Jemmas Homebased Childcare & Education Service North Shore

Education institution number:
10208
Service type:
Homebased Network
Definition:
Not Applicable
Telephone:
Address:

7C Trading Place, Henderson, Auckland

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Jemmas Homebased Childcare & Education Service North Shore - 19/12/2012

1 The Education Review Office (ERO) Evaluation

Jemma’s Family Day Care Ltd 2 is one of seven home-based childcare networks owned and operated by Jemma’s. The network is on Auckland’s North Shore and has trained educarers overseen by two coordinators who are qualified early childhood teachers. The service has a positive ERO reporting history and continues with its commitment to high quality care as noted in the 2009 ERO report.

Children are comfortable and settled and demonstrate a strong sense of belonging in educarers homes. Warm, responsive relationships are evident and children play confidently in the home environments. There is good provision for the variety of ages in care. Children are well supported to develop social competence and good relationships with each other.

Educarers provide inclusive, good quality care in their own homes. They have access to a good range of on-going professional development and training. The home environments are well resourced and are child friendly. Programmes are related to children’s play interests and are supplemented by Jemma’s toy library equipment. Children experience a variety of experiences in the local communities and most attend regular playgroup meetings with other educarers and children.

Network coordinators work in supportive ways with each other and with educarers. They frequently visit the educarers and provide suggestions for programme development. They monitor health and safety requirements and Jemma’s expectations for quality care.

Jemma’s governance and management processes are well established. Managers are aware of the benefit of developing robust self review to guide continuing improvement to the organisation.

Future Action

ERO is likely to review the service again in three years.

2 The Focus of the Review

All ERO education reviews in early childhood focus on the quality of education. For ERO this includes the quality of:

  • the programme provided for children
  • the learning environment
  • the interactions between children and adults.

The Quality of Education

Background

The review of Jemma’s Family Day Care Ltd 2 has been informed by service documentation, meetings with service personnel, written feedback from parents and educarers, and observations of a sample group of educarer programmes.

Educarers are supported to provide education and care programmes for children by network coordinators. These are qualified, registered early childhood teachers who provide assistance and guidance to all educarers.

Since the 2009 ERO report the organisation has been restructured. Managers have appointed a new senior coordinator and organisation administrator. One new coordinator has been appointed to the North Shore network.

Areas of good performance

Children participate in a wide variety of age appropriate experiences. Educarers provide a good variety of curriculum areas. Jemma’s supplement the educarers’ curriculum resources through a toy library. There is a focus by educarers on increasing children’s literacy and numeracy knowledge and skill. A new home book library has been introduced where children are able to take books to their own home to support literacy acquisition.

Children initiate their own play and access their own resources. They are encouraged to be creative and try things out. Resources and activities are age appropriate. Regular daily outings, and attendance at a Jemma’s playgroup, are a positive feature of the organisation. Coordinators and educarers use of te reo Māori is becoming more evident.

Relationships are a strength of the service. Coordinators are developing a team approach to supporting educarers in providing good quality programmes. They develop close relationships with families and work together to identify children’s next learning and development steps. Managers are approachable and have good working relationships with coordinators and families.

Jemma’s curriculum is influenced by Christian values and guided by the principles and strands of Te Whāriki, The New Zealand Early Childhood Curriculum framework and children’s play interests. Educarers are developing an understanding of Te Whāriki and with making curriculum links to children’s progress and learning. Educarers take care with presentation of children’s portfolios. Coordinators should continue to support educarers to develop their assessment, planning and evaluation skills.

Coordinators know the families well. Educarers affirm the accessibility of coordinators and the help they receive from them. They have access to good opportunities for professional learning and network with each other. Clear management expectations are documented in a comprehensive operations manual.

Quality assurance is a strength of the service. Processes are in place to ensure that all areas of operation are delivering a responsive service. The senior coordinator has overall responsibility for supporting all coordinators and works closely with new coordinators. Managers visit all of the educarers each year.

Areas for development and review

In order to improve the good quality of programmes provided for children, management and coordinators agree they could:

  • review the service philosophy and develop indicators of good practice and use these as an ongoing self-review tool
  • strengthen self-review processes that focus on improving learning outcomes for children
  • continue to model good practice and support educarers to raise the quality of education they provide
  • further develop a shared understanding about, and commitment to, implementing bicultural practices and promoting success for Māori children as Māori.

3 Management Assurance on Compliance Areas

Overview

Before the review, the management and staff of Jemma's Family Day Care Ltd 2 completed an ERO Home-Based Care Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they attested that they had taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:

  • administration
  • health, safety and welfare
  • personnel management
  • financial and property management.

During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on outcomes for children:

  • emotional safety (including behaviour management, prevention of bullying and abuse)
  • physical safety (including behaviour management, sleeping and supervision practices; accidents and medication; hygiene and routines; travel and excursion policies and procedures)
  • staff qualifications and organisation
  • evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.

4 Recommendations

ERO and the Jemma’s managers and coordinators that service leaders strengthen the use of self review to further improve service provision for children.

5 Future Action

ERO is likely to review the service again in three years.

Makere Smith

National Manager Review Services Northern Region (Acting)

19 December 2012

About the Service

Location

North Shore, Auckland

Ministry of Education profile number

10208

Service type

Homebased Network

Chartered under

Education (Home-based Care) Order 1992

Service roll

65

Gender composition

Boys 35

Girls 30

Ethnic composition

NZ European

Māori

Chinese

Cook Island Māori

Fijian

Other European

Other

44

9

4

1

1

3

3

Review team on site

September 2012

Date of this report

19 December 2012

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review

Education Review

March 2009

October 2005

Jemmas Homebased Childcare & Education Service North Shore - 10/03/2009

1 The Education Review Office (ERO) Evaluation

JeMMa’s Family Day Care Ltd operates a home-based childcare and education service throughout the greater Auckland region, and in Tauranga, with offices based in Albany, West Auckland, Papakura and Tauranga. The service opened in September 2000 and has had one previous ERO review. In the 2005 report on the service, ERO noted that the service was well organised, and was clearly committed to providing high quality care for children. The service continues to reflect that commitment.

Over the last three years the organisation has grown through the addition of a network based in Tauranga. It has also developed as an organisation through the clarification of roles and responsibilities, including the appointment of a general manager, and the licensee’s greater emphasis on quality assurance. The owners have sought the help of a business mentor to guide them through this period of growth.

The owners have continued to focus on supporting caregivers, called educarers, to provide good quality care and education for children. They have supported educarers to recognise and make the most of the strengths of home-based day care. The owners provide an extensive book and toy library, together with equipment, to support educarers to supplement their own resources.

This report evaluates the provision for children in JeMMa’s Family Day Care 2. This network includes educarers who live in North Shore City. An experienced coordinator works out of the organisation’s Albany office, together with the coordinator of the Rodney area, to provide support and resources for educarers in homes.

Coordinators play an important role in monitoring homes to ensure that they promote children’s health and safety. The owners provide regular professional development opportunities for coordinators to keep up to date with their own professional knowledgeand to reflect on how it can be applied to home-based care. The development of programme planning and provision for Mäori children are examples of such professional training, and were identified as areas for development in the 2005 ERO review.

The organisation is characterised by a focus on effective communication. Coordinators are in regular contact with educarers by phone or visits to provide support, equipment and resources and to observe children. The coordinators meet as a group with the general manager to share professional development and discussion. Weekly playgroups are another important contact for the educarers of this service. Newsletters and an annual survey to parents provide effective means for two-way communication. These systems ensure that everyone is well informed and has someone that they can talk to about any concerns they may have.

JeMMa’s Family Day Care continues to focus on providing high quality home-based care and education. The growth of the organisation has led the owners to formalise management structures and responsibilities in order to maintain an effective service for families. ERO recommends that network owners continue to embed clear expectations and guidelines for documenting children’s learning and development; and that they document, in the service’s philosophy and guiding policies, the organisation’s commitment to and planned provision for Mäori children and whänau.

Future Action

ERO is confident that the service is being managed in the interests of the children. Therefore ERO is likely to review the service again as part of the regular review cycle.

2 Review Priorities

The Focus of the Review

Before the review, the management of Jemma's Family Day Care Ltd 2 was invited to consider its priorities for review using guidelines and resources provided by ERO. ERO also used documentation provided by the centre to contribute to the scope of the review.

The detailed priorities for review were then determined following a discussion between the ERO review team and the management and staff. This discussion focused on existing information held by the centre (including self-review information) and the extent to which potential issues for review contributed to positive outcomes for children at Jemma's Family Day Care Ltd 2.

All ERO education reviews in early childhood focus on the quality of education. For ERO this includes the quality of:

  • the programme provided for children;
  • the learning environment; and
  • the interactions between children and adults.

ERO’s findings in these areas are set out below.

The Quality of Education

Background

Educarers provide homebased care and education in their homes for a maximum of four children at a time. Children can be enrolled for periods ranging from three hours to seven days each week. The educational programme of the service is based on Te Whäriki, the early childhood curriculum.

Coordinators, with recognised early childhood qualifications, provide professional support for educarers, keep in contact with parents and regularly monitor health and safety matters and the provision of care and education. The licensee visits a sample of homes with the coordinator to meet educarers and children and to be assured that good practices are used consistently and a high quality service is provided.

Areas of good performance

Small group sizes. Children experience small group sizes and a homelike environment that is low-key and responsive to their needs. JeMMa’s careful matching of children and their families to an educarer with whom they feel comfortable contributes to making home-based care arrangements successful. Some educarers report developing long-term relationships with children and their families, which have continued after the children left their care.

Individualised care. Educarers have a wealth of knowledge about the children in their care and are able to respond effectively to their preferences and interests. Children benefit from such individualised attention from adults in an environment in which routines are familiar yet flexible so that they can be adapted to meet children’s needs.

Opportunities for talk with parents. Parents are able to develop positive relationships with educarers over time. Such relationships support parents to talk about their children’s development and learning and to ask questions and seek advice. JeMMa’s contributes to the success of these relationships by choosing a broad cross-section of people to be educarers, including people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. These good practices enable families to be matched with carers who speak their language and share their cultural practices.

Well resourced programmes. Home environments are well supplied with play resources that children can access easily. JeMMa’s provides equipment that complements the educarers’ resources and coordinators change materials to match children’s developing interests. Educarers provide families with valued written and photographic records of their children’s activities and experiences.

Flexible care arrangements. JeMMa’s has a strong commitment to respond flexibly when providing care for families that benefits children. Emergency care arrangements, out of school care, and 24 hour care, are instances of such positive responses. These arrangements are fully canvassed with educarers, who are encouraged to fit home-based care into the circumstances of their own lives, resulting in satisfied caregivers.

Trips and outings. Coordinators encourage educarers to make trips and outings, to take older children to kindergarten and to local playgroups and libraries. The owners are planning to develop playgroups in each of the networks to reflect the needs of each site. Children and educarers benefit from these opportunities to meet with others in their local communities.

Professional support for educarers. Educarers feel well supported by coordinator visits. While most are new coordinators, they have a wealth of experience and an interest in the potential and the challenge of home-based care. They are skilled at recognising how they can help educarers with information and with resources and equipment. They are careful and sensitive in the processes they use to make successful matches between families and educarers, ensuring that both parties are confident that the match will be successful.

Documented expectations. JeMMa’s documentation for educarers provides very clear expectations about how children’s health and safety are to be promoted. Coordinators monitor record keeping on their monthly visits, providing assurance for the licensee that environments comply with regulations.

Area for improvement

Expectations for planning. Expectations about records for children’s learning are in a transitional stage. Te Whäriki sheets, diaries, portfolios and conversations with families are all being used to consider and record children’s development. Clearly documented expectations could be shared with educarers and with families to ensure a shared understanding of the transition.

3 Areas of National Interest

Overview

ERO provides information about the education system as a whole through its national reports. This information will be used as the basis for long term and systemic educational improvement.

Māori Children

As part of this review ERO evaluated the extent to which this service carries out a process to identify and respond to the aspirations and expectations of the parents and whänau of Mäori children and focuses on the potential of Mäori children to develop as competent and capable learners.

Area of good performance

Actions taken. JeMMa’s has recognised the need to improve provision for Mäori children and whänau within the service. This has been done through providing workshops in poi and harakeke for educarers and through the development of resources that can be used in homes. One of the coordinators has provided a workshop at the organisation’s annual conference to show coordinators possible ways of encouraging educarers to use te reo Mäori with children. Some educarers use te reo Māori well, incidentally in conversations with children and when reading to them. Resources are supplied to support individual educarers to develop their confidence in using te reo.

Area for improvement

Documenting expectations. JeMMa’s expectations about provision for Mäori children and whänau are not clearly defined in the service’s philosophy statement. Nor are they included in the strategic (business) plan. Consideration could be given to developing a policy that outlines for coordinators, educarers and parents how the organisation intended to meet its obligations as outlined in the Statement of Desirable Objectives and Practices, 1996, (10).

4 Management Assurance on Compliance Areas

Overview

Before the review, the licensee and staff of Jemma's Family Day Care Ltd 2 completed an ERO Centre Management Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they have attested that they had taken all reasonable steps to meet their legislative obligations related to:

  • administration;
  • health, safety and welfare;
  • personnel management;
  • financial and property management.

During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on outcomes for children:

  • emotional safety (including behaviour management, prevention of bullying and abuse);
  • physical safety (including behaviour management, sleeping and supervision practices; accidents and medication; hygiene and routines; travel and excursion policies and procedures);
  • staff qualifications and organisation; and
  • evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.

ERO’s investigations did not identify any areas of non-compliance.

In order to improve current practice the management should ensure that:

  • educarers have evacuation procedures and practices that familiarise children with what they should do in the event of an earthquake;
  • educarers are vigilant about cutting grass to minimise the risk of bee stings during the summer months; and
  • coordinators continue to talk with educarers about the limited educational value of children using templates and colouring-in books.

5 Recommendations

ERO and centre managers agreed that:

  1. the service should continue to develop clear expectations and guidelines for documenting children’s learning and development; and
  2. managers should record, in the service’s guiding documents, the organisation’s commitment to, and planned provision for, Mäori children and whänau.

6 Future Action

ERO is confident that the service is being managed in the interests of the children. Therefore ERO is likely to review the service again as part of the regular review cycle.

Elizabeth Ellis

Area Manager

for Chief Review Officer

10 March 2009

About the Centre

Location

North Shore City

Ministry of Education profile number

10208

Type

Home-based Network

Number licensed for

60 children

Roll number

48

Gender composition

Girls 23,

Boys 25

Ethnic composition

NZ European/Päkehä 37,

Mäori 4,

African 4,

Indian 1,

Polish 1,

other 1

Review team on site

December 2008

Date of this report

10 March 2009

Previous ERO reports

Education Review, October 2005

To the Parents and Community of Jemma's Family Day Care Ltd 2

These are the findings of the Education Review Office’s latest report on Jemma's Family Day Care Ltd 2.

JeMMa’s Family Day Care Ltd operates a home-based childcare and education service throughout the greater Auckland region, and in Tauranga, with offices based in Albany, West Auckland, Papakura and Tauranga. The service opened in September 2000 and has had one previous ERO review. In the 2005 report on the service, ERO noted that the service was well organised, and was clearly committed to providing high quality care for children. The service continues to reflect that commitment.

Over the last three years the organisation has grown through the addition of a network based in Tauranga. It has also developed as an organisation through the clarification of roles and responsibilities, including the appointment of a general manager, and the licensee’s greater emphasis on quality assurance. The owners have sought the help of a business mentor to guide them through this period of growth.

The owners have continued to focus on supporting caregivers, called educarers, to provide good quality care and education for children. They have supported educarers to recognise and make the most of the strengths of home-based day care. The owners provide an extensive book and toy library, together with equipment, to support educarers to supplement their own resources.

This report evaluates the provision for children in JeMMa’s Family Day Care 2. This network includes educarers who live in North Shore City. An experienced coordinator works out of the organisation’s Albany office, together with the coordinator of the Rodney area, to provide support and resources for educarers in homes.

Coordinators play an important role in monitoring homes to ensure that they promote children’s health and safety. The owners provide regular professional development opportunities for coordinators to keep up to date with their own professional knowledgeand to reflect on how it can be applied to home-based care. The development of programme planning and provision for Mäori children are examples of such professional training, and were identified as areas for development in the 2005 ERO review.

The organisation is characterised by a focus on effective communication. Coordinators are in regular contact with educarers by phone or visits to provide support, equipment and resources and to observe children. The coordinators meet as a group with the general manager to share professional development and discussion. Weekly playgroups are another important contact for the educarers of this service. Newsletters and an annual survey to parents provide effective means for two-way communication. These systems ensure that everyone is well informed and has someone that they can talk to about any concerns they may have.

JeMMa’s Family Day Care continues to focus on providing high quality home-based care and education. The growth of the organisation has led the owners to formalise management structures and responsibilities in order to maintain an effective service for families. ERO recommends that network owners continue to embed clear expectations and guidelines for documenting children’s learning and development; and that they document, in the service’s philosophy and guiding policies, the organisation’s commitment to and planned provision for Mäori children and whänau.

Future Action

ERO is confident that the service is being managed in the interests of the children. Therefore ERO is likely to review the service again as part of the regular review cycle.

When ERO has reviewed an early childhood centre we encourage management to inform their community of any follow up action they plan to take. You should talk to the management or licensee if you have any questions about this evaluation, the full ERO report or their future intentions.

If you would like a copy of the full report, please contact the centre or see the ERO website, http://www.ero.govt.nz.

Elizabeth Ellis

Area Manager

for Chief Review Officer