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Choosing childcare

Quality assurance scheme

The Family Services Team is assisting Calderdale settings to undertake the quality assurance scheme - Steps to Quality.   The aim of quality assurance is to bring together all the different settings which work with children into a common vision of quality.

Steps to Quality is available to all childcare providers and covers areas such as play, care and inclusion, environment, management, training and development and relationships.  All providers start with Step One and work through the scheme one step at a time.  Steps to Quality has three levels:

• Step One is the basic standard and builds on the registration process.  It ensures that the main policies and procedures are in place and links very closely with the requirements of the Ofsted standards.
• Step Two builds on Step One and looks at the way these policies and procedures support good practice and encourage regular consultation with children and carers.
• Step Three builds on the previous two steps and covers the way the setting evaluates, reviews and plans the service to promote and maintain quality.

Since the pilot of Steps to Quality in October 2006, to date 94 nursery settings in Calderdale have started on Step One.  Forty-eight have achieved the award and ten more are going through the assessment and internal verification processes.

Ten nursery settings are working towards Step Two with two of these going through the assessment and internal verification processes.  There are twelve more settings starting on Step Two.

If your setting would like more information on Steps to Quality or would like to start on the scheme, please contact:

• Name:
• Anne Prior
• E-mail:
• anne.prior@calderdale.gov.uk
• Telephone:
• 01422 392516
• Web site:
• Steps to Quality|

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