Early learning and childcare quality indicators: Wellbeing, inclusion and equality
Wellbeing, inclusion and equality is an Education Scotland quality indicator (QI) for 'supporting children to achieve'.
There are illustrations of practice and challenge questions below. These can help you to assess your current practices and identify areas for growth. There are no 'weak' illustrations for this QI.
For more information about the principles of this framework and the grading criteria, return to the framework home page.
Themes for wellbeing, inclusion and equality
The themes for this QI are:
- positive relationships and wellbeing
- universal support
- identification of learning needs and targeted support
- inclusion and equality
About this quality indicator
This indicator highlights the importance of relationships and children’s wellbeing. It recognises the importance of providing high-quality, inclusive and appropriate rights-based support.
This QI takes full account of children who may require additional support to access and benefit fully from their entitlement to high-quality early learning and childcare. This includes identifying their learning needs in a timely manner and providing targeted support.
This QI recognises that strong, collaborative partnership working between those supporting children is essential. It highlights the importance of meaningful engagement with children and families. This informs decisions about how their needs should be met.
This QI recognises the important role senior leaders play in ensuring all staff have relevant and worthwhile professional learning to meet the diverse needs of children.
'Very good' positive relationships and wellbeing
We understand fully that positive relationships lie at the heart of children’s development and lay the foundation for lifelong learning and wellbeing.
The wellbeing of children and families is paramount and is central to the work of our setting. Relationships with children and families are based on respect, honesty and trust and getting it right to improve outcomes for children and families.
We actively promote and support our children to be safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included. We can show the positive impact this has on our children’s social, emotional and mental wellbeing as well as their development and learning.
Each child is valued by staff as an individual with their own personality, views, needs and rights. We actively encourage children’s participation and views in a developmentally appropriate way, which allows them to talk about their wellbeing and engage in decisions which affect them.
'Very good' universal support
We provide all children with support and encouragement. All children participate fully and engage in exploration and play. They are supported by high-quality interactions, experiences, creative use of spaces and technology.
Children’s individual needs are at the centre of planning and review processes. We work with families to take full account of the diversity of children’s needs. We understand the impact this can have on children’s experiences, interests and in the individual ways they learn.
Children have high-quality individualised learning and development targets, which build on prior learning. These are reviewed and evaluated regularly with families, and appropriate next steps are identified. There are strong collaborative partnerships with all those supporting children.
'Very good' identifying learning needs and targeted support
Children’s individual learning needs are identified early through careful observation and effective analysis of robust assessment information from a range of sources.
We make very effective use of the national wellbeing indicators to provide holistic assessments of children’s strengths and support needs. We ensure appropriate, proportionate and timely support, including specialist input where required.
Our senior leaders and staff fully adhere to legislative requirements. We provide high-quality targeted support to all children who require additional support with their learning.
Children, families and partners are fully involved in reviewing children’s progress and making decisions about future learning and support. Targeted interventions are highly effective and lead to positive outcomes for children.
'Very good' inclusion and equality
Our children and families are valued and treated with kindness, respect and fairness. We actively promote and support inclusion and children’s rights and encourage all children to be fully involved in the life of the setting. Our staff make highly effective use of technology to support involvement and engagement of children and families.
We value diversity and challenge discrimination. Our staff work in partnership with parents and partners to promote and support diversity and enrich children’s experiences.
Staff know all children and families very well. They understand the socio-economic, cultural and linguistic context in which they live. Staff use this information effectively to respond sensitively with well-timed supports. These take account of the protected characteristics of all children and families. Highly effective strategies are in place to improve progress for all children.
The following challenge questions can support your self-evaluation:
- To what extent do our approaches ensure equity, inclusion and positively impact on children’s wellbeing?
- How well do we meet the needs of individual children? How effectively do we share information with families and partners?
- How well do we use Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) and the wellbeing indicators to improve outcomes for children?
- How well is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child understood and embedded within our staff practice?
- What impact is regular, high‑quality professional learning about wellbeing and legislative duties having on outcomes for children?
