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Section 2: Roles and Responsibilities
Each worker is part of a wider workforce, working in partnership with others to support delivery of an agreed set of outcomes for all children.
The Issue
2.1 Our starting point for considering the roles and responsibilities of a future workforce was to look ahead to how services are likely to be delivered in the future to provide our children with the best start in life. Of course we cannot predict exactly what these services will look like. However, we already see increasingly integrated services for children and more work with parents and families. To enable children's services to become more integrated, we see the case for much closer alignment of the wide range of professionals working with children. We were not tasked to consider the wider children's services; our job was to consider the early years and childcare workforce.
2.2 The Early Years and Childcare workforce is a relative newcomer to the wider group of professionals serving the needs of children. It is still, as this Review readily recognises, developing its professional identity and in this respect could be described as being "behind" other professionals like teachers and health workers. However, we have been struck again and again in our deliberations by the potential in this workforce to help us redefine what we mean by "education" or "good enough parenting" or even "childcare". We are hopeful that the Review is read therefore not only as a document which is of relevance to the workforce itself, but as an important, even ground-breaking, contribution to the debate about how we step outside our institutional boundaries and look again at the needs of all children in a truly holistic fashion.
2.3 Currently, few of those working in early years and childcare would consider themselves part of a single workforce. Workers can be based in a range of settings such as nurseries and nursery classes, playgroups or family centres; or, in the case of childminders, working their own homes; or outwith formal settings entirely, as may be the case for some playworkers. In addition, separate qualification routes exist for workers in childcare and education and for playwork.
2.4 However, there are significant common elements to what all workers do, regardless of the setting. A key common interest is to ensure that children are happy, safe and settled within their care settings. In addition, there has recently been a clear focus on developing services to meet the all-round needs of children and families. However, services have evolved for different purposes and staff experience and focus may vary from setting to setting. The Ministerial vision for children provides an explicit set of shared outcomes to be delivered by all those who work with children. Furthermore, For Scotland's Children3 once again emphasised the need for improved collaboration across services in order to deliver joined up services and the kinds of services children and families need. Delivering the kinds of services that meet the vision for children means that all those working in children's services need to work together.
The Proposals
The main proposal within this Review is to develop a single, shared framework to encompass the diverse roles and responsibilities of the early years and childcare workforce, which links explicitly to the vision for children.
2.5 A key aspect of this is to promote the message that each worker is part of a wider workforce, working in partnership with others to support delivery of an agreed set of outcomes for all children.
The Roles and Responsibilities Framework
2.6 The Roles and Responsibilities Framework (Annex B) is the cornerstone of this Review. It sets out broadly what every worker in the early years and childcare sector should be doing to realise the Vision for Children and Young People. It is structured around 3 sets of organising principles.
- One is the Vision, with its seven outcomes - "Safe", "Healthy", "Nurtured", "Achieving", "Active", "Included" and "Respected and Responsible".
- The second component which we have called "Organisational" covers a range of functions necessary for the delivery of effective services.
- The third organising principle is the set of three registration categories identified by the Scottish Social Services Council in relation to early years and childcare workers - "Lead Practitioners/Managers", "Practitioners", and "Support Workers".
2.7 The Framework comprises a section for each of the seven vision statements, plus the "Organisational" theme, and each section starts with a short list of thematic statements, setting out the broad objectives for all workers, associated with the
high-level vision statement. For example, in relation to the outcome "Safe", the thematic statement is:
Everyone who works with children should ensure that: - each child is protected from abuse, neglect and harm;
- each child is equipped with the skills and knowledge to keep themselves and others safe;
- the setting environment is safe and comfortable.
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2.8 Thereafter the Framework sets out a group of Core Responsibilities - in this case "A safe, secure environment for each child", "Child Protection" and "Collaboration with other agencies to ensure children are safe and protected" - and outlines the broad expectations of each category of workers in relation to these responsibilities.
Safe | Everyone who works with children should ensure that: - each child is protected from abuse, neglect and harm
- each child is equipped with the skills and knowledge to keep themselves and others safe
- the setting environment is safe and comfortable
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Core Responsibility | Lead Practitioner/Manager | Practitioner | Support Worker |
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A safe, secure environment for each child. | Ensure that establishment policies and practice provide a safe and secure environment which meets all regulatory requirements. Ensure that each child is supported to develop the skills and knowledge to keep them safe. | Understand own and other staff member's responsibilities in order to provide a safe and secure environment which meets all regulatory requirements. Assist each child to develop the skills and knowledge to keep him/herself safe. | Understand and carry out own responsibilities in order to provide a safe and secure environment which meets all regulatory requirements. Assist each child to develop the skills and knowledge to keep him/herself safe. |
Child Protection. | Ensure that procedures for child protection are in place and are understood and implemented by all staff. Establish an ethos of trust where staff feel confident and supported in raising concerns about child protection issues. | Keep up to date with guidance and procedures and support other staff in implementing these. Report and discuss any concerns to line manager. | Keep up to date with guidance and procedures. Report and discuss any concerns to line manager. |
Understand and carry out responsibilities in relation to child protection. Take care to ensure that the safety and wellbeing of each child is considered at all times within the setting. |
Collaboration with other agencies to ensure children are safe. | Ensure that relationships with relevant agencies are established and maintained. Ensure that all staff understand their responsibilities and arrangements for liaising with other agencies when appropriate. | Identify and report concerns in line with local procedures and establish and maintain contacts with relevant staff in other agencies. | Identify and report concerns in line with local procedures. |
Work in collaboration with other agencies to ensure effective support for individual children. | Provide information to support good collaboration with other agencies. |
2.9 The Framework is designed to provide a unifying, operational agenda for staff and employers, clarifying the shared and interconnected purposes of early years and childcare services. It does not describe in detail exactly what every worker does or would do in every setting. However, we would expect it to inform the development of all job descriptions by employers. Workers in different settings may also find that what they do day to day is reflected more prominently in some areas of the framework than in others.
2.10 An important characteristic of this workforce is that it is constantly changing to meet the demands and expectations of children, families and communities. The Framework will therefore require further development and adaptation over time. It will also require to be tested with workers across the sectors, to ensure that it is fit for purpose and relevant for all settings. We also know that it will need to evolve with developments in the way that services are delivered.
2.11 Although this Framework is designed for the early years and childcare workforce, there may be real benefit in extending the principle to include all those who work with children - the wider children's services workforce.
2.12 We also recognise that there is a group of staff who are not part of the early years and childcare workforce we were considering, but who make an essential contribution to quality services for children. These ancillary staff, e.g. cooks, cleaners, janitors and drivers have different skills to the early years and childcare workforce. These workers need to exercise their skills in a way that supports the outcomes for children, and employers have a role in helping them do that.
What does the Framework Mean in Practice?
2.13 Many workers will recognise many of their current roles and responsibilities within the Framework. A key challenge, however, is to develop a framework to support a process of continuous development and change in the way early years and childcare workers work - as part of the wider children's services, as reflective practitioners. For example:
Developing a multi-disciplinary knowledge |
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At present a number of early years and childcare workers have a sound knowledge base in their particular specialism. More and more, workers are being asked to work across settings and with a range of other professionals. One example of this is where direct work with children means workers, rather than managers, need to be able to attend multi-disciplinary meetings; present their case at these meetings in a coherent and professional way and take decisions about actions as a result of this. A recent example of this was work done by a playworker, head teacher and educational psychologist who were brought together at a case conference to consider the future placement of a child in Primary 2 who had been expelled from school. Working collaboratively across traditional professional boundaries will enable these frontline workers to fully support the sometimes complex lives children lead and help streamline the work of other professional agencies. |
Working with communities |
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It is important that the early years and childcare worker has a clear knowledge base of the local community. Workers will be expected to signpost services that parents can access and some may be required to provide mentoring services for parents and children. Increasingly there may also be a need to develop parenting programmes within the community and to have a clearer understanding of how healthy environments and healthy lifestyles contribute to the well being and general development of the child. In some areas, workers are being asked to contribute to planning arrangements for services in new neighbourhood Children and Family Teams. So, additional skills will need to be developed alongside existing ones. These will include the skills to engage with parents and children, to work across a wide range of teams and specialist areas, team working, record keeping and report writing and the skills that result in professional reflection. It is also likely that in the future, workers will become involved in researching and developing their own practice. |
2.14 We were struck by the similarities between the roles and responsibilities we are proposing and some of the other examples of professions working in similar settings elsewhere in Europe. For example in Scandinavia, pedagogues are professionals who work with children, and often adults, across a range of settings including in the early years and with school age children. They work with the whole child with the emphasis on living beside children and working through situations and relationships, recognising that learning and care are inseparable. The role of the teacher within the Reggio Emilia approach is as a co-creator of knowledge and culture and a co-researcher with children. Although we do not suggest that these are the models we should adopt in Scotland, we do think that, in looking at how our own early years and childcare profession develops, we should consider the pedagogue model. We debate this in more depth in Section 7 - A Developing Profession.
Consultation Questions
The main challenge identified in this section is how to create a coherent early years and childcare workforce which shares common roles and responsibilities, and which has a shared understanding of its contribution to securing the best outcomes for children.
1 | What are the barriers to developing a coherent early years and childcare workforce with a shared understanding of roles and responsibilities? How can they be overcome? |
The main proposal is to develop a single shared framework of roles and responsibilities for the early years and childcare workforce that is based on the vision for children and young people.
2 | To what extent does the Roles and Responsibilities Framework provide a useful basis for developing a shared professional identity across the early years and childcare workforce, and for driving forward the integrated working agenda? |
3 | Does the Roles and Responsibilities Framework reflect what workers in all sectors of the workforce are likely to be doing as services develop over the coming years? |
4 | Is the Roles and Responsibilities Framework a useful basis for developing professional qualifications in the sector? |
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