Partnership with parents
At Care Love Learn we believe that parents and staff need to work together in a close partnership in order for children to receive the quality of care and early learning to meet their individual needs. We welcome parents as partners and support a two-way sharing of information that helps establish trust and understanding. We are committed to supporting parents in an open and sensitive manner to include them as an integral part of the care and early learning team within the out of school club.
Policies
Care Love Learn has policies/procedures that fall in line with current legislation to ensure good practice and safety at all times. You can view these policies at any time during our opening hours, please ask a member of staff for details.
Settling in sessions
At Care Love Learn we aim to support parents and other carers to help their children settle quickly and easily by giving consideration to the individual needs and circumstances of every child and their families. Our aim is for children to feel safe, stimulated and happy in the out of school club and to feel secure and comfortable with all staff. We also want parents to have confidence in both their children’s continued well-being and their role as active partners, with the child being able to benefit from what we have to offer.
All our staff know about the importance of building strong attachments with children. They are trained to recognise the different stages of attachment and use this knowledge to support children and families settling in to the out of school club.
We will work in partnership with parents to settle their child into the out of school club environment by:
- Allocating a key person to each child and his/her family, before he/she starts to attend. The key person welcomes and looks after the child, ensuring that their care is tailored to meet their individual needs. He/she offers a settled relationship for the child and builds a relationship with his/her parents during the settling in period and throughout his/her time at the setting, to ensure the family has a familiar contact person to assist with the settling in process
- Reviewing the nominated key person if the child is bonding with another member of staff to ensure the child’s needs are supported
- Providing parents with relevant information about the policies and procedures of the out of school club
- Welcoming parents to stay with their child until the child feels settled and the parents feel comfortable about leaving their child. Settling in visits and introductory sessions are key to a smooth transition and to ensure good communication and information sharing between staff and parents
- Reassuring parents whose children seem to be taking a long time settling in to the out of school club and developing a plan with them
- Assigning a buddy/back-up key person to each child in case the key person is not available. Parents will be made aware of this to support the settling process and attachment
Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) is a new Government scheme which will give eligible families up to £2,000 per child towards childcare costs, including the fees for breakfast, after-school and holiday clubs. The aim is for it to replace the employer-supported Childcare Voucher scheme.
