Key persons are the lynchpins of any early years setting, as they shoulder the responsibility for creating the family atmosphere in which children can thrive.
Effective delivery of the Early Years Foundation Stage, with its emphasis on meeting the needs of the individual child, will depend largely on key persons fulfilling this role (see box below).
'The main purpose of a key person system is to create a "family" atmosphere,' says Jo Lea, manager of Charlie Caterpillars Day Nursery in Bloxwich. 'When looking at setting up the key person system, we have to take into account the sessions that the child attends, the hours the team member works and the compatibility between the child, parent/carer and the team member. We encourage the child to choose their own key person and allow up to two weeks for this to happen.'
Every member of the nursery's staff attended EYFS training provided by the local Children's Information Service. This was followed by a team meeting where they shared all they had learned and decided how best to implement it.
In room teams, the staff then worked on putting the decisions into practice through using observation sheets, updating the child's personal development records, updating the child's individual planning and then sharing the information with parents and carers.
Training for the role
'Key persons must receive training,' says Ruth Booth, company director of Training Packages. 'You will develop the appropriate skills over time with experience, but to do that you have to understand fully the scope of your role and responsibilities.
'Some settings have paid lip service to the key person approach, but managers need to ensure that the staff have the training and support to fulfil the role.'
The company offers practical training guides focusing on aspects of the EYFS, including the key person role. The guides are available for the individual practitioner, for a management team developing a key person approach, and for a nursery chain or county council early years team.
The key person has a three-way role, according to Anna Hanks, managing director of Acorn Childcare Training, who says, 'The key person has a responsibility to the child, the parents and to the setting in terms of doing observations and keeping records.'
The company's one-day course on the role of the key person covers:
- Attachment theory
- The role of the key person approach
- Why secure relationships are important
- How to be an effective key worker
- Overcoming separation anxiety
Ms Hanks adds, 'I think a lot of people are almost scared of being too close to the children, and try to keep a distance. That won't work, especially if you are dealing with the under-threes. They need someone with whom they can form a special bond.
'When parents bring their baby to the nursery they want to know there is that special person. You need to reassure parents, particularly new ones, that you are ensuring their child feels safe and secure but you aren't trying to take their place.'
KEY SKILLS
An effective key person should be
- Committed to the role
- A good communicator
- Calm and confident
- Open and sensitive, particularly during the settling in process
- Tactful - never forgetting the parents are a child's key carers
- Able to form attachments
- Able to provide comfort and reassurance
- Able to gather and share relevant information
- Able to prioritise to make the time to communicate with the parents at the beginning/end of the day.
The manager of a key person should:
- Be a good communicator
- Develop clear systems for induction so new staff know what is expected
- Organise an effective welcome and settling in process so parents understand the key person system
- Organise rotas so the key person is on duty when their key children attend
- Organise a buddy system to cover when the key person is absent
- Devise a system for information to be shared between colleagues when handing over between a key person and buddy
- Organise a system for recording observations to inform planning
- Organise a supportive transition system for children as they progress within and beyond the setting. Next month: communicating with children and parents
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.childcaretraining.co.uk
www.training-packages.com
DEFINITION OF A KEY PERSON
The Early Years Foundation Stage says every child in a group setting must be assigned a key person. This goes further than the Birth to Three Matters framework, which, while it stated that it was essential for a young child's well-being that he or she had a key worker, did not make it mandatory.
The EYFS highlights the job of the key person as a link sharing information with parents and carers about the child's life at home.
The EYFS glossary defines a key person: 'the named member of staff with whom a child has more contact than other adults. This adult shows a special interest in the child through close personal interaction day to day. The key person can help the young child to deal with separation anxiety.'
The EYFS Principles into Practice card (2.4 Positive Relationships - Key Person) says, 'A key person has special responsibilities for working with a number of children, giving them reassurance to feel safe and cared for and building relationships with their parents.
The welfare requirements of the EYFS (section3.4) explains the requirements of the role more fully, saying that a key person:
- Helps a baby or child to become familiar with the setting and to feel safe and confident
- Talks to parents to make sure the needs of the child are being met appropriately
- Makes sure that records of development and progress are shared with parents and other professionals as necessary
- Is still needed in a setting as someone a child can depend upon, such as their teacher or teaching assistant, even when a child is older and can hold key people from home 'in mind' for longer.
CASE STUDY
The introduction of 'wow' certificates and renaming key workers as key persons are the only changes in response to the EYFS that have had to be made at the two Polly's Day Nurseries in Stroud, Gloucestershire.
'The "wow" certificates are a way of recording information gained from parents,' says Anna Mead, proprietor of Polly's. 'So if a parent says, "Charlie took his first steps at the weekend", that would be recorded on a certificate and put in his Learning Journey portfolio.
'The "wow" certificates are a way for us to record information about what the child is doing at home. We can put it together with our own observations into our planning. It means we have a picture of the child at home as well as in the nursery.
'We have monthly one-to-one sessions with every member of our staff. It was during those that we introduced the "wow" certificates to the key persons and talked through how we would implement them.
'When someone is becoming a key person they shadow someone already in that role. We also have a very detailed induction process, so when someone joins us they learn about our settling in policy, how to reassure parents and give detailed feedback.
'We train our staff to deliver appropriately detailed and individually-tailored feedback. In our daily feedback to parents we relay important basic information about eating, drinking and sleeping, and also tell them about their child's achievements, things they've said, done and particularly enjoyed that day. We call these "key moments".
'We create stable, consistent staff teams in each age group so children, parents and staff have the chance to get to know each other well. Each key person has a buddy working with them. If parents collect their child after the key person has left for the day, they are welcomed by a familiar face and can talk to someone who has helped care for their child.
'We intentionally overstaff our nurseries. A benefit of this is when a key person is on holiday or allocated non-contact time, we maintain ratios using an established team member with whom the children feel comfortable.'
The introduction of 'wow' certificates and renaming key workers as key persons are the only changes in response to the EYFS that have had to be made at the two Polly's Day Nurseries in Stroud, Gloucestershire.
'The "wow" certificates are a way of recording information gained from parents,' says Anna Mead, proprietor of Polly's. 'So if a parent says, "Little Tommy took his first steps at the weekend", that would be recorded on a "wow" certificate and put into Tommy's Learning Journey. The Learning Journey is a portfolio that each child has recording their time with us.
'We had the key worker system and the Learning Journeys before the EYFS. The "wow" certificates are a new communication link for us to record information about what the child is doing at home.
'When we gain that information from home and put it together with our own observations of that child, we can put it all into our planning. It means we have a picture of the child at home as well as in the nursery.
'We have monthly one-to-one sessions with every individual member of staff. It was during those that we introduced the wow certificates to the key persons and talked through how we would implement them.
'When someone is becoming a key person they shadow someone already in that role. We also have a very detailed induction process, so when someone joins us they learn about our settling in policy, how to reassure parents and give detailed feedback.
'In our daily feedback we tell parents about key moments of their child's day. It is not just "he ate his lunch and had a nap". We pick out something that a child particularly enjoyed.
'The ratios determine the number of key children someone has. Each of our baby room staff has three children in their key group. Every key person has a buddy, so if the key person is not there the child and parent know the buddy.
'We are overstaffed on the ratios, so almost every day there is someone off. We have a holiday cover person, who is employed full-time and so is not new to the children when she comes to work in a room when a key person is away.'
