Those of you with eagle-eyes may have noticed a change to Aspect’s home page with our new area for social care professionals going live.

This new area of our website accompanies the launch of a handbook for social care professionals called “What If?”. The new handbook provides a framework, guidance and tools to support social workers, social care managers, and all professionals working in those areas, so that if there are concerns over issues such as workload, supervision, or the experience of case-handlers they are able to challenge effectively using the GSCC code.

For more information – or to order copies of the handbook to support for your own multi-agency work – visit http://www.aspect.org.uk/socialcare/book/.

More generally, the handbook also demonstrates the benefits of a registration body and formal codes to support, endorse and guide the best professional practice. This is why Aspect supports moves towards developing a formal professional registration body for EYPs as well.

Do you have experience or views on this subject?

Yesterday (25 June) the EYP National Committee held their summer meeting.

Any of you who aren’t entirely up-to-speed with our internal workings may not know that all our work within Aspect’s EYP section is led and guided by our National Committee (the EYP NC). Drawn from across the country, committee members are all EYPs (and student EYPs) with different backgrounds and working in different types of settings.

At yesterday’s meeting, alongside national updates on the wider political picture and planning next steps for our established campaigns, the NC also discussed how best we can ensure all you as our members (and potential members of course) can contribute most effectively to our debates and campaigns.

We will therefore be working to ensure notes from our NC meetings are available to all members, and are planning to use our new web facilities to make it easier for you to input on key agenda items and on our campaigning and professional debates too.

So keep your eyes open! We will be asking for your experiences and thoughts on specific issues, as well as looking to you to tell us what the big issues are in your types of setting or your specific area. The great advantage of a national union is our ability to share our collective experience and brain-power – so get your thinking caps on!

Finally for now – though I shall post more on this very soon – our number one priority in the next few weeks will be preparing for the CWDC event in Birmingham on 14 July.

If you’re not already booked to go, speak to your boss (or training provider), get the day reserved as part of your CPD, and get online to book your place now (http://www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/whats-new/news/2036_cwdc-announce-the-first-early-years-professionals-national-event). Remember to check for our seminars particularly of course! Some LA networks are even helping with transport so do check what might be happening in your area too.

See you in Birmingham?

Hi, I’m Helen – the EYP lead officer with Aspect. Finally, after having some technical issues, I think we might be truly up and running with this blog. I’ve got a little backlog of things to pass on and will therefore (once I know this works!) post a few times over the next few days.

Firstly though an invitation – please do have a read of our previous posts, and come back and see what we’re up to in the next few days, and tell us what you think! As with anything new it’s a bit of an experiment, but it would be good to get some views being shared and some thoughts exchanged, so do get commenting. Even if only to say hello!

So here’s hoping this works as I am anticipating, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Aspect has now published the Aspect EYP Charter, available here, and on request as flyers and posters. Please order and pass on your copies now, and send the PDF on to all your contacts! (more…)

The results of the Aspect survey, to which many of you contributed (thanks to you all!) have now been published. The survey demonstrates that while EYPs are proud of their status and determined to use their skills, knowledge and expertise to support settings, colleagues and above all children, they are also deeply worried about their future careers, professional development, and above all pay and conditions. (more…)

A more general overview of the current situation was also submitted to the DCSF at a meeting held earlier this month in Woolley, attended by members of our EYP National Committee as well as Aspect officers. (more…)

As you may well have seen, as a result of all the work put into the survey and the Charter Aspect’s EYP section has benefited from excellent national and trade press coverage recently: (more…)

Following this recent publicity, it is a particularly good time to speak to colleagues at work, from your training cohorts, and in your networks about Aspect and encourage all EYPs and those working towards EYPS to join. (more…)

Aspect’s Early Childhood Education Group (ECEG) has long held their own specialist conference focusing on professional issues in early years. At this year’s conference, “Capturing Childhood”, the ECEG has secured a particularly impressive range of speakers, headed up by Professor. Dr. Ferre Laevers, Director of The Centre for Experiential Education at the Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. (more…)

Yesterday I spent the day at an ECERS (Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scales) conference, finding out about how different Local Authorities are implementing the scales and about updates to ECERS in the UK. (more…)