Teamwork and Collaboration in Early Years Settings

Mary Stacey

• Publisher: Learning Matters
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781844455683
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

This book looks at the challenges of restructuring services and working with people with different training and working practices. It suggests that the way staff work together will impact on the service offered to children and their families. It explains how to be an effective member of the team and encourage confident and open communication between colleagues. It looks at what makes an effective team; discusses how the organisational set-up affects the practice positively or negatively; suggests ways for creating listening environments where colleagues can discuss differences; and emphasises the importance of developing professional learning together.

1 Setting the scene: the
Early Years Professional
within the team

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CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

This book is primarily for those wishing to achieve graduate Early Years Professional Status (EYPS) but it is also relevant for anyone, whatever the stage in their professional training, who is a member of an Early Years team and wants to reflect on their role within it.

This chapter provides an overall framework for the book and identifies the relevant Early Years Professional (EYP) Standards for Teamwork and Collaboration (Standards 33–36) that have to be demonstrated for the award. It discusses how the role of the EYP has evolved as a result of government initiatives. It exemplifies the kind of settings that Early Years practitioners may work in and looks at the role an EYP may have within a team.

After reading this chapter you should be able to:

• identify the EYP Standards that apply to teamwork and collaboration;
• compare your setting and your role within it to other models described;
• reflect on the role of the EYP and the multi-layered meanings that underlie the title.

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The Standards

The main focus of the book is on your relationships with other adults, particularly your colleagues, and on your role as enabler within a team. In the Guidance to the Standards for the award, the group of Standards for Teamwork and Collaboration (S33–S36) are described as follows:

. . . these Standards do not relate to personal practice with young children, which practice is covered by all the other Standards; nor do they relate to managerial responsibilities, which fall outside the remit of the Standards for EYPS. They relate to EYPs’ personal practice with colleagues, through which they provide leadership and support.

(Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC), 2008a, page 61)

Nevertheless, the children and families are the essential reason for developing good relationships with your colleagues and will be at the heart of your communications. As an EYP, you are likely to take the lead, and indeed are expected to demonstrate this through your practice, but your role as a team member is crucial too. For a full discussion on your role as leader, you can refer to Whalley, (2008) Leading practice in early years settings, which is also part of this series.

In the Standards for Teamwork and Collaboration, candidates for the EYPS must demonstrate their ability to:

• S33: establish and sustain a culture of collaborative and co-operative working between colleagues;
• S34: ensure that colleagues working with them understand their role and are involved appropriately in helping children to meet planned objectives;
• S35: influence and shape the policies and practices of the setting and share in collective responsibility for their implementation;
• S36: contribute to the work of a multiprofessional team and, where appropriate, coordinate and implement agreed programmes and interventions on a day-to-day basis.

These Standards cannot be discussed in isolation however, and will only be demonstrated in conjunction with those from the other groups of Standards. For example, you will need to demonstrate to your team your knowledge and understanding of the Early Years Foundation Stage and how to put this into practice (Standard 1), discussing and agreeing with them high expectations for children in their learning and development (Standards 7–24). You will also be supporting others in developing respectful and listening relationships with children (Standards 25–28) and engaging families and parents in meaningful partnerships (Standards 29–32). Hand-in-hand with this goes your own professional development (Standards 37–39).

The content

This is first and foremost a practical guide. It asks you to reflect on yourself and the groups you belong to, and on ways of collaborating and communicating more effectively. As a team member, you cannot work in isolation and some of the reflective tasks are designed for use with other members of a team. A number of the exercises you will encounter in this book have been used in a range of Early Years settings and many of the ideas come as a result of my work with practitioners. The case studies are based on my discussions and interviews with practitioners working across the Early Years sector. Names and, in some cases, the specific details have been changed to maintain the anonymity of individuals and settings. Each chapter includes references to theoretical perspectives and arguments related to this subject. As it is impossible in this book to include everything that has been written on such a complex area, you will find suggestions for further recommended reading at the end of each chapter.

As the Guidance to the Standards (CWDC, 2008a) points out, settings will vary and therefore affect the way you demonstrate your support and leadership within a team. You may be new to Early Years work and have worked elsewhere, but whatever your background, you will bring transferable skills and knowledge that can be shared with others who may bring something different from you. Thus in Chapter 2, we look at teams in general and how they develop, and then consider the framework required for them to work successfully. The Guidance to the Standards (CWDC, 2008a, page 63) suggests several ways of demonstrating this group of Standards from one-to-one meetings with colleagues, leading workshops or discussing ways of incorporating policy or changing practice. As an EYP you will need to be able to communicate well with your colleagues, particularly if asking for change.

In Chapter 4, we look at the ways personal interaction affects a team and discuss some strategies for communicating assertively. Collaboration is another skill you will need and in Chapter 5 we look at this in its fullest sense, suggesting some practical ways for creating forums where practitioners feel confident to discuss differences or ask questions. With the intention of raising quality across all settings, the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) (Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), 2008b) framework has required Early Years teams to re-evaluate their practice. And with the introduction and development of policy and legislation following the Every Child Matters Green Paper (Department for Education and Skills (DfES), 2003) and subsequent Children Act (2004) and Childcare Act (2006), many practitioners have experienced radical changes as services have joined up and roles and responsibilities have altered. In Chapter 7, we look at some of the debates concerning what developing a professional workforce entails and how you manage your own and your colleagues’ anxiety and handle possible conflict in times of change. Picking up the themes of previous chapters, we end the book considering each within the broad context of a multi-agency team, and focus on the challenges of sharing information for the benefit of children and their families.

A children and young people’s integrated workforce

Change is a feature of Early Years practice. If you have been working in Early Years for any length of time, you will be aware of the new policies and government initiatives impacting on the sector. One of the key areas that will have a continuing effect on the way you work with others is the way the children’s workforce is expected to work in an integrated way. The Common Core of Skills and Knowledge (DfES, 2005a), often referred to as The Common Core, sets out the basic skills and knowledge needed by any workers, paid or voluntary, involved in regular contact with children, young people and families. There are six main areas that all practitioners are expected to fulfil in their work:

• effective communication and engagement with children, young people and families;
• child and young person development;
• safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child;
• supporting transitions;
• multi-agency working;
• sharing information.

The Common Core is used for job descriptions, in induction, and in the development of training and professional qualifications across services for children and young people. It is also intended as a base for an Integrated Qualifications Framework so as to allow more opportunities for training and more mobility within the workforce. The Children’s Workforce Strategy (DfES, 2005b, page 29) states that the reason that 40 per cent of practitioners are not qualified to Level 2, the basic level of training, has been the lack of a framework clearly linking skills development with career progression. Raising the level of qualifications of the workforce in order to raise the quality of the service and thus reduce inequalities amongst children and their families is central to the government’s plan. There are critics who feel that many of these skills and knowledge are too prescriptive in the way they have to be demonstrated and we shall follow up some of these ideas later. Nevertheless, the EYFS and Common Core emphasise the need for consistency in children’s experience, and high-quality practice in Early Years settings. The principles underpinning both documents are the same, originating from Every Child Matters with a focus on the well-being of the child and reflecting the five outcomes for children that you will be familiar with: be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve in life, make a positive contribution, and achieve economic well-being. You can find more details of the six key areas of skills and knowledge at www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/deliveringservices/commoncore/.

Looking at these areas, you will see that the idea of teamwork and collaboration is embedded within each of them. They form a base for developing common values and standards of working amongst a team of practitioners across services and are relevant whether you are a member or leader of a team.

Working with other practitioners

Giving a collective name to those working in Early Years settings is not easy as they come from many different backgrounds and with a variety of qualifications. In this book they will be generally referred to as practitioners, occasionally as professionals and specifically, when applicable, as an Early Years Professional. Fumoto et al (2004, page 182) argue that the word practitioner is problematic because it distracts our attention from taking a reflective view of teaching and learning. We shall look later at some of the complexities of bringing together an Early Years service where there has been a historical division between education and care, which is still evident in the low status and pay for the majority of those who work there. The idea of a graduate-led profession has resulted in the introduction of the EYP, where teachers have previously been the only graduates in Early Years. The draft proposal for the newly formed lead professional in the Early Years (DfES, 2005b, page 36) put forward two possible titles for the role: new teacher or social pedagogue. There is much debate about these titles and particular connotations for the words teaching and pedagogy.

One argument is that the term teacher can put too much emphasis on the technical usage and does not necessarily imply the importance of the adult/child relationship in the learning (Fumoto et al, 2004). Siraj-Blatchford et al (2002) prefer the word pedagogue, which implies a balance between child-initiated and adult-initiated learning, and also reflective and reflexive practice on the part of the adult. The word pedagogue is widely used...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword from the series editors
• Acknowledgements
• About the author and series editors
• 1 Setting the scene: the Early Years Professional within the team
• 2 The nature of teamwork
• 3 Looking at your organisation
• 4 Communicating assertively with your team
• 5 Meeting together: creating listening forums
• 6 Developing professional learning together
• 7 Managing change
• 8 Taking part in a multi-agency team
• Appendix 1: Practical task – Damaging meetings
• Appendix 2: Action minutes
• Appendix 3: Giving critical feedback – a summary
• References
• Index