Duty of care means

Duty of care means as a practioner you need to be reasonable to everyone around you and make sure you do not neglect an individual and you need to meet everyone’s individual needs. As an early years practioner your duty of care is important because the children are dependent on you to take care of them while their parents/carers are working/studying throughout the day. As an early years practioner your care is important to these children because the children are relying on you to take care of them while they are not with their parents/carers, also if a child does something wrong you cannot shout at them just speak to them in a calm manor and explain to them what they done is wrong and they are not allowed to do it, the children do not understand what is right from wrong this is where you come in and explain what is right from wrong but explain it in a simple way so they will understand you.

As an early years practioner your duty of care contributes to the safeguarding of each individual in your setting. Children under the age of 3 years they are dependent on adults to look after them in ways they can protect the children from harm, to safeguard the children you carry out risk assessments in your setting taking precautions to prevent likely hazards and risks which may lead to harming the children by accident of by infection, you should set rules on what the children can do and what they cannot do, the children should be aware of these so that they can harm themselves or the other children in the setting, these rules should be simple in a way the children can understand them.

As an early years practioner you should be able to notice signs of a child being abused if you notice these signs while the child is in your care as an early years practioner you should follow the policies and procedures you have in place at the setting.

There are potential conflicts or dilemmas which could occur between the duty of care and individual rights, these potential conflicts or dilemmas which may occur are; risk taking, your duty of care may conflict with the child’s right to learn from their mistakes, you cannot keep telling the children what is a risk they have to learn from their own mistakes and figure out what risks are and how to stop them from happening, we cannot wrap children up in bubble wrap to stop them from getting hurt everyone gets hurt once in their life time so as children they will be wanting to go out and explore for themselves.

As an early years practioner your duty of care powers over the child’s rights if they disclose information about they are getting abused at home, so as an early years practioner you will have to tell the child that you cannot keep the information to yourself you have to tell another colleague because you have to make sure that you are following the right policies and procedures.

There are many places to get additional support and advice about conflicts and dilemmas. Management are there to help you with any conflicts and dilemma’s which you are unsure about because you haven’t dealt with the conflicts and dilemmas you are going through Social Services are there to help if you have any concerns about the child’s wellbeing and welfare, if you are dealing with a conflict or dilemma about a child’s wellbeing and welfare done be afraid to ask for help.

There are many do’s and don’ts while you are dealing with complaints The Do’s Follow the correct policies and procedures because you don’t want to be dealing with complaints the wrong way Answer all question what have been asked because the parents/carers have the right to know all the information about their child on how they are while they are in the settings care As an early years practioner you should respect the parents/carers views and ideas because you are showing an understanding of what they have been talking to you about Find an alternative this is important because you cannot always go do the route the parent/carer wants you to so you are trying to suggest another way to deal with the situation The don’ts

Ignore the complaint; this is important because the parent/carer may feel like you are not bothering with their child while they are in your care Swear; you should not swear while you are dealing with a complaint because you are being unprofessional Deal with a complaint in front of the children because if the parent/carer becomes aggressive the children will feel scared because they don’t know the person who is being aggressive to a member off staff Panic, you should never panic while dealing with a complaint because it shows the parent/carer you do not know what you are going on about

There are 5 stages how to make a complaint which your child goes to nursery/school. Stage 1; if parent/carer has a concern about their child with their learning then they should talk to the key worker/class teacher but not in front of the other children Stage 2; if the complaint hasn’t been sorted or recurs again after they have complained the first time it will get moved to this stage of the complaints procedure the concern will have to go to the Early Years Manager and the Chairperson of the Management Committee.

However most complaint will get resolved at stage one or stage two Stage 3; at stage 3 the parent/carer will sort out an meeting with the Early Years Manager, during this meeting the parent/care and the Early Years Manager must have someone with them for a witness, between them they should make an written agreement what has been said throughout the meeting and everyone will have a copy of this Stage 4; at this stage a mediator joins a meeting with the parent/carer their witness and the Early Years Manager and their witness to make a decision of what can be done and what is the best idea to meet the parents/carers child’s needs are being met. The Mediator will hear both sides of the stories and give the best advice they can give. Stage 5; when the complaint reaches stage five the parent/carer the Early Years Manager and someone of their choice and mediator have come to a conclusion a record of this is kept the reason for the record to be kept is so that the complaint has been followed in the correct procedure and the best conclusion as been done