Staff Development and Training Policy

Staff Development and Training Policy

At Rabbit Patch Day Nursery we value our staff highly. We believe that ongoing personal and professional development is essential for the delivery of high-quality learning and development opportunities for children in their early years

The overall quality of our nursery is underpinned by our staff having the appropriate qualifications, training, skills, knowledge, and a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities.

Every staff member is given the opportunity to further develop their training, knowledge and skills through a comprehensive and targeted programme of professional development. High-quality professional supervision is also provided, this provides each staff member with support, coaching and training and promotes the interests of children. Each meeting is planned based on individual performance related targets, consistent and sharply focused observation and evaluations of the impact of staff’s practice.

We ensure that half of all staff are qualified to Level 3 (or equivalent) or above in childcare and education or Early Years Educator. Other staff working at the nursery are either qualified to Level 2 or undertaking training. Where necessary staff will be supported to achieve a suitable level 2 qualification in Maths and English (as defined by the Department for Education on the Early Years Qualifications List) for the completion of the Early Years Educator.

We strongly promote continuous professional development and all staff have individual training records and training plans to enhance their skills and expertise, which are based on discussions at supervision meetings and appraisal meetings. We have a training budget which is set annually and reviewed to ensure that the team gain external support and training where needed.

To facilitate the development of staff we:

• Coach, mentor, lead and offer encouragement and support to achieve a high level of morale and motivation
• Promote teamwork through ongoing communication, involvement and a no blame culture to enhance nursery practice
• Provide opportunities for delegation based on skills and expertise to offer recognition and empower staff
• Encourage staff to contribute ideas for change within the nursery and hold regular staff meetings and team meetings to develop these ideas. Regular meetings are also held to discuss strategy, policy and activity planning
• Encourage staff to further their experience and knowledge by attending relevant external training courses
• Encourage staff to pass on their knowledge to those who are less experienced and share knowledge from external training with small groups of staff within the nursery
• Provide regular in-house training relevant to the needs of the nursery
• Carry out regular 3 monthly supervision meetings with all staff. These provide opportunities for staff to discuss any issues particularly concerning children’s development or well-being including child protection concerns, identify solutions to address issues as they arise and receive coaching to improve their personal effectiveness. Staff appraisals are carried out with the owner annually where objectives and action plans for staff are set out, while also identifying training needs according to their individual needs
• Develop a training plan that sets out the aims and intended outcomes of any training, addressing both the qualification and continuous professional development needs of the nursery and individual staff
• Carry out training need analyses for all individual staff, the team as a whole, and for the nursery every six months
• Promote a positive learning culture within the nursery
• Offer annual team building training
• Carry out full evaluations of all training events and use these to evaluate the training against the aims set to enable the development of future training programmes to improve effectiveness and staff learning
• Provide inductions to welcome all new staff and assign a ‘work buddy’ to coach, mentor and support new staff
• Offer ongoing support and guidance
• Offer varied information sources including membership of local and national organisations, resources, publications and literature to all staff.