Key Person Policy
There are many different schools of thought on Key workers. They can be invaluable in big settings or children’s centres where there are so many children there is no way a single staff member can be expected to know all about every child and their back grounds. Key workers in these instances will be responsible for bringing together all the needs of their families, whether it be health and well-being issues, child-development issues advice on finding jobs or even financial advice. All these services will be found at the children’s centre.
Some theorists feel they are detrimental to the child. What happens should their key worker not be present on a particular day, how will the child and parent cope? Who will look after them that day?
Our key person system works well. The key person approach involves an individual and reciprocal commitment between a member of staff and a family. This approach has clear benefits for our children, parents and pre-school.
Once the child has started a continual circle of observation, assessment, planning, followed by more observations etc. begins. For all children to benefit from our provision we provide for their particular needs and we establish those needs from the information the key worker has gathered about the child both from the parents and from our own observations. We can then reflect on appropriate strategies to support further learning and development.
We are a small setting in a small village with just 6 staff members. We believe all our staff know all the children well and you could talk to any staff member about your child. If you should raise an issue during the morning by talking to your key worker all staff will be informed before the session gets under way ensuring the best possible care for your child. Working within the bounds of confidentiality of course.
Your key worker is responsible for the completion of your child’s learning journey and over seeing their development. Each adult will do their activity with all the children not just their key group. This ensures we all know all the children and should a key worker not be present it does not cause concern.
However should you wish to speak to your key worker about your child’s development or just simply about daily issues please do so, but NEVER talk about your child in front of them, or another child or parent.
The key worker should stay with the child right the way through their time at pre-school, however sometimes due to changes in sessions for the child and/or the staff member a change in key worker is necessary. This should not however cause an issue for the child as, as explained above, we all know all the children well.
Through the use of Tapestry as our means to create on line journals the parents can access their child's learning journey when ever they wish. The parents are encouraged to contribute to these journals with information about their child's achievements at home.
This policy was adopted at The Committee Meeting held on 12th May 2011
Having been shown to all parents and staff
This policy was reviewed September 2012 and April 2015.