11 Elizabeth Street, Invercargill
View on map|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Busy Bodies Childcare 2008 is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Busy Bodies Childcare 2008 (Busy Bodies) provides home-based care and education in nine educators' homes in Invercargill. It provides education for children from birth to six years. Educators care for up to four children at a time. The educators are supported by qualified teachers who regularly visit and provide ongoing advice and ideas.
Busy Bodies believes that strong relationships between team members, parents, educators, children and the community are paramount. Visiting teachers and educators work in partnership with parents where respect for each other's values, beliefs, aspirations and cultural identities is fostered. Busy Bodies prides itself on being able to offer whānau a home away from home, where children can feel a sense of security and feel they belong to, and are part of, their educator's extended family. This enables children to 'contribute to their learning programme and become active explorers, thinkers and risk takers'.
Busy Bodies' values include nurturing learning environments, having cultural awareness and sensitivity, close communication and fostering strong relationships.
Busy Bodies has two networks and two new visiting teachers. The visiting teachers have developed systems to strengthen and build capability of leadership in the organisation. Busy Bodies' strategic plan is guiding decision making and direction, and through its goals the service is addressing the recommendations of the 2016 ERO report.
This review was part of a cluster of two reviews of Busy Bodies Childcare 2008.
Children learn in inclusive, caring and family-like settings. They are carefully matched with their educators and form positive, trusting relationships. This includes the sensitive placement of children under two and children who may need additional support. Children and their families have a strong sense of belonging to Busy Bodies Childcare where respectful and genuine partnerships are fostered. This enables educators to support children to 'lead' their own learning, while responding to children's parents' wishes, when planning.
Busy Bodies values the holistic learning of the children. It achieves valued outcomes through a broad and responsive curriculum. Children are provided with opportunities for play-based and child-led learning in home settings and within the community. Educators are supported to provide programmes that respond to children's interests, needs and strengths which are informed by the wishes of parents and whānau. Currently this includes a service-wide focus on the 'sharing and caring' dispositions of two and three-year-old children.
Busy Bodies has clear expectations for educators. They are supported by visiting teachers who provide ongoing and specific mentoring and resourcing which strengthens their practice. Educators are coached to build on their skills in working with children and to deliver programmes that respond to the uniqueness of each individual. Children benefit from the professional conversations between visiting teachers and educators. There continues to be a focus on building leadership capability across the organisation.
Educators and visiting teachers are building their teaching capability through meaningful, targeted professional development. Educators report experiencing a shift in their practice as a result of deliberate and focused tools, systems and processes that are ensuring a better quality of service for children and their families. This has included improved communication within the service, and strengthened relationships and collaborations across the organisation. The owner and visiting teachers are committed to further developing these practices.
The owner and visiting teachers reflect on their practice and are focused on improving what they do for children. They have strengthened their strategic plan and direction in response to external support. As a result, they have set clear priorities for continued improvement and aligned these to internal evaluation to improve outcomes for children. They have linked their philosophy and their parent relationships and aspirations for children to drive changes throughout the service, now and into the future.
The service and ERO agree that key next steps are to:
Before the review, the staff and management of Busy Bodies Childcare 2008 completed an ERO Home-based Education and Care Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:
During the review, ERO looked at the service’s systems for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children's wellbeing:
emotional safety (including positive guidance and child protection)
physical safety (including supervision; sleep procedures; accidents; medication; hygiene; excursion policies and procedures)
suitable staffing (including qualification levels; police vetting; teacher registration; ratios)
evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.
All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.
The next ERO review of Busy Bodies Childcare 2008 will be in three years.
Alan Wynyard
Director Review and Improvement Services Southern
Southern Region
30 January 2019
The Education Review Office (ERO) is the government department that, as part of its work, reviews early childhood services throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. ERO’s reports provide information for parents and communities about each service’s strengths and next steps for development. ERO’s bicultural evaluation framework Ngā Pou Here is described in SECTION 3 of this report. Early childhood services are partners in the review process and are expected to make use of the review findings to enhance children's wellbeing and learning.
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Location |
Invercargill |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
65189 |
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Institution type |
Homebased Network |
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
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Number licensed for |
60 children, including up to 60 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
25 |
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Standard or Quality Funded |
Standard |
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Gender composition |
Boys: 13 Girls: 12 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
2 |
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Number of qualified coordinators in the network |
1 |
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Required ratios of staff educators to children |
Under 2 |
1:2 |
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Over 2 |
1:4 |
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Review team on site |
November 2018 |
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Date of this report |
30 January 2019 |
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Most recent ERO reports |
Education Review |
June 2016 |
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|
Education Review |
April 2011 |
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Education Review |
September 2007 |
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ERO’s overarching question for an early childhood education review is ‘How well placed is this service to promote positive learning outcomes for children?’ ERO focuses on the following factors as described in the bicultural framework Ngā Pou Here:
Within these areas ERO considers the effectiveness of arotake – self review and of whanaungatanga – partnerships with parents and whānau.
ERO evaluates how well placed a service is to sustain good practice and make ongoing improvements for the benefit of all children at the service.
A focus for the government is that all children, especially priority learners, have an opportunity to benefit from quality early childhood education. ERO will report on how well each service promotes positive outcomes for all children, with a focus on children who are Māori, Pacific, have diverse needs, and are up to the age of two.
For more information about the framework and Ngā Pou Here refer to the draft methodology for ERO reviews in Home-based Education and Care Services: July 2014
The overall judgement that ERO makes and the timing of the next review will depend on how well placed a service is to promote positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:
ERO has developed criteria for each category. These are available on ERO’s website.
ERO reviews are tailored to each service’s context and performance, within the overarching review framework. The aim is to provide information on aspects that are central to positive outcomes for children and useful to the service.
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Busy Bodies Childcare 2008 Ltd is a privately owned, home-based care service. The office is based in Invercargill. The service operates two networks. This report relates to Network One.
Educators in this network have varying levels of qualifications and experience. Some of them live in Invercargill and others are based in Te Anau. They provide care and education in their own homes for children aged from birth-to-school age. Two visiting teachers are responsible for supporting the educators. One long-serving visiting teacher is based in Te Anau. The other visiting teacher supports educators in Invercargill and is also the office manager.
Both networks in the service have had a number of changes in the last year, including two new visiting teachers and changes to the office management. The owner has reduced her level of involvement in the service.
The owner's vison is to provide affordable, high quality education and care in a home-like setting. This review was part of a cluster of two reviews in the Busy Bodies Childcare Ltd service.
Children, especially infants and toddlers, benefit from the small group size and consistent caregiving they receive in educators' homes. Many of the educators are long serving and have built close relationships with children and their families over time.
Children enjoy many opportunities and experiences within the homes and in their local community as part of their education in a home-based setting. For example, they may attend a weekly playgroup or music and movement session, and a transition to school programme organised by the visiting teachers.
A new e-portfolio system allows for greater and more immediate communication between educators, whānau and extended family. Visiting teachers are beginning to help educators better show how they document and respond to parents' wishes for their children's learning.
The visiting teachers visit educators regularly and oversee their work. They provide many opportunities for ongoing professional learning for educators and interested parents.
The 2011 ERO review identified that aspects of assessment and planning, implementing a bicultural curriculum, and self review were areas for further development. The visiting teacher team has begun to make improvements in these areas but these are very recent and still require significant work. The owner and visiting teachers need to take a planned approach to ensure these improvements are:
systematically applied across the whole service to build consistency of visiting teacher and educator practice
reflected in policies and procedures
sustained over time.
Systems and practices for governance, management and leadership of the service are not consistent. The owner, with the support of the visiting teachers, needs to develop new processes, and improve existing processes and the documentation of these processes.
The service philosophy needs to be reviewed. The owner and visiting teachers need to show how the philosophy is evident in practice.
The strategic plan could more clearly identify goals, priorities and actions for the service. Related systems such as appraisal and professional development should align to the plan. The owner needs to monitor progress against the goals and report this to interested parties.
The policy and procedure framework does not adequately reflect or cover the scope of the service. The owner needs to further develop and improve procedures and practices for human-resource management, including appraisals, recruitment and induction of staff and educators.
She and the visiting teacher team also need to review and redevelop the job descriptions for her role, the visiting teachers and the educators. Policies are often not personalised or entirely relevant to the Busy Bodies Childcare service.
In 2015 the educators' and visiting teachers' appraisals were incomplete or not carried out. The owner needs to ensure that these happen in a timely manner.
The roles and responsibilities of the visiting teachers need to be reviewed. Guidelines for visiting teachers need to clearly state the owner's expectations and give greater emphasis to the role of the visiting teacher. In particular the guidelines should state how visiting teachers' support and coach educators to provide high quality education and care.
Educators need to clearly know what support they can receive from the visiting teachers and how often. Visiting teachers should also provide educators with written feedback, giving guidance about their work with children and families.
The owner needs to build a cohesive team between herself and the visiting teachers. They need to find ways to regularly meet to develop and share consistent practices and build team work.
The owner needs to improve processes for reporting and monitoring. She needs to be assured that visiting teachers and educators are meeting all the requirements and that there is consistency of practice across the service.
The owner, with the support of the visiting teachers, needs to improve and further develop:
assessment planning and evaluation
the bicultural curriculum
self review
governance, management and leadership of the service.
Before the review, the staff and management of Busy Bodies Childcare 2008 completed an ERO Home-based Education and Care Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:
During the review, ERO looked at the service’s systems for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children's wellbeing:
emotional safety (including positive guidance and child protection)
physical safety (including supervision; sleep procedures; accidents; medication; hygiene; excursion policies and procedures)
suitable staffing (including qualification levels; police vetting; teacher registration; ratios)
evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.
All early childhood services are required to promote children’s health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements
ERO identified several areas of non-compliance. To meet requirements the service needs to improve its performance in the following areas:
HS11: develop a daily checklist for hazards to guide educators
HS14: strengthen risk management for excursions
GMA6: develop documented human-resource procedures.
[Licensing Criteria for Home-based Education and Care Services 2008]
ERO recommends that the service consults with the Ministry of Education and plans to address the key next steps and actions outlined in this report.
The next ERO review of Busy Bodies Childcare 2008 will be within two years.
Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern
28 June 2016
The Education Review Office (ERO) is the government department that, as part of its work, reviews early childhood services throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. ERO’s reports provide information for parents and communities about each service’s strengths and next steps for development. ERO’s bicultural evaluation framework Ngā Pou Here is described in SECTION 3 of this report. Early childhood services are partners in the review process and are expected to make use of the review findings to enhance children's wellbeing and learning.
|
Location |
Invercargill |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
65189 |
||
|
Institution type |
Homebased Network |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
60 children, including up to 60 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
64 |
||
|
Standard or Quality Funded |
Standard |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys: 34 Girls: 30 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Other |
9 49 6 |
|
|
Number of qualified coordinators in the network |
2 |
||
|
Required ratios of educators to children |
Under 2 |
1:2 |
|
|
Over 2 |
1:4 |
||
|
Review team on site |
May 2016 |
||
|
Date of this report |
28 June 2016 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s)
|
Education Review |
March 2011 |
|
|
Education Review |
September 2007 |
||
ERO’s overarching question for an early childhood education review is ‘How well placed is this service to promote positive learning outcomes for children?’ ERO focuses on the following factors as described in the bicultural framework Ngā Pou Here:
Within these areas ERO considers the effectiveness of arotake – self review and of whanaungatanga – partnerships with parents and whānau.
ERO evaluates how well placed a service is to sustain good practice and make ongoing improvements for the benefit of all children at the service.
A focus for the government is that all children, especially priority learners, have an opportunity to benefit from quality early childhood education. ERO will report on how well each service promotes positive outcomes for all children, with a focus on children who are Māori, Pacific, have diverse needs, and are up to the age of two.
For more information about the framework and Ngā Pou Here refer to the draft methodology for ERO reviews in Home-based Education and Care Services: July 2008
The overall judgement that ERO makes and the timing of the next review will depend on how well placed a service is to promote positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:
ERO has developed criteria for each category. These are available on ERO’s website.
ERO reviews are tailored to each service’s context and performance, within the overarching review framework. The aim is to provide information on aspects that are central to positive outcomes for children and useful to the service.