Key Workers
Every child is allocated a Key Worker and Deputy Key Worker.
The main features of this system are:
- The same, named member of staff is responsible for the physical needs of a small number of individual babies and toddlers. Babies and toddlers are given the chance to become familiar with one caring adult in particular and the adult gets to know the child. The key person is responsible for settling the child, responding to their feelings and acknowledging any distress.
- Key workers are especially important in early weeks so that a child does not feel overwhelmed with newness.
- Very young children need to be able to recognise the face of the person who changes them, feeds them or who they first see on waking from a nap. The key worker can respond sensitively to individual babies and toddlers know their preferences and develop personal rituals of songs and smiles.
- It is equally important for the key worker to develop a friendly working relationship with the child's parents/carers, who may also be confused by all the new faces of a nursery team. It is not that parents can only talk to the key person, but that there is a familiar face in the early weeks. Parents will get to know other team members, although the key worker will still usually be the one to share the events of the day and communicate important information about the baby's wellbeing and health.
- The key person will also be responsible for keeping a baby or young child's records, to track their learning and to make detailed observations. Of course, other staff members will contribute to the records.
- Due to shifts systems, holiday and illness a deputy key person will be allocated. It is important that parents are not faced with a number of less familiar faces. In the early weeks, it is far more comfortable as a parent to know that it will be one of two people to whom the parents entrust their child with at the beginning of the day.