Settling In

Settling In Policy

Providers are responsible for ensuring they follow the current version of the framework for their provider type.

At Just Little Kidz our aim is to work in partnership with parents to help them become familiar with the setting and offer a settled relationship for the child. We know children learn best when they are healthy, safe and secure, we build positive relationships with parents to ensure we can meet children’s individual needs and help them settle quickly into nursery life.

All our staff know about the importance of building strong attachments with children. They are trained to recognise the different stages of attachment and use this knowledge to support children and families settling into the nursery.

Our settling in procedure includes:

• Allocating a key person to each child and his/her family, before he/she starts to attend. The key person welcomes and looks after the child, ensuring that their care is tailored to meet their individual needs. He/she offers a settled relationship for the child and builds a relationship with his/her parents during the settling in period and throughout his/her time at the nursery, to ensure the family has a familiar contact person to assist with the settling in process
• Reviewing the nominated key person if the child is bonding with another member of staff to ensure the child’s needs are supported
• Providing parents with relevant information about the policies and procedures of the nursery
• Working with parents to gather information before the child starts on the child’s interests, likes and dislikes and their favourite things available at settling sessions, e.g. their favourite story or resource, as well as completing a baseline of the child’s current development to plan, and meet, the individual needs of the child from the first day
• Encouraging parents and children to visit the nursery before an admission is planned and arranging home visits and/or online video meetings where applicable
• Planning tailored settling in visits and introductory sessions, following any necessary government advice
• Welcoming parents to stay with their child, where possible and applicable during the first few weeks until the child feels settled and the parents feel comfortable about leaving their child. Settling in visits and introductory sessions are key to a smooth transition and to ensure good communication and information sharing between staff and parents
• Encouraging parents to send in family photos to display to help settle the child
• Creating photo books of the setting including photos of staff for the child to take home and share with their parent and become familiar with the staff and new environment
• Reassuring parents whose children seem to be take a little longer to settle in and developing a plan with them, for example shorter days, where possible
• Providing regular updates and photos of the children settling
• Encouraging parents, where appropriate, to separate themselves from their children for brief periods at first, gradually building up to longer absences
• Assigning a buddy or back-up key person to each child in case the key person is not available. Parents are made aware of this to support the settling process and attachment
• Respecting the circumstances of all families, including those who are unable to stay for long periods of time in the nursery and reassure them of their child’s progress towards settling in
• Not taking a child on an outing from the nursery until he/she is completely settled.

Reviewing the care plan after a child starts

A child’s care plan is written before they join, from what their parents tell us in the fact file. A child changes fastest in their first weeks with us, so a plan written before they walked in is out of date quickly. We review it with the parents on a set rhythm rather than waiting for something to go wrong.

When we review it:

• At two weeks — a short settle check. Is what the parents told us what we are seeing?
• At six weeks — the first full review, across all eight areas.
• At every room move — a new room means new adults, a new routine and often new sleep and food patterns.
• Three times a year thereafter.
• Any time something changes — a new allergy or medication, a stay in hospital, a pattern in sleep or behaviour, or a parent asking.

How we do it. Each review records, for each area, what the plan said before, what we see now, and what we will do next. The allergy, medication and SEND lines are checked by a second person against the current records — not against the previous version of the plan, because an error copied forward stops being noticed.

Parents read and sign every version. Not only the first. A care plan the parents have not seen is our description of their child rather than an agreement with them. The parent is emailed a link to read the review in full and sign it; the email itself carries nothing but the child’s first name and that link.

The progress check at age two is a separate document and is not replaced by any of this. The two serve different purposes and are kept apart on purpose.

Where a child has a health care plan issued by a health team, that plan is reviewed by the team that issued it, not by us (see our Medication policy). This review sits alongside it and does not replace it.