Best Practice Network Early Years Professionals invited to CWDC directorate open day

Sandra Matthews and Nicky Oram, EYPs from Best Practice Network were asked to represent the EYP community at an 'away day' meeting for the CWDC directorate. Here is their own account of the day:

It was explained to us that when the directorate staff had met up they had often discussed the possibility of meeting some of the front line staff working as EYPs, newly qualified social workers and foster carers.

The directorate staff had spent the morning discussing what they would like to ask us about and then split into three groups so that they could spend time with each set of practitioners. All three groups were very different made up of directorate members with quite different interests.

With each group, we were asked to describe our own journeys to where we are now as EYPs. They initially asked how we felt our role had changed when we became EYPs and the conversation led to a discussion about the status of EYPs and how we are perceived by parents and children, other professionals, other practitioners and teachers. It was agreed that the profile of EYPS needs to be raised, especially with teachers. One way we suggested would help to bridge the gap are masters' programmes where early years staff come together with teachers in schools. York St. John's College is currently running one such programme.

One of the team we met had been involved with the initial development of the EYPS programme. She told us that we were exactly the sort of practitioners that the programme had been designed to bring to the forefront as 'agents of change' and this was extremely complimentary.

Asking us to describe our first hand experiences of our work as EYPs made us feel extremely valued members of the work force and it also gave us the opportunity to illustrate the very good practice that we help to support - practitioners working directly with young children and their families.

We also discussed raising the profile of EYPS to encourage practitioners to engage with the status. We were asked how we felt practitioners could be encouraged to do EYPS and what we felt the barriers might be for practitioners who would like to do it but don't, and how these could be overcome. We felt that many of are put off by the prospect of studying for 3 to 4 years and others struggled to combine work and family commitments with studying. Nicky explained about the Dorset project and how face to face support had helped nursery workers to believe that they could do further study and go on to become EYPs. There was some discussion about whether the term Early Years Professional works. Sandra felt happier with the term pedagogue, which is used in Europe, and suggests someone quite different to a teacher of older children. She also felt that this would unify higher education courses which are directed towards EYPs. However Nicky felt that using an unfamiliar word might put up unnecessary barriers.

We talked about the different ends of the EYP spectrum, for example the tensions around full pathway candidates who often have very little experience of working with children. We explained how at BPN we offer them Institute of Leadership and Management programmes alongside EYPS. We went on to discuss multi-agency working. The directorate were interested to find out whether we felt that this was happening on the front line and whether EYPs see themselves as being part of the whole children's workforce. Nicky and I agreed that although we have much closer ties with schools and health services, there was little improvement in the relationship between settings and social care who seem to us still very reluctant to share information about safeguarding - this is very worrying. However, we felt that the introduction of children's centres was slowly improving the situation, as settings can now go through their contacts in children's centres to contact social care. We felt that this was less of an issue in settings physically situated within children's centres, rather than satellite settings.

We discussed how important we felt networking was for EYPs, through LAs, training providers and CWDC itself. The EYPS Network set up by training providers such as Best Practice Network, the various local authorities and events at national level were highlighted as being extremely important in carrying forward the work of EYPs and supporting them in their role.

We explained that childcare staff don't get many 'perks', and days like the CWDC national EYPS conference are really important to boost morale and provide CPD. It was also agreed that it's helpful to encourage EYPs to continue with CPD through their LAs and training providers . We explained that we had both enjoyed adding extra aspects to our EYP roles which enhance our own practice, such as mentoring, tutoring and assessing EYPS candidates. We talked about the fact that the pay for EYPs was generally very low, especially compared to teachers' salaries, and that this should be addressed in some way. We also agreed that in the past young people who didn't do very well academically at school were often directed into child care, but felt that this is changing, although slowly.

Nicky: I think it is fair to say that we both felt it was a valuable experience. It was made very clear to us that the Directorate placed a lot of value on this direct feedback from those of us working within the Early Years and other sectors of the children's workforce.

Sandra: I found the discussions very interesting and enjoyable and I felt listened to. It has given me an insight into how children's services generally are developing and I can now see how the CWDC seem to be aiming at bringing the whole children's workforce together for the benefit of the children.