Early learning and childcare quality indicators: Nurturing care and support

'Very good' nurturing care

Our practice is built on the understanding that nurturing relationships are essential for children's growth and development. Children experience warm, consistent and responsive care that fosters their wellbeing. They are safe, sensitively cared for and skilfully helped to express their needs.

We recognise the importance of supportive transitions and understand that their significance can vary for each child. We regularly assess each child's individual needs and evaluate the effectiveness of our transition strategies. We ensure consistent relationships to support smooth transitions and minimise disruptions to children's care and learning experiences. Guided by best practice, such as 'Realising the ambition: Being me,' we evaluate our approaches and continually strive to improve our practice. The varied age groups in the setting positively impact transitions because older children are encouraged to welcome, support and guide younger or newer children.

Children’s privacy and dignity are respected. We balance promoting children's independence with providing support where it is needed. We continually reflect on our practice to ensure it adapts to children's evolving needs and development.

We create diverse spaces that support children to socialise, play in small groups or alone if they wish. This positively impacts our children's ability to regulate their emotions and build social skills.

Our children's food choices are nutritious, culturally appropriate and aligned with current dietary guidelines. For example, Setting the table and Food matters. Fresh water is readily available throughout the day. We consider daily routines, such as mealtimes, as valuable opportunities to promote children's involvement, independence and enhance their experiences.

We ensure consistency in who provides a child’s care and support and how it is provided. Consistency in routines such as mealtimes, nap times and personal care provide our children with a sense of safety and security. We recognise these daily routines provide rich opportunities to connect with children and support their growth and development.

We work closely with families and, when appropriate, children to administer medication safely.

We are committed to the safety of all children and ensure our care and support approaches align with current best practice, guidance and policy.

'Weak' nurturing care

We do not respond appropriately to children's verbal and nonverbal communication. The rushed nature of interactions can lead to a tone and manner that conflicts with children's needs. This often results in children not seeking comfort or support from our staff, compromising their wellbeing.

Our rigid approach to daily routines limits children's opportunities to build confidence and grow through their own experiences. They are not actively involved in planning routines or the experiences we offer, and their preferences and needs are often overlooked.

Continual changes to staffing arrangements disrupt children's routines and create a sense of instability. The frequent changes are challenging for some children, and we do not have the time or resources to support them. This often results in children being unsettled or distressed for long periods of time.

Food choices are not healthy. We do not plan meals and snacks in line with current nutritional guidance. We have limited understanding of children’s individual cultural and dietary needs, making it challenging to keep them safe and respected.

When meals or snacks are provided, there is little involvement of children in the planning or preparation. We are busy during mealtimes and do not have time to sit with children to supervise them or enhance the experience.

We limit children’s access to water. We regularly fail to recognise signs indicating a child might need a drink of water. Staff do not understand the importance of supporting children to stay hydrated.

'Very good' personal planning

Children’s wellbeing is supported through effective personal planning. All children, regardless of their personal characteristics, are recognised as capable individuals who are listened to, valued and respected. Personal plans promote children’s rights and value the individuality of each child and their family.

Personal plans are tailored to each child's individual strengths, needs and interests. We create meaningful plans with children and regularly review these to ensure plans are suitable and supportive. 

We work proactively with children, families and other professionals to identify support needs and have clear strategies in place to ensure that children’s wellbeing is sustained. When a child requires support from multiple agencies, other professionals contribute to children’s personal plans. Each child's personal plan is achievable, adaptable and includes strategies for care, support and protection, as necessary.

Our approach to personal planning considers best practice guidelines and is grounded in the Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) framework, utilising wellbeing indicators to assess and plan for children's overall wellbeing. The indicators provide us with a common language for assessing and discussing children's strengths, needs and progress with families and other professionals.

A child-centred approach guides our strategies for transitions. We place children and families at the heart of any decision-making process. This includes when a child starts in our service or moves between services. Information to support continuity and progression in a child’s care and support is shared appropriately, securely, and in good time. Our staff use well-planned and flexible approaches to enable children to feel safe and secure with any changes.

'Weak' personal planning

Personal plans are not individualised or meaningful and do not effectively support us to meet the needs of each child. Children requiring additional support, whether short or long term, are not receiving adequate care. This has the potential to adversely impact children’s development.  

We place an overemphasis on what children cannot do and have limited consideration of their strengths and interests, leading to unrealistic and ineffective goals and strategies of support.

Opportunities to work collaboratively with other professionals to achieve positive outcomes for children are missed. When we do collaborate, we do not effectively share information, update children's written plans or improve their care. This adversely impacts on the consistency and quality of care and support provided.

Personal plans do not comply with national guidance or legislation. We do not have opportunities to reflect on personal plans to help develop interactions, experiences and spaces to meet children’s needs. This means opportunities to make children feel comfortable, safe and appropriately challenged are missed.

Approaches to transition do not consider the needs and views of individual children and families. This means we miss key information to help planning for any changes to care, support or experiences, resulting in distress and/or a sense of insecurity for some children.

We do not include the voices of children and families. This means their views have not been valued or used to plan for children. This contributes to a lack of continuity and consistency in children’s care and support.

Serious inconsistencies in information sharing and record-keeping have put our children's safety at risk. Staff do not always have the information or knowledge needed to keep children safe, nurtured and supported. This has resulted in oversights, such as frequent errors in the timing or dosage of medication administration, jeopardising our children's wellbeing.

'Very good' connections with families

We know our children and families very well. We strive to create a warm and welcoming environment where children and families feel valued and supported. The care we provide children is deeply influenced by the insights gained from their family. This supports us to create spaces which are culturally sensitive, accessible and inclusive for all.

Our connections with families increase their engagement in our service, positively impacting the quality of children's experiences. We recognise, learn from, and build upon the strengths that families bring, while sensitively responding to individual needs and circumstances. This collaborative approach enables us to learn from families, support children's growing sense of self, and ensure our setting remains responsive to their unique needs.

Families have regular opportunities to discuss their child’s care and development, both informally and formally. We have systems in place to support communication with families, both verbally and in writing. We recognise and address many of the potential barriers that can make it difficult for families to be involved in our setting. 

We understand that each child's development is shaped by their family, friends, community and experiences. We warmly welcome families into our setting to share in their child's experiences and encourage updates about children's hobbies and interests outside of our setting. This impacts positively on the quality of children’s care and support, both at home and in the setting.

‘Weak’ connections with families

Engagement with our families is not planned or purposeful. As a result, there is little evidence of the impact on, or benefits to, children’s care or development.

Our consultations with families fail to gather their views on what matters to them or their children. We rarely provide follow up responses to requests for further information. As a result, many families feel unheard.

We place little value on building trusting relationships with families to improve children’s wellbeing. Early opportunities to respond effectively to the needs of children and families are missed. This means that families are not always understood and treated with dignity and respect. Families tell us they do not feel welcome in our service.

We have limited understanding of the strengths and knowledge that families bring to our setting. We do not use the information they share with us to inform our care and support of children. This contributes to children feeling unsettled and can restrict their experiences.

Staff avoid informal interactions with our families during key times such as, drop-off and pick-up of children. Opportunities for regular information exchanges with families are limited. By not actively seeking to build strong relationships with children’s families, we miss opportunities to keep children safe and/or to enhance their care and experiences.

The following challenge questions can support your self-evaluation:

• What best practices, theories and guidance underpin our care and support of children?
• How do our observations and knowledge of a child influence the routine of the day? 
• Does our approach to transitions help children to feel safe and secure? How do we know our approach is effective? 
• What systems, processes and approaches do we have in place to keep children safe? How do we know they are effective?
• What do we need to do to ensure that the voices of all children, both verbal and nonverbal, are heard and responded to?
• How do we know that all staff fully understand and implement our approaches to inclusion, diversity and equity?
• How well do staff understand and champion the rights of care experienced children and families?
• What do we do to promote sociable and healthy eating experiences?
• In what ways do we communicate with children, families and/or partner professionals to jointly plan children’s care and support?  
• When children and their families arrive at our setting, how do we know they feel welcomed?