What should I expect from a keyworker?

[fluffyanimal]

My DS's nursery has informed me that soon they will be sending out a questionnaire to gather parents' views on their service. I want to comment on their keyworker system, but first I'd like to know what other nursery keyworkers do and what is reasonable to expect.

First off I want to say that I am very very happy with DS's care at this nursery. He is very happy and settled there, it is a lovely place with excellent facilities, excellent food and all the carers are lovely. So I want to make my comments in the spirit of observation and suggestions for improvement, rather than criticism.

DS officially has a keyworker but as far as I can see, this makes no difference to his care. He spends time with any of the carers assigned to his room, so I can't see evidence of any individual / special treatment by his keyworker.

The first time I thought the system wasn't really making any difference was when he was in a different age group room in the nursery. His keyworker was moved to work in the room for the next age group up. We were not informed, and we were not told who his new keyworker was. A few months on and he has moved up to the room where his original keyworker is so I'm presuming she is his keyworker again.

What I would like to see from a keyworker is some kind of communication to the parents about my son and his development. Every day we get a diary sheet listing what he's eaten, how long he slept, how many nappy changes and what activities he did etc. I think it would be good if once a month or at some appropriate interval, I got something from the keyworker - whether it be a chat in person, a phone call or a letter - saying stuff like "DS is growing in confidence, has learned to do X Y and Z, likes big groups and noisy play / one or two other children and quieter play, etc etc". As DS is in nursery full time, sometimes I miss developmental milestones e.g. he started spoonfeeding himself at nursery before doing it at home. I had to ask one of the carers how he ate in order to find this out!

Sorry this is long - can you tell me what your DCs get from their keyworkers? Thanks.

Our nursery holds parents' evenings twice a year so you can review your child's progress with his/her keyworker. DD's nursery follows a Birth to Three plan which is documented, we take the folder away and read it through from time to time - this charts her progress wrt interactions, physical development, speech etc etc

The keyworkers are also happy to chat at pickup/dropoff times if I want.

Keyworker at our nursery is responsible for monitoring and recordning their devlopment and being the primary (but not exclusive) point of contact for parents. We have a parents evening about 2-3 times a year.

IMO it is bad for them to play with one member of staff all the time. They can get unsettled if they have a day off etc.

I agree SMS, dd is very fond of her keyworker but she has a good relationship with all the carers in her room so she isn't lost without her keyworker.

Fluffyanimal, I would be annoyed if I wasn't told about the keyworker moving too. Similar thing happened with dd but we were informed all the way, and now dd has "caught up" with her much loved keyworker which is lovely

fluffy, this sounds exactly like the nursery that we use. The keyworker doesn't really do anything different to the other carers in terms of day to day care but they are responsible for updating ds development folder and if there were any issues I believe it would be the keyworker's responsibility to communicate with you and handle the situation appropriately.

Agree that it is totally unacceptable for keyworkers to change without you being informed as their main responsibility I believe is to be aware of your child's development needs/concerns.

Thanks for all the replies. I don't even know if my DS has a development folder. I'll ask next time I do the pick up. Do you think it would be a good thing to suggest parent evenings?

I have to say that your nursery sounds exactly like mine. I tend to communicate primarily with the keyworker if I need to ask them to push ds' dinner time back or to let them know that he's started using the toilet at home, for example. So I probably single her out as the person who has overall responsibility for him, but she is also the baby room manager so it might be more to do with that. A parents' evening for a more in depth discussion sounds like a nice idea though!

at our nursery, we meet with DS's keyworker every 16 weeks where we sit down and discuss his development etc. we go through his folder etc, although we can ask to see it at any time.

On a more informal day to day basis i can chat with her if i have any concerns etc or she will seek me out to talk to me

she spends a reasonable amount of time with him, but i would say the other staff are very hands on with him as well

we meet twice a year for a formal keyworker assessment, and any time inbetween at the parents/keyworkers request.

A keyworker is used to welcome your child to the room and make sure that he/she settles in.

It is not meant that a keyworker is the child's only adult contact. Your child's keyworker is also other children's keyworker.

You should be able to hand over your child to any of the staff members in the nursery. You should also be able to collect him and get a "report" on how he has been, what he has eaten etc. from any member of staff in his room.

The keyworker might keep a bit more of an eye on your child's (and the other children's that that person is a keyworker for) development than the other staff members who in turn are keeping a bit more of an eye on the children they are a keyworker for.

This is so that they can fill out the child's folder, which they use for the parent meetings, and which they will give to you once your child leaves the nursery. This way you have an idea of what he got up to, how he developed in the nursery.

All the adults in the room are responsible for all the children.

With regards to the parents meetings. There should be about 2 meetings a year giving the parents a chance to speak with all the staff members and be told about how the nursery is doing in general.

At DS's nursery we get a diary sheet (like yours) and one of the staff goes through it with us every day and expands on some of the details. This isn't always his keyworker they work different shifts so she may not be working when we are picking DS up but if she is on duty then it will be her.

We get parents' evenings two or three times a year (I can't remember which) where we have a long chat with his keyworker about DS and his progress and any issues and so forth and we go through a fantastically detailed binder she keeps on him. There are lots of sessions of notes where she's recorded what he says and does during an activity, bits of his work, photos (when one binder gets full we get to take it home).

If we want to talk about something in between times we'll have a quick word with his keyworker or with the room leader when we're picking DS up; it doesn't really seem to matter which as the room leader knows exactly what's going on with all the children. This tends to come up naturally rather than being a scheduled activity.

He gets a different keyworker when he moves up a room but we always know who it's going to be and have a chat with them.Each room has a board with photos of the staff and a list of which children they are keyworkers for (normally between one and three each).

I don't think DS particularly has a stronger relationship with his keyworker than with the other staff in his room -- he likes all of them. Potentially when he was in the baby room that was more important but my brain is fuzzy at remembering that bit (although I do remember that at that age he actually locked on to the manager as his favourite person in the entire world).

my dd's care worker is really just the person i direct my instructions or requests to. she fills in the diary sheet and has a chat with her dh when he picks dd up, just to say she's been ok or whatever.

maybe you need to do a bit more communication yourself. so rather than assuming she's his key worker when he moved up the room you should ask. do they do parents evenings? we have them twice a year. but we didn't bother with it last time because i just speak to the keyworker whenever i want.

also, i would say dd actually has a closer relationship to a different nursery nurse than her key worker. i think of the key worker more as the admin person IYSWIM.

nothing, its just a pr exercise!

Ofsted insist on a keyworker system, so its not a P R exercise.

Keyworker systems are a lovely idea ie you speak to that person about your child's day or any problems or development issues. they also do paperwork.
however staff have days off, most operate a 4 x long day week with a day off, so you'll probably end up speaking to other staff anyway. also at parent pick up times lots of parents arrive at the same time, so again impossible for each parent to speak to their keyworker.

When working in my toddler room there were 4 members of staff each responsible for a certain number of children I had 6.

During the day we would all work together as a team, making sure the children, were happy, cared for, and enjoying their time at nursery, we all cleaned the toys, put them to sleep, tidied up meals and wrote their diaries.

However once a month we would each get our development files out and fill them in stating whether children had met their "targets". Now as we all worked together I would ask the other staff "have you seen .... or ...." and they would know.

In the evenings again with 4 of us whoever was playing with the child, closest or more confident would greet the parent, and again the same would happen in the morning - we worked a 45 hour week. We would chat and tell them about their day and mention anything we thought mentioning, and it was a time for parents to speak to us too, even if we weren't the keycarer.

The main roles of the keycarer are to complete the development file, and also when new children start one person will sit with mum and go through the forms, and will be the one to find out all info which is then passed onto the other carers, but that was out main role.

dont want to upset anyone re; "keyworkers" within nurseries, i know they work really hard 4 small wages, but i just dont agree with nurseries for children under 3, infact i think there glorified orphanages. young children need 1 to 1 care on a daily basis in order to thrive. i understand the need for mums to work, i worked nights so i didnt have to have my kids in day care. reseach has also found that large group daycare is not ideal for young children. i think parents are being brainwashed into thinking that just because the walls are painted with bunnies, and the 18 yr old that will be looking after the baby has a nvq, everything will be fine. its not. i couldnt think of anything worse than handing my baby over to strangers, i just wouldnt be able to do it. x

Well, xyzabc, you are probably just a better parent in every way. If I worked night shifts, my children would be on their own all night. When I get a job, ds2 is going to nursery, so that I can afford clubs and holidays for vboth of them.

How selfish of me

XYZABC
Thats not what the op asked. Your entitled to your views but don't judge others on your experiences.

xyzabc, if you worked nights so your children didn't have to go into daycare, when did you sleep?

my husband was with them, look, im not out tolook like an ideal mum, im far from it, but my husband and i worked shifts so our kids werent in day care. that was our choice. if our kids screw up, (which they do) i cant blame anyone else. plus i have had friends who have worked in nurseries so i do know what im talking about. the q.was what do key workers do, and my answer was "nothing", and by that i mean nothing of great significance. and i certainly would not put my child in a nursery just so i could afford to have a holiday!

Wow I ve never heard anyone compare a nursery to an orphanage before!What an interesting point of view!!
most amusing I m sure

b

thought that was the point of this forum, to express different points of view. or do we have to all think the same, yawn yawn !

xyzabc - what about your children? When do they get to afford a holiday? Don't you think it would be nice for them to see the seaside? What about things like football, and swimming, and decent quality meat, and vegetables that aren't carrots, and fruit that aren't apples?

For people on the breadline, a 20 hour a week job can make a huge difference to the lives of their children. I don't care whether I get a holiday or not - I had my holidays as a child.

I certainly care whether or not my kids get one. Mostly they don't, because as I say, I don't have a job. How far would you go? How much would you make your family do without just to keep children out of nursery?

Actually xyzabc..

In your first post you never commented on how valuable you find keyworkers at nursery nor on what you think a parent paying for a nursery should expect from their child's keyworker.

Your views on nursery care are yours to have but do not bear relevance to the OP's question when clearly she feels that nursery is an appropriate place for her child to spend time. If you want to have a debate about the advantages and disadvantages of nursery care for under threes then perhaps set up a thread where others who want to enter into such a debate can rather than post here where you are implicitly criticsing the choices that the OP has already made.

xyzabc
i think comparing a nursery to a glorified orphange is a revolting comparison and an ignorant one
I don't really warm to posters who basically disparage other peoples' choices and who think that their choices are the only valid and right ones
and what about holidays! I put my son in nursery so we can afford to pay the mortgage

ruby slippers, i am very sorry if i have upset you, i didnt think my comments on nurseries would have this reaction, i hope you except my apology. ladidadi, yes you are right, perhaps the rights and wrongs of childcare should be debated elsewhere. escapefrom. i have sacrificed many things whilst bringing up my kids, but we did have holidays and good food. i never spent much on cloths or going out etc. my children are my life and all i wanted was the best for them, and my choice was to work nights so i could be with them. i am sorry if i have upset you, i know its hard when money is tight.i fully except the choices parents make regarding nurseries and once again i apologise to you all, love xyz x