Working with Children is a demanding and responsible role that is a vocation in life. It is a highly rewarding career choice and one that will offer endless opportunities to continually train and improve your performance.
To be a Evolution Childcare employee you must be prepared for rigorous staff recruitment and background checks as outlined in the Department for Education (DfE) published guidance which highlights the staff recruitment and selection procedures aimed at deterring, rejecting or identifying people who might abuse children.
This guidance, entitled Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education explains that safe practice in staff recruitment means thinking about and adopting child welfare issues at every stage of the process. The main elements that we have adopted include:
On December 1st 2012, as part of the many changes brought about by the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) merged to become the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). A DBS check is a record of an individual’s Convictions, Cautions, Reprimands and Warnings and can also include intelligence held by the police and/or the DBS that relates to that individual and their suitability for a job position.
Security Checks from DBS continues to be responsible for the functions previously carried out by the CRB and ISA with the exception of the ISA Registration Scheme, which has been discontinued.
All Evolution Childcare members of staff/Volunteers/Students etc MUST have clean Security Checks with DBS and be processed from Evolution Childcare PRIOR to working in any of our nurseries.
In line with our safeguarding policy this check prevents the possibility of a safeguarding issue within our Nurseries. We take every measure to protect our children against coming into contact with any person who may not have been adequately checked as our organisation would be held legally liable.
In order to ensure that we achieve our goal in providing outstanding childcare we ensure that our team, are also very clear of our visions and values and this is echoed daily as they work alongside us in accomplishing our aim.
Through the continual daily support and training that we offer to our team we in return have a highly committed, dedicated and motivated workforce who work well within the high standard parameters that are set and maintained on a daily basis.
Within Staff employment all new staff are assigned a mentor and also have a supervision meeting on a monthly basis with a qualified member of the team to ensure they are settling in well. Staff are only classed as a permanent member of the team once they have completed their first three month induction and are then given a new member of staff uniform rather than a trainee uniform.
Our staff employment and development is not only achieved through internal training systems and programmes but also via an in-depth Job Offer Pack that is customized for their role. A section of the job offer pack is a clear definitive roles and responsibilities section that enables any member of the team during their staff induction to have a very clear understanding of what their role entails. Due to the clarity that is attained from the beginning of each individuals staff employment our team can work alongside these set roles and responsibilities and implement these duties as part of their daily roles which in turn leads to a highly skilled individual.
As we ensure that every team member is provided with the best tools and knowledge to do their jobs well, we additionally provide an idyllic work environment that to supports and assist them with in depth operational procedures and systems so we can rest assured that our team are well supported, capable and very confident within their roles.
In Evolution Childcare good practice starts at the top and is cascaded down through effective role modelling and supporting one another and by giving everyone a voice. Thus ensuring that every staff member is listened to and acknowledged we can constantly advance and make improvements and continue to thrive in making Evolution Childcare a huge success.
Staff Training is at the Heart of the Evolution Childcare ethos, visions and values.
Under the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage it clearly states that providing a quality learning experience for children requires a quality, well-trained and properly qualified workforce.
Evolution Childcare commit to:
All staff embark on a journey of Individual Professional Development with Evolution Childcare.
We see staff development as quite simply a means of supporting people in our workplace to understand more about the environment in which they work, the job they do and how to do it better. It is an on-going process throughout their working journey with us.
We live in a rapidly changing world where legislative, social and economic developments directly affect the environment in which we live and work, and where technological advances provide radically different ways of working. Professional Development opportunities provide a means whereby we can keep abreast of these changes, broaden our skills and be more effective in our workplace.
Individual Professional Development is part of each individual’s personal ambition to be a better practitioner, enhance his/her career prospects or to simply feel more confident about their work and make it more personally fulfilling. It can be a step on the ladder to higher qualifications or enhanced job prospects or be required by professional bodies to maintain professional status.
Through Evolution Childcare's commitment to life- long learning, we encourage individuals to consider Professional Development as an essential part of modern working life – a means of managing and developing their careers over the course of a lifetime.
We are fully committed to the provision of appropriate, effective and relevant Professional Development opportunities that enable our staff to succeed.
Evolution Childcare pride themselves on having a clear and comprehensive staff handbook that reflects the ethos, vision, values and aims of our organisation. The handbook is a working resource that continually is reviewed and updated in line with legal and compliance related changes.
By creating a working staff handbook Evolution Childcare are providing our team with:
Evolution Childcare pride themselves on good staff managment with very low staff turnover and believe this is down to the respect we show our staff and the encouragement of a Work/Life Balance.
We believe that in order for people to achieve their potential in the work place they need to feel supported, valued and clear about what is expected of them.
Evolution Childcare have a responsibility to ensure that staff enjoy coming to work, find help when they need it and feel that their efforts are recognised. We pride ourselves upon the support we offer one another whilst also recognising that we must continue to improve as a nursery and place an emphasis upon delivering the highest quality education we can to the children in our care.
We believe it is only with a healthy, happy and relatively stress-free workforce that such quality of delivery can be made. We have a responsibility to all members of our team to value the contributions that everyone makes and recognise that we are as strong as our weakest link. Through staff management, development and mentor support we aim to encourage the sharing of difficulties and develop an open environment in which staff feel able to come forward with their problems and offer examples of their strengths.
We also wish to recognise that our staff may have dependants who will also make demands upon their time. We aim to provide opportunities for staff to attend to the needs of their immediate family and recognise the additional pressures that this can sometimes place upon an individual at different times of life.
Conducting regular staff performance reviews and appraisals is a way to ensure that all our employees are supported, motivated and encouraged to develop.
There are a number of ways to approach appraisals, but often the simplest processes are the most effective. We have numerous performance measures at Evolution Childcare to enable a holistic and balance approach to our team such as:
From these forms of staff training we can then tailor and guide each staff member down the correct path before evaluating this annually during each staff members appraisal. From this appraisal we can then attain a view of our team and commence with the next years training and begin our training cycle again.
All staff Performance reviews are set agains SMART Objectives and the five Smart Criteria:
For example:
Identifying a need for first-aid knowledge could translate to the following SMART objective:
Evolution Childcare value and respect their employees. Staff Rewards are key for us as a Company to recognise, reward and engage our team as part of our commitment to empowering our team.
It is important with team building for Evolution Childcare to have employees who are happy in their work.
When team morale is high, it is a proven fact that efficiency, performance, and most importantly high quality childcare is at its best.
For this reason team building plays an important role in the long term strategy for Evolution Childcare.
We want all our employees to feel they belong, It doesn’t matter whether young or old, everybody enjoys taking part in activities and games that are fun and interesting, and can give an increased sense of belonging.
We set our team building exercises away from the workplace if possible. This is because it places everybody away from the usual distractions and familiarity, giving people the chance to interact with their peers in a fresh environment, where they can bond free from the day to day pressures.
At Evolution Childcare we organise nights and days out to encourage being part of a team.
