Guide to registration on the childcare register Essay

The parents of Anjum a little girl who is new to your setting moved to England only 3 months ago. Yours is the first setting that they have used for 18 month old Anjum. They have very little understanding of the legislation covering home based childcare or the role of the regulatory body. QUESTION 1 †¢Consider 4 pieces of legislation that are important for home based childcarers and how you would outline these to Anjum’s parents? There are over 20 pieces legislation currently used to protect children and their parents whilst using home based care settings. I have outlined 4 pieces of legislation that I believe are important to home –based childcarers. Children Act 2004 This act sets out the processes for integrating services to children in England and Wales, requiring local authorities and their partners to co-operate in promoting the welfare and wellbeing of children. It created the post of Children’s Commissioner for England and introduced the requirement for local authorities to have a director of children’s services. The Introduction of The Children Act was the first time that a UK law had acknowledged that children had rights. It Places responsibility on home based child carers to help a child meet the following five priority outcomes: Be healthy Stay safe – Enjoy and achieve – Make a positive contribution – Achieve economic wellbeing – Childcare Act 2006 The Childcare Act 2006 is a pioneering piece of legislation. It is the first ever act to be exclusively concerned with early years and childcare. The act has helped to transform childcare and early years services in England. Measures in the act formalise the important strategic role local authorities play through a set of new duties. These duties will require authorities to: †¢Improve the five Every Child Matters outcomes for all pre-school children and reduce inequalities in these outcomes †¢Secure sufficient childcare for working parents †¢Provide a better parental information service †¢The act also reforms and simplifies early years regulation and inspection arrangements, providing for a new integrated education and care quality framework for pre-school children and also for the new Ofsted Childcare Register. The Childcare 2006 Act has four parts: 1. Provision of Childcare This requires local authorities to assess the need for child care and ensure sufficient provisions are made for working parents. The child care must meet the needs of all types of families especially those with lower income and disabled and those with special needs. 2. Information, Advice and Training Local authorities must also provide training and advice to persons who wish to be providers of child care. 3. Introduction of The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) This is an education framework introduced to all providers of care for 0 -8 years. Its aims are to support and teach providers in delivery of early education to babies and children. This act also introduced free nursery hours for children aged 3 and upwards. 4. Reform of the Regulation and Inspection of Childcare This part focuses on raising quality and standards of pre-school care and education and requires all providers of childcare aged 0 -8 years to be registered on the Early Years register and be monitored by the regulatory  body (UK regulatory body) OFSTED (unless exceptionally exempt). Evidence must be shown that these child care providers are continually working in line with the EYFS. The Childcare Act is of vital importance as it requires by law, those providing care to babies and children 0-8 to maintain constant high standards and that sufficient safe guards are in place and also education and development opportunities are easily obtainable for both the children being cared for, but also for the child care provider. This Childcare act has had a highly positive effect on the childcare offered throughout communities, ensuring that suitable care is within everyone’s reach regardless of their socially economic situation, the depth of their child’s needs or their cultural and racial backgrounds. The act has successfully endeavoured to eradicate childcare providers offering substandard care and learning opportunities to those they are accountable for. This of course has had an excellent impact on all children who have care provided for them outside of the family unit. Equality Act 2010 This is a relatively new legislation which replaces various discrimination acts and puts them under one heading and makes them easier to understand. The Equality Act legally protects people from discrimination in the work place and wider society. Legally people are protected if they are discriminated for their gender, race, religion, disability, breastfeeding mothers are now also covered by the law and women who are being paid less than a man doing the same job. These are just a small example of the people and situations that are covered by this law since 2010 as there are many more illustrations, the list is non exhaustive as practically anyone can be discriminated against for a multitude of reasons. The Equality Act is there to protect everyone whether in employment or not. It is there to ensure we are all on an equal footing and that everyone regardless of their social status, race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, mental health or intellectual acuity is treated with due respect and presented with equal opportunities. Data Protection Act (1998) The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA 1998) is an act defining the ways in which  information about people may be legally used and handled. The main intent is to protect individuals against misuse or abuse of information about them. There are six main parts that outline the basic rights of individuals and how information about them is handled. The law states that all information written or spoken must be processed fairly and lawfully, be obtained for lawful purposes and in a manner compatible with the given purpose, it must be relevant and not excessive, current and accurate, not be shared with any other party unless written permission is given and be protected against loss or damage. This is a fact/Info sheet to be given and discussed to with Anjum’s parents to go through the 4 legislations that I have highlighted as important to home base childcarer’s service. LEGISLATION There are over 20 pieces of legislation I follow as a childminder. Below I have listed 4 that underpin and important for home based childcarers. 1. Children Act 2004 – identifies the needs of the child is paramount. Here are the 5 EVERY CHILD MATTERS priority outcomes. Be healthy – Stay safe – Enjoy and achieve – Make a positive contribution – Achieve economic wellbeing – 2. Children Act 2006 – Measures in the act formalise the important strategic role local authorities play through a set of new duties. These duties require authorities to: †¢Improve the five Every Child Matters outcomes for all pre-school children and reduce inequalities in these outcomes †¢Secure sufficient childcare for working parents †¢Provide a better parental information service †¢The act also reforms and simplifies early years regulation and inspection arrangements, providing for a new integrated education and care quality  framework for pre-school children and also for the new Ofsted Childcare Register 3. EQUALITY ACT 2010 .The Equality Act legally protects people from discrimination in the work place and wider society. Legally people are protected if they are discriminated for their gender, race, religion or disability. 4. DATA PROTECTION 1998 .The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA 1998) is an act defining the ways in which information about people may be legally used and handled. QUESTION 2 †¢How would you go about outlining the 4 different roles of the regulatory body to Anjum’s parents? As a childminder it is important that all new parents considering placing their child in my care have a clear understanding of the regulatory body Ofsted and their roles. I would provide this information by the production and display an information sheet outlining Ofsted’s roles. In addition I would provide new parents with my recent OFSTED report and website address for OFSTED. It is important to be able to provide varying types of media to enable all new parents with all level of communication and language or cultural needs to understand the information provided. This may be in the form of different media formats including information sheets in different languages if required. OFSTED As a childminder I am registered and monitored by the regulatory body OFSTED. There are four main roles that the regulatory body OFSTED have to carry out to regulate child carer’s in order to ensure that all children receive the  best possible care away from their homes. childcare providers. ï  ®register the childcare provider, or suspend or cancel their registration ï  ®inspect the childcare, usually without arranging this beforehand (an unannounced visit) Investgation  take enforcement action against the provider in serious cases. REGISTRATION All carers MUST be registered by OFSTED, it is an offence to work with children and not be registered. (Carers exempt from being registered are those who care for children for less than two hours a day and under six separate occasions a year) A provider registered by OFSTED has to ensure all staff or people over 16 living with you at the premises or a regular visitor must obtain an enhanced CRB check, so that any criminal convictions are disclosed that make the person unsuitable to work with children. INSPECTION Inspection by an officer from OFSTED provides an evaluation of how you run your child care setting and is designed to help improve its quality and standards in the care, safety, learning and developmental progress of the children and their learning goals set out by EYFS. INVESTIGATION An investigation is carried out in cases where negative information is received regarding a particular setting to establish whether a registered provider is still meeting and complying with requirements of OFSTED registration. ENFORCEMENT If OFSTED registration standards are not met or severe misconduct is practiced OFSTED can take action against you and your business concluding in being struck off the register preventing them from legally working with children. In severe cases legal action can be taken. Bibliography I used information from the following sources: Websites 1. www.ofsted.gov.uk 2. www.legislation.gov.uk 3. Guide to registration on the childcare register, OFSTED word document 4. Children Act 2004 , Wikipedia.org 5. Childcare Act 2006. Wikipedia.org