Policy Perspective And Practice

Introduction:

Policy can be defined as the deliberate system of principles that are proposed as well as adopted by a nation or governmental bodies in terms of achieving rational outcomes. This essay aims to discuss the effectiveness of policy into practice with special references to the childcare policies in the UK. The essay will explain how Colnbrook with Poyle, the civil parish situated in the borough of Slough in England, has implemented childcare policies, in terms of improving the early years learning, education, parenting, social, governmental and family support, development process and lifestyles of children in terms of providing them not only the bright future but also good health and wellbeing. The essay aims to make critical discussion of one important childcare policy with discussing the associated legislations and importance of their policies in terms improving childcare system in the borough. In addition to this, the essay will also mention the roles early year practitioners in terms of implementing the childcare policy into practices to provide better lifestyles, parenting education and nutrition to children.

Critical discussion of Child Care Policy in Colnbrook with Poyle:

Policy is the statement of intent that is developed and implemented as the protocol as well as procedure (Rein, 2017). Policy assist a nation in both the subjective and objective decision-making process. While discussing the importance of policy-making in wider context, the reason behind development and implementation of policies needs to be discussed in comprehensive manner. As mentioned by Brewster and Hegewisch (2017), policy is involved in assisting any organisational or governmental bodies to develop agendas and guidelines in terms of managing different operations as well as activities in well-organised and systematic manner. Evidences based studies have stated that, each policy is developed with an intention to fulfil an important outcome that is associated with benefits of not only the particular organisation or governmental body but also benefits to the entire community (Rein, 2017). Here the essay will discuss UK Childcare Policy which has been developed by the UK government with intention of promoting betterment of lifestyles, parenting education and development of children residing in this country. As argued by Minocha et al. (2017) there are many evidences which show that, although it is easy to develop some important polices in terms of fulfilling rational outcomes, there are many difficulties faced by government bodies to implement the policies into practices in effective manner. For example, while discussing implementation of UK Childcare Policy in the Colnbrook with Poyle, it needs to be mentioned that, despite developing relevant acts and legislation under this policy such as Childcare Act 2006, and Early Years Foundation Stage (Welfare Requirements) Regulations 2012, Colnbrook with Poyle is unable to implement these legislations and acts in effective manner into practices which result in increasing cases of child poverty, discrimination and lack of governmental support for children. In this context Brewster and Hegewisch (2017) mentioned that, policy making is important for improving entre system operating in a country to maintain well-disciplined statutory framework. Developing relevant legislation is important for posing obligation on citizens, organisations and systems in a country to comply with the statutory guidelines as well as principles in terms of assuring equal distribution of resources in community. On the contrary Galbraith et al. (2017) argued that policy-making is not always able to achieve the agenda based on which it is made because of many reasons such as poor infrastructure of country to implement the legislations, poor assistances from organisations and system in the country to obey the guidelines and negligence of government in terms of implementing the policies in effective manner. For example, although UK government develops Childcare Policy in terms of eradicating child labour, child poverty and malnutrition, the government in Slough borough is unable to implement the children care legislations under this policy in Colnbrook with Poyle effectively, which resulted in ever-increasing number of child poverty, child labour, lack of children defecation and poor early year development initiatives;.

This essay has chosen the UK Childcare Policy to discuss that how legislations under this policy has impacted on overall childcare development in the country and effectiveness of this policy in promoting child education, health and nutrition in the Colnbrook with Poyle, the civil parish in Slough borough, England. Under UK Childcare Policy, there are many legislations such as Childcare Act 2006, Early Years Foundation Stage (Welfare Requirements) Regulations 2012 and Rights of Children and Young Persons Wales Measure 2011 (Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017). All these legislations are formed to not only provide better education, development, lifestyles and nutrition to children across the UK, but also protect children from any kind of social malpractices such as discrimination, abuse, bullying, bias, molestation and harassment. In this context Hui et al. (2020) argued that, despite developing effective children care policies, sometimes government is unable to understand whether these policies are implemented in effective manner in every regions of the country, which enhances the chances of rising number of unethical practices in childcare system. The overall political and social analysis of Colnbrook with Poyle have shown that in region, there is ever-increasing number child labour, lack of proper education and development framework for children and child poverty which prove that the government is unable to implement the legislation in this area of the country. Under Child Poverty Act 2010, the local government in Slough borough needs to focus on distribution of financial resources to economically backward family in Colnbrook with Poyle, in terms of improving their ability to provide better life, education and future to their children. In this context Galbraith et al. (2017) argued that, although sometimes the childcare legislation are involved in improving the economic condition of family of children to provide them better future, in case of poor states and nations, the government is unable to provide proper employment opportunities or financial support to deprived family, which makes the government unable to make proper implementation of childcare policy in terms of eradicating child poverty. Here the government of Colnbrook with Poyle, has taken initiatives to provide proper support and care to the children and their family under the Children, Schools and Families Act 2010, through arranging free educational and early year development programme for children to promote their professional and personal development. The UK Childcare Policy has also developed many childcare legislations such as Autism Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 and Equality Act 2010, under which the government poses obligation on Colnbrook with Poyle to assure equal care and support to children irrespective of their ethnicity, caste, religion and disability As argued by Taylor-Gooby et al. (2020), sometimes it is not possible for practitioner to provide equal care to the disabled children and normal children as the disabled children more vulnerable to social isolation and bulling, in which the practitioners need to focus more on disabled children rather than on normal children that can make them to face severe ethical dilemmas. In Colnbrook with Poyle, although there is increased rate of disabled children who are devoid of proper care, education and healthcare support from the society, the government of Slough has already taken initiatives under Education (Wales) Measure 2011 and Equality At 2010 which assists that free educational and learning development program will be arranges for the children in Colnbrook with Poyle in terms of promoting better future of each child. In addition to this, the governmental bodies in Slough have taken initiatives under Special Educational Needs (Information) Act 2008, that makes it obligatory for early year practitioners and educationist to focus on the special needs of disabled children in terms of not only providing them better educational and learning support, but also assure positive and highly secure environment for them in which children can grow up with their inner strength as well as personal and professional skill. In this context Adamson and Brennan (2017) argued that, while implementing legislations for children with special needs it is not sufficient for children to provide them secure and positive environment, rather they also needed to be provided with emotional, psychological and spiritual support from society, family and practitioners. The government in Slough borough has focused on implementing principles under Childcare Act 2006 in Colnbrook with Poyle to promote better education, health, wellbeing and learning advantages of children residing in economically backward community. In addition to this, the Slough government also assure that deprived children residing in the rural and interior areas of Colnbrook with Poyle will be provided with proper social, financial, governmental and demographic support in terms of not only promoting their health and wellbeing bur also developing their professional and personal skills to prepare them for better future.

While discussing the chosen UK Childcare Policy in context of procedure of practices, it is important to discuss the involvement of practitioners in implementing these policies into practices in effective manner. As mentioned by Taylor-Gooby et al. (2020), UK childcare policy not only assisted early year practitioners to determine the educational, healthcare and learning needs, but also help the practitioner to improve the overall service delivery process to the deprived children residing interior and rural community by complying with the standard of care and codes of practise. The UK Childcare Policy has assisted the early year practitioner in Colnbrook with Poyle to provide high quality educational, learning and developmental support which not only assist children to improv their professional and personal skills, but also improve the overall family and social support towards children development by raising awareness for children learning and development in society (Lewis and West, 2017). The UK Childcare policy is one of the the most important initiatives taken by the UK government, why assist children in deprived community who are devoid of proper education, social support, nutrition, healthcare facilities and learning framework, to have huge support from the government and society in terms of promoting their professional and personal skill development. In this context Di Gessa et al. (2016) argued that, childcare policy needs to be developed in terms of not only promoting skill development in children but also for providing social, healthcare, psychological, emotional and spiritual support to them. In Colnbrook with Poyle, the UK Childcare Policy has made it obligatory for all early early year practitioners to prioritise the needs, interest and benefit of children while working on their learning and development. In this context, the practitioners of Colnbrook with Poyle are also needed to be involved in respectineg the values and decision of children which will assist the children to have friendly relation with practitioners that is important to make sharing of values, decisions and problem of children. Under the Early Years Foundation Stage (Welfare Requirements) Regulations 2012, early year practitioners would determine the socio-economic, healthcare and cultural needs of children by making direct communication with their parents. As argued by Langford et al. (2019), in terms of determining needs of children, it is not sufficient for practitioners to interact with their family members rather than practitioners need to make transparent interaction with the neighbours, educators and school mates of children in terms of having proper understanding of interest, preference and issues of children. Therefore, it can be stated that, the government of Slough borough need to ensure that early year practitioners in the Colnbrook with Poyle would work in partnership with the children, their family members, neighbours and educators which will improve the ways of ;providing better education, support and developmental knowledge to children in order to direct them towards bright future. As mentioned by Hesketh and van Sluijs (2016), practitioner plays important roles in implementing the childcare policy into practices by determining the actual needs and issues of children why assist not only practitioners to set proper strategies to promotes skilled development, training and learning process in chidden but also assist the government to understand the areas of improvement in the current policy framework in terms of fulfilling children’s needs. In the UK, the early years practitioners are involved in following the EYFS (Early Year Foundation Stage) guidelines in which they focus on four in subject such as mathematics, arts, literature and expressive design. Under the UK Childcare policy, t practitioners are not only associated with determining children’s needs and promoting professional and personal skill development, rather the practitioners are also involved in determining the barriers associated with meeting children needs. As mentioned by Yerkes and Javornik (2019), the early year practitioners play important roles in finding the barriers of children’s development and take effective strategies to eliminate these barriers. In Colnbrook with Poyle, the reason behind increasing rate of child poverty and poor learning and development framework for children may be social cultural, socio-economic and demographic barriers that makes the parents of these children unable to provide healthy lifestyles, proper educational and development them. As mentioned by Brockman et al. (2016), practitioner needs to determine the socio-economic needs of children by determining the income and members in the family, which will assist practitioners as well as childcare homes to understand how much financial resources are needed by the family to provide better life and education to their children. In this context Liu (2018) argued that, not only practitioner but also the government are needed to involve in determining the socio-economic, cultural and social needs of children belonging to deprived family. Here the UK childcare policy developed by the UK government not only for providing support and care to children but also to improve the overall, financial, social and cultural position of their family. Under the Child Poverty Act 2010, UK government has provided financial support to Slough borough in terms of providing proper job opportunities and social support to parents of deprived children in Colnbrook with Poyle. Here the practitioners are involved to find out the economic social and health are needs of the family of deprived children and inform this to the local as well as to national government. Practitioners also associated with determining the developmental and educational needs of children which will assist the local childcare committee and local government of Colnbrook with Poyle to invest resources in improving the overall framework for children development, educational and learning process.

The UK childcare Policy is highly relevant to the current childcare curriculum or childcare framework, in which the legislation associated with the policy assist the government, childcare committee and practitioner to determine the changing needs of children due to the changing social perception and cultural trend. As mentioned by Adamson (2016), the policy needs to be relevant to the current framework or curriculum which will assist the government to meet the expected outcomes. The legislation that are developed under this UK childcare policy are based on the current education, social, demographical learning and healthcare needs of children. In addition to this, the policy is based on the current socio-economic, cultural and social trend of the UK, which will assist practitioner to provide the care and support that is actually needs of children (Del Boca et al. 2016). On the other hand, UK government makes consistent changes and reformation in the policy in terms of making betterment of these legislations to assure that the policy is highly relevant with the modern childcare framework and changing children’s needs. While discussing the anti-discriminatory practice in childcare process, it can be stated that UK childcare policy has successfully developed Equality Act 2010 and Autism Act (Northern Ireland) 2011, which associated the local and nation government in many borough such bas Slough borough, to promote equal facilities and support to children irrespective of their caster, religion, ethnicity and family background.

Conclusion:

From the overall discussion, it can be concluded that, policy is a statutory system in a nation which consist of relevant legislations in terms of maintaining well-organized legislative framework in the country. The UK Childcare Policy consists of relevant legislation that are associated with providing better care and support to these children and protecting them from any kind of abuse, discrimination and social malpractices. In addition to this, this study concludes that, for meeting the rational outcomes, the UK government needs to focus on implementing the childcare policy in effective manner, which will assist the government to assure equal education, healthcare and social support to all children across the country.

Reference list:

• Adamson, E. and Brennan, D., 2017. Return of the Nanny: Public Policy towards In‐home Childcare in the UK, Canada and Australia. Social Policy & Administration, 51(7), pp.1386-1405.
• Adamson, E., 2016. Nannies, migration and early childhood education and care: An international comparison of in-home childcare policy and practice. Policy Press.
• Brewster, C. and Hegewisch, A. eds., 2017. Policy and practice in european human resource management: The Price Waterhouse Cranfield survey. Taylor & Francis.
• Brockman, R., Jago, R., White, J., Campbell, R., Hollingworth, W., Metcalfe, C., Papadaki, A., Wells, S., Ward, D., Moore, L. and Kipping, R., 2016. Parents' and staff's views of adapting the Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Childcare in UK nurseries to improve physical activity and healthy eating. The Lancet, 388, p.S27.
• Del Boca, D., Piazzalunga, D. and Pronzato, C., 2016. Early childcare, child cognitive outcomes and inequalities in the UK.
• Di Gessa, G., Glaser, K., Price, D., Ribe, E. and Tinker, A., 2016. What drives national differences in intensive grandparental childcare in Europe?. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 71(1), pp.141-153.
• Galbraith, B., McAdam, R., Woods, J. and McGowan, T., 2017. Putting policy into practice: an exploratory study of SME innovation support in a peripheral UK region. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 29(7-8), pp.668-691.
• Hesketh, K.R. and van Sluijs, E.M., 2016. Features of the UK childcare environment and associations with preschooler's in-care physical activity. Preventive medicine reports, 3, pp.53-57.
• Hui, A., Latif, A., Hinsliff-Smith, K. and Chen, T., 2020. Exploring the impacts of organisational structure, policy and practice on the health inequalities of marginalised communities: Illustrative cases from the UK healthcare system. Health Policy, 124(3), pp.298-302.
• Langford, M., Higgs, G. and Dallimore, D.J., 2019. Investigating spatial variations in access to childcare provision using network‐based Geographic Information System models. Social Policy & Administration, 53(5), pp.661-677.
• Lewis, J. and West, A., 2017. Early childhood education and care in England under austerity: continuity or change in political ideas, policy goals, availability, affordability and quality in a childcare market?. Journal of Social Policy, 46(2), pp.331-348.
• Liu, S., 2018. The Autonomous State of Childcare: Policy and the Policy Process in Britain: Policy and the Policy Process in Britain. Routledge.
• Minocha, S., Hristov, D. and Reynolds, M., 2017. From graduate employability to employment: policy and practice in UK higher education. International Journal of Training and Development, 21(3), pp.235-248.
• Rein, M., 2017. From policy to practice. Routledge.
• Taylor-Gooby, P., Heuer, J.O., Chung, H., Leruth, B., Mau, S. and Zimmermann, K., 2020. Regimes, Social Risks and the Welfare Mix: Unpacking Attitudes to Pensions and Childcare in Germany and the UK Through Deliberative Forums. Journal of Social Policy, 49(1), pp.61-79.
• Yerkes, M.A. and Javornik, J., 2019. Creating capabilities: Childcare policies in comparative perspective. Journal of European Social Policy, 29(4), pp.529-544.