Statement from Care Inspectorate:

“The First Minister has announced that, following an increase in coronavirus (COVID-19) cases across Scotland and on the advice of her medical and scientific advisers, further measures were to be introduced across Scotland to slow the spread of COVID-19.  The announcement by the First Minister has no effect on current childcare arrangements and childcare providers should continue to operate in accordance with the current guidance.

The Scottish Government Early Learning and Childcare Directorate have issued a note outlining this to all childcare providers”.   

Click here to access the note

Scottish Government (Childcare) have announced the refresh of the ELC National Induction Resource.

They state:

The ELC National Induction Resource,  produced collaboratively with leading partners, has been refreshed to provide new ELC employees with all the relevant information they need on what to expect in their first few months in post, including the most up-to-date resources and best practice.

Click here to access the resource

Click here to hear about the resource from Maree Todd – Minister for Children and Young People

We have also added the direct link to the resource on our CALA PRACTITIONER HUB for quick and easy future access.

Tuesday 6^th October: 2-3pm

CALA members are invited to join our online virtual continuous professional development session – Using My World Triangle in Practice.

The My World Triangle is a useful tool to build a picture of the whole child, strengths, and pressures to enable us to identify the best way to support the child and their family and work with other agencies. 

We will look at ways to use the tool effectively and will also consider what Trauma-informed Practice is, and how we can become more aware of the impact of trauma for children and families.

Click here for further details

Click here to book online

Practitioners in Reay had a special delivery left outside of their setting this week! The children were super excited to open the parcel and find a tiger puppet and a letter introducing ‘Timmy the Tiger.’

The children discussed what they could do to make Timmy feel welcome and safe and decided that this week they would plan and build a special ‘den’ for him.

Senior Early Years Practitioner Yvonne explained that they will be using ‘Timmy the Tiger’ as a learning character to support children’s recall and learning experiences in a variety of ways.  For example,  before lockdown the children were working on a book on  SHANARRI and had started with SAFE and HEALTHY, using photos, pictures and children’s comments and descriptions. Next steps will be to revisit these encouraging children to tell Timmy the Tiger all about it, embedding and consolidating their understanding of what it means to be safe and healthy.  Children’s annual participation in the local garden show will be done virtually this year with Timmy the Tiger’s support to share photographs, recognise and celebrate children’s achievements with their families.

The ‘Early Learning and Childcare programme’ announced the release of a series of online bitesize resources on the Care Inspectorate Hub which will support services to complete their Key Question 5 self-evaluation

Care Inspectorate state:

“The flexible design of the bitesize resources means all ELC staff can view the four sessions at any time – supporting them to raise their knowledge and skills in specific areas. ?Anyone can access them, so it’s a helpful resource for the wider ELC sector. ?They are centred on the programme’s vision which is to see an increased number of ELC settings achieve the national standard.

1. Key Question 5 self-evaluation
2. Quick wins in ELC Care Inspectorate inspections
3. Introduction to quality improvement in an ELC context.

The sessions share some pointers and reminders which will help raise knowledge on the information and detail required to ensure ELC settings facilitate self-evaluation. “

The first in the series introduces and supports services in completing their Key Question 5 self-evaluation? The sessions have been designed to be viewed in sequence.

Click here to access