Across all Tops Day Nurseries settings, there are specific roles allocated to staff members who are trained in specific areas to benefit child wellbeing. There are a number of roles assigned to staff, including the following:
SENCO: Special Educational Needs Co Coordinator
SENCO representatives have a legal duty to follow the SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) code of practice. This is crucial for early year’s settings in supporting early identification and intervention for children with special educational needs and will be a useful contact for parents if they were to have any concerns about their child’s development. The role of the SENCO involves ensuring all practitioners in the nursery understand their responsibilities to children with SEN and the setting’s approach to identifying and meeting SEND Code of practice.
ENCO: Equality Needs Coordinator
At Tops we believe in valuing and celebrating the diversity within our community. We aim to develop good practice and positive attitudes in the early years, and encourage an anti-discriminatory approach to the world in general, and other human beings in particular. Within all of our Nurseries we have a Equality Needs co-ordinator, whom is responsible for ensuring that all children have equal opportunities to learn, develop and grow.
Behaviour management representatives
Tops Day Nurseries aims to provide a safe environment for all children where they understand the clear and appropriate boundaries that are set for their behaviour, and their personal, social and emotional development is supported. Each of our nurseries have a named person who has overall responsibility for developing positive behaviour. The behaviour representative complies with the Early Years Foundation Stage’s guidance in managing behaviour and following a behaviour log for children of all ages.
Health and safety
The H&S representative works with our Health and Safety Manager in order to provide the HSE and Environmental Health with relevant information as required to ensure continued legal compliance. The H&S representative also carries out a H&S induction with all new staff, conducts monthly fire drills and reviews and updates risk assessments. Each month the H&S representative carries out a comprehensive check on all areas of health and safety including spot checking Early Years Foundation Stage requirements.
Safeguarding
Children’s welfare can only be safeguarded and promoted, and individuals at risk protected, when all relevant agencies and individuals accept their share of responsibility and co-operate with one another in a multi-agency approach.
Staff are all offered training on Safeguarding Children and we have a designated officer who is responsible for following up any allegations. The designated officer is usually the Nursery Manager who is closely supported by the Operations Team. The designated person will have received adequate training on the identification of abuse and understand the conduct of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board and child protection conferences and be able to make contact with the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO).
If you would like to speak to any of the representatives at your setting, please ask in the office.
