How do you ensure you know what is going on?

[manjay]

As the focus becomes more and more on us being self sufficient I wondered what everyone does to ensure they keep themselves updated with legislative and good practice changes? CSSIW expect that we have processes in place which enable us to hear about changes as they happen. How do you all do this?

By nature I like to know exactly what is going on so I sign up for any email updates I can find as well as following organisations on facebook and twitter. I get updates from Welsh Government, CSSIW, Care Council for Wales, PACEY and in particular PACEY Cymru. Whilst not all information provided is relevant to childminders there is often useful information included. The most recent edition of Care and Share from CSSIW has information about the current White Paper which sets out the proposed changes to the regulation and inspection framework aswell as the way in which the new Quality Judgement Framework for Early Years will be introduced. Recent email updates from Welsh Government have highlighted the fact that a new law is being introduced at the end of this month with regard to my obligation to display my food hygiene rating score.

Networking is another great way to keep yourself in the loop, both online and face to face. This forum has helped me immensely over the years and as long as you remember that the legislative changes discussed often only apply to English members it is a great way to find out new things. PACEY Local is now being rolled out across Wales which is designed as a peer to peer support network for both members and non members to get together face to face to discuss local and national issues.

How does everyone else manage this aspect of their business?

[blue bear]

I rely on sarah posting changes on here and Facebook

[Simona]

As the focus becomes more and more on us being self sufficient I wondered what everyone does to ensure they keep themselves updated with legislative and good practice changes? CSSIW expect that we have processes in place which enable us to hear about changes as they happen. How do you all do this?

By nature I like to know exactly what is going on so I sign up for any email updates I can find as well as following organisations on facebook and twitter. I get updates from Welsh Government, CSSIW, Care Council for Wales, PACEY and in particular PACEY Cymru. Whilst not all information provided is relevant to childminders there is often useful information included. The most recent edition of Care and Share from CSSIW has information about the current White Paper which sets out the proposed changes to the regulation and inspection framework aswell as the way in which the new Quality Judgement Framework for Early Years will be introduced. Recent email updates from Welsh Government have highlighted the fact that a new law is being introduced at the end of this month with regard to my obligation to display my food hygiene rating score.

Networking is another great way to keep yourself in the loop, both online and face to face. This forum has helped me immensely over the years and as long as you remember that the legislative changes discussed often only apply to English members it is a great way to find out new things. PACEY Local is now being rolled out across Wales which is designed as a peer to peer support network for both members and non members to get together face to face to discuss local and national issues.

How does everyone else manage this aspect of their business?

what a thought provoking question...these days we are constantly told we need to be 'independent' and learn to look for updates wherever they come from.

I use lots of methods
LAs for their changes especially Safeguarding
Ofsted newsfeed and regular newsletter
DfE website
Optimus Education

Twitter ...where so much is shared and comes up from experts and also an excellent source of peer support with all sorts of professionals...good to follow Ofsted and DfE there too
periodicals: NWorld/EYE/CYPNow
LinkedIn Nursery World Group
PLA and Under 5 Magazine for all updates and press releases

Plenty of other sources too but those are my main ones

You must be bemused by the amount of changes we in England are going through...relentless and hard to keep up with especially when we seem to be going round in circles

[sarah707]

It's really hard - you have to keep an eye on everything - especially as more and more information seems to pop up on social media which is not, in my opinion, an appropriate place ... it's too easy to skim past and miss

We are very good at information sharing - i am on lots of email lists - I just wish there were more hours in the day!!

[Bluebell]

I agree there is LOTS of information - too much and some of it is just lost in the sheer volume. I agree with blue bear - I do seem to get a lot of the updates from here first.

I have Ofsted updates but think I get lost in them as to what is relevant and what it not. I seem to get loads.
I get updates from my development worker but these are usually after I have normally found out through discussions elsewhere on FB or on here....

[Simona]

It's really hard - you have to keep an eye on everything - especially as more and more information seems to pop up on social media which is not, in my opinion, an appropriate place ... it's too easy to skim past and miss

We are very good at information sharing - i am on lots of email lists - I just wish there were more hours in the day!!

I would say it depends on how we interpret 'social media'...Twitter and FB are so called 'social media' but I also think Twitter is very informative and we can skip the 'social media' part of it...personally that is not why I am there...but combined with useful websites it can be a powerful tool for picking up and sharing info!

So far I feel I am pretty updated and what I pick up from there gets researched a bit more and ...voila!!...I am proving I can be independent and not relying on anyone else to put a link for me to open and read or having to rely on an agency to provide it for me!

Yes I definitely agree that more hours in a day would make life easier especially when one has interests outside of EY!

Bluebell...I so agree with you about LA info...by the time I get it is really old news...digested, filed away and acted upon!!

[Mrs Scrubbit]

I'm on lots of email lists too but must say our lovely Sarah is my most valued source of info and updates, all of which are translated into simple english..........thank you so much Sarah xx

[tulip0803]

I am also on CSSIW, Pacey, Pacey Cymru, Morton Michel on-line. The Care Council of Wales sends me info in the post. I follow them on Twitter along with my local FIS. I find it hard sometimes to find the info when they send through big updates which are not necessarily relevant to us. I tend to skim then try to come back and read properly later but with only one laptop and DD1 doing 2 on-line A level courses I often do not have access on line or on the computer.

A lot of info comes from here and from Manjay. I often feed back to my local group sometimes before the development officer has had the info. I don't do Facebook.

I do get info updates from 2 different FIS and development officers as I am on the border of 2 counties.

And of course whichever childminder in the group has just had their inspection and has been given info by CSSIW inspector. Sometimes it can be like Chinese whispers though.