EYFS Training: Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements - Practitioners lead the way

Changes to the welfare requirements place a new responsibility on all managers and staff to exercise their own professional judgement, when it comes to ensuring the wellbeing and safety of children.

With their emphasis on training about safeguarding and supervision, the new Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements represent an integrated approach to welfare, aiming to raise staff awareness and close gaps in knowledge.

While the sector has welcomed the move towards less paperwork for risk assessments, it recognises that these are by no means precluded. If anything, individual practitioners now carry more responsibility when making professional judgements, and assessing and managing risk.

Calvin Hanks, quality director at Acorn Childcare Training, supports this view. 'Due diligence will require practitioners to be able to show that they took reasonable steps to protect those under their care, and while the EYFS suggests that repeat risk assessments are not required for repetitive activities, any new activity will require a risk assessment as the EYFS does not override health and safety law,' he says.