, and share information. Show families that you are working together with all the agencies and professionals involved in that child’s life.

What you can do

Provide support attransition pointsThere are times in a child’s life when they might need more support, for example, when they first enter an early years setting, or when they move from that setting to reception class. Or there might be times of change in family life when more communication is needed between professionals, for example with the birth of a new baby or at a time of family break up.

Offer specialist sessionsStaff in early years settings need your expertise. You could complement training sessions or run specialist sessions on topics such as: safety in the home, child development, supporting speech and communication development, identifying needs, when to refer a child, or working with families with drug and alcohol issues. The list is endless. Whatever your specialism, if it relates to child and family life, early years providers will be interested.

Childminder’s keyobservation roleAnne Hodgson, a registered childminder from Leeds, was instrumental in Matthew’s diagnosis of an autistic spectrum disorder. She has been childminding for 20 years and has looked after Matthew, now aged 9, since he was 6 months old. It was Anne who first became concerned about his development when he was 2 and a half years old.

Childminders and other early years practitioners can take an objective, experienced view and use their observational skills to notice developmental delay or another problem early on. Anne kept a diary and took photographs recording her concerns and Matthew’s achievements. These observations were important when Anne talked to Matthew’s mum. And when they went to the health visitor together, Anne’s professional opinion was invaluable.

The observations and photographs of the way Matthew played and interacted with other children were a useful demonstration to the child psychologist and helped with the diagnosis.

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Useful contactsEYFS frameworkTo download the EYFS framework visit www.teachernet.gov.uk/eyfs

4Childrenwww.4Children.org.uk020 7512 2112

ChildcareLinkwww.childcarelink.gov.uk0800 0960 296

National Childminding Associationwww.ncma.org.uk0845 880 0044

National Day Nurseries Associationwww.ndna.org.uk0870 774 4244

Ofstedwww.ofsted.gov.uk0845 6404 040

Pre-school Learning Alliancewww.pre-school.org.uk020 7697 2500

Looking for more information on the EYFS?Visit: www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/faqs/foundation_stage/eyfs

© 4Children 2007, designed and published by 4Children. www.4Children.org.ukPhotography © Jason Salmon, Cairo Sealy, Paula Solloway/Photofusion, Black Stock/Photofusion, Jacky Chapman/Photofusion, Melanie Friend/Photofusion

What support is available?To develop partnerships and offer support to early years providers, the first step to take is to find out what early years provision is available in your area. Call your local Children’s Information Service – find their number and other childcare listings from ChildcareLink by calling 0800 0960 296 or visiting www.childcarelink.gov.uk.

Your local early years development worker at your local authority will be able to help with general advice, and early years contacts. They will know and be able to influence what training is available locally and be able to support multi-agency networking meetings.

Contact them also to find out about any childminding networks that are in your area. Each childminding network has a coordinator who is responsible for arranging training, meetings, liaison with parents, and visiting individual childminders to make sure they meet quality standards. Network meetings are a good way to meet, talk to, and support up to 30 childminders at a time.

If there is a children’s centre in your area (you might be working with them already) talk to them about your ideas, and see if there are any other ways you can support early years providers in delivering the EYFS.

4Children can offer general advice about working with early years providers. Find out about networking events, regional support and professional development programmes at www.4Children.org.uk or call 020 7512 2100.