Policies and procedures are essentially a roadmap for many different aspects of operating an early childhood service and underpin compliance and quality practice.
They provide a shared understanding of the various practices implemented within the setting to promote best outcomes for children, families, team members, and the early childhood service itself.
However, having the most professional and comprehensive policy manual is of no benefit if the policies it contains are not implemented. Likewise, procedures that outline and guide everyday practice do little to support staff if staff are not familiar with them. Policies and Procedures are an important tool for all stakeholders connected with the early childhood service. This ensures that there is a shared understanding of compliance and procedures enabling consistency across all aspects of the service.
MOSAIC offers a range of support to early childhood services around policies and procedures:
1. A downloadable Policy and Procedure review guidance document will provide you with a step-by-step approach to reviewing your policies as part of your Quality Plan. Download here
2. You can undertake our FREE CPD Programme on Reviewing Policies and Procedures on our training platform at www.earlyedcpd.ie
3. You can also view and purchase a range of policy packs and good practice documents on our website www.mosaicearlyed.com
Additional information: MOSAIC Educator www.mosaicearlyed.com is an inclusive, secure, child documentation system on a cloud-based app designed for use in early childhood services. The design of MOSAIC puts child safeguarding and child voice at its core. This includes password protected classrooms, parent authentication and secure storage compliance. In addition, the unique design of MOSAIC using an individual storybook for each child, means photos, videos and information is only accessible to the registered parent/family members outside the early childhood service. Parents can download all information to a personal device before information is deleted from a secure server at regular intervals.
About the Author:
Avril McMonagle is Founder and CEO of MOSAIC Digital Solutions for Early Education which provides a range of child centred digital products, training and quality compliance supports for early childhood services and stakeholders. For more see www.mosaicearlyed.com; email [email protected] and follow us on social media @mosaicearlyed
