Annex A: What outstanding providers say

At a conference celebrating outstanding practice, providers told us what helped them provide an outstanding service for children.

Theme	Outstanding providers …
Keeping children at the heart of all that happens	keep the needs of the children at the heart of everything they do put children first all the time acknowledge each child is unique and build children’s self-esteem get to know the children very well to meet their individual needs love and nurture children so they feel valued and respected take the lead from children and allow them to develop as individuals have high expectations of children and support them very well in meeting their potential allow children to make choices and let them learn from their own mistakes provide challenging activities ensure children learn about healthy eating – for example they plant, grow and eat healthy foods from the vegetable garden work closely with other agencies, for example speech therapists, to meet the needs of all children ask children for their ideas and put them into practice have a passion for what they do.
Working with parents	develop strong links with parents from the outset make parents extremely welcome and valued within the settings share worthwhile information and ideas with parents in the best interest of the child develop imaginative ways of sharing information with parents to keep parents aware and involved in their children’s time at the setting develop firm links between home and the setting to make the child feel important, to support children’s next steps and to ensure consistency use detailed websites to keep parents well informed.
Keeping children safe	put the child’s safety at the centre of all that they do have robust recruitment procedures are fully committed to protecting the children in their care are not afraid to address poor performance by staff keep all staff up to date with child protection training.
Improving practice	reflect on their practice and lead through good example use observations and assessments to plan next steps for children empower the staff and let them take ideas forward are fully committed to furthering their knowledge through training and qualifications update their operational plan and have wish lists and plans for the future keep up to date with good ongoing childcare practices are not afraid to use network support groups as an entire staff team believe in the ‘vision’ for the setting and work together in supporting children and families.
Providing stimulating environments	provide a child-centred environment with stimulating and appropriate resources enabling children to explore and enjoy play in safety change activities so children can pursue their own interests and develop their own imagination make the children’s safety paramount and keep risk assessments up to date retain good quality staff meet more than the minimum requirement of staff/child ratios to ensure every child has their individual needs met recognise good outdoor play is key to a child’s development.
Using records	keep clear records and children’s portfolios showing how children are developing use records to show parents details of their baby or child’s day ask parents to contribute to their child’s records meet all the regulation requirements for documentation extremely well.

Continue to Annex B: Quality by type of provision, April 2005 to March 2008