Inclusion Quality Standards

The Inclusion Quality Standards is not about the children already successfully

included in settings across Preston. Instead, the focus is on increasing opportunities

for those children who are still facing disadvantage. Children who may carry labels

that lead to negative attitudes, and those treated less fairly – and who consequently

participate less fully. More importantly it is about delivering a quality services to all

children, one that enables the autonomy that is fundamental to increased life

chances.

Product Brief

To customise an Inclusion Quality Standards tool, to be used within mainstream and

specialist child settings, to help support children with any need. To enable play and

childcare workers to observe and assess children within a setting and reassess

support allocation in line with child’s experience of setting, and if appropriate, reduce

or increase support.

Inclusion Quality Standards Aims

Inclusive practice addresses the needs of all children. Within the Inclusion Quality

Standards, community cohesion is implicit and the positive action favouring disabled

young people is explicit. Policies and changes in practice should address both the

disadvantages of the few, whilst enhancing wellbeing for all young people. By

changing practice to ensuring all young people’s needs are met in a flexible way the

Inclusion Quality Standards will help provide a service more grounded in ethical

commitment than compliance.

Background

The Inclusion Quality Standards has been developed to ensure that the principles

underpinning equality are fully extended to all children across all settings in order to

address both gaps in provision and to raise standards. A rights based approach will

underpin practitioner development within the context of daily activity, in order to

secure reflective practice and develop new confidence to support every child’s

development.

Underpinned by robust equality and play theory the Inclusion Quality Standards

helps practitioners who wish to respond to children more effectively and

appropriately given any level of support. While most settings are compliant by

adhering to the law, for many the outcomes that require ethical Commitment to

children’s rights can be difficult to address. When it comes to vulnerable children a

positive and proactive approach becomes particularly important where support can

be threatened by wider financial and organisational pressures. Access to play

opportunities is a fundamental human right, and therefore the strategies that promote

more active participation within a child-centred approach are critical to achieving the

ethical practice of a rights approach. Although practitioners cannot legislate for every

aspect of a child's life and potential happiness; if they can do something that will

enhance their happiness then there is a duty to do so. Aiming to articulate more

congruently principles in practice can help children to be happy in the present and

flourish in the future.

According to the Lamb report, despite understanding the theory, many practitioners

still have trouble putting it into practice. Often despite genuine support for inclusive

values, it is the transition from theory to practice where the real challenge lies.

Practitioners struggle with the task of shaping services to children, young people and

their families. Within the Inclusion Quality Standards, ‘predict-and-prevent’ is a key

principle and underpins the policy cycle, because changing guidelines and rules are

part of a flexible service delivery. The Inclusion Quality Standards will help

professionals find a way of working that enables deeper change through reflective

practice and action learning. This cycle of observation, planning and review, has a

positive impact on the wellbeing of all the children in every setting. The Inclusion

Quality Standards is not about passive policy, it is about discovering, understanding,

evolving intelligent solutions to real issues and creating a shared vision that has a

positive impact on the organisations culture.

Inclusion Quality Standards - Objectives

To highlight the importance of planning activities to include all children.

Review the principles of inclusive practice

To observe impact of current practice.

To develop new ideas to create opportunities that promote autonomy for all

children.

To explore how policy can positively encourage children, play workers, volunteers

and parents and carers to take part in wider play opportunities.

To recognise that equality issues are an essential part of policy and are

underpinned by legislation.

To consider the importance of risk to development, creativity and wellbeing, and

develop strategies that develop risk to enhance participation.

Developing Inclusive Practice in Preston

Within the Inclusion Quality Standards the term ‘inclusive practice’ will be used,

rather than ‘inclusion’, in order to reflect the emphasis on continued improvement.

Based on research this demonstrates the evaluation, review and practice change

required for ongoing development. In contrast to the idea that inclusion is target to be

reached and then considered to be finished. Supported by the Inclusion Quality

Standards practitioners will be encouraged to examine their own behaviour in order

to take further steps towards increasingly better practice. Ultimately, to ensure that

all children and families are treated fairly irrespective of their differences. Inclusive

practice is a journey towards the development of an ‘inclusive culture’ where rather

than offering an alternative to what already exists, we build on current good practice,

moving towards a personalized service that respects children’s individuality.

This Play Support Protocol will help develop specific strategies to change a setting’s

culture giving a richer, more enjoyable experience. The extent to which children’s

wellbeing is taken seriously and perceived as an indicator or a measure of success

will determine its priority as an outcome of best practice.

Best Value – Estimate Costing

Inclusion Quality Standards – customisation

First meeting – allow ½ day

4-6 days work over 1-2 months to produce full draft document for review - 3 hard

copies.

Allow 2 days for review by practitioners, followed by feedback session (30 people)

Includes 2 days - copywriting, edit and modification on based professionals’ needs.

Final delivery – document for print in pdf / word format + hard copy.

Total maximum estimate: £4 000

The fee can be reduced depending on practitioners involvement.

(Fees based on £500 per day per consultancy, excluding expenses, travel or additional hours). VAT will be added to each invoice at the current rate.

EQuality Training – information

The core business of EQuality Training is to deliver high quality programmes in equality and

inclusion. Our training programmes are grounded in robust equality theory. They provide

the framework and guidance that enables positive change to working practice. All our

experience is therefore specific to delivering equalities training and facilitating learning

around equalities issues.

Understanding Equality

From an equality perspective this positive action based programme identifies the

marginalised groups within the community and seeks to develop specific action to promote

their inclusion. It will support people towards a deeper understanding of the meaning of

equality. This course aims to help participants develop a clearer understanding of fair

practice and feel confident and competent in taking action to eliminate unfair practice. It

will help to embed ways of celebrating difference within policy and practice, and develop

Tools for Change in their own organisation. By the end of the course, participants will have

practical ongoing strategies to develop their own inclusive practise.

Our Approach

EQuality Training delivers bespoke programmes that match the needs of each client group.

We take care and time to explore the requirements in detail and create the right blend of

programme elements to deliver the aims identified by the client. With our fundamental

belief in sustainable shared leadership we offer stakeholders the control to shape their own

learning through active participation and dialogue. An EQuality Training programme is not

about passively receiving information. It’s about discovering, understanding, evolving

intelligent solutions to real issues and creating a shared vision that enables change.

For 10 years Equality and Diversity has been the core business of EQuality training. Our

ongoing professional development has included published research, programme

development and peer mentoring with other professionals. We are leaders in this field

because we make sure we keep abreast of new developments and evolving ideas through a

wide network of other organisations.

At EQuality Training we are deeply committed to the value of equality, and our mission is to

improve the life chances of whole communities through the development of inclusive

practice. We wish to furnish all with the understanding and confidence to challenge

discrimination and remove the barriers in society that so many people face. We are

advocates for social justice. We have achieved this by making sure Equality and Diversity

theory is evident throughout our policies, working documents, codes of practice and

training materials.

Learning is everything

We identify the starting point for each learner by asking each group to identify their learning

outcomes – we do not impose ours. We appreciate each learner will have different needs,

therefore it is up to us to deliver to these needs. We do not impose a rigid teaching style, we

offer different ways for participants to engage. Each learner is given an opportunity to

experience their preferred learning style in any session, and we check in at the end of each

learning activity in order to personalize the teaching increasingly as we go through the

programme.

Our teaching is underpinned by our definition of Inclusive Practice:

To reach equity, equal outcomes for each learner, respecting learner equality requires

deliberate action, it is this strategy we call inclusive practice. This way of working enables all

participants to be accommodated and for diversity and difference to be respected. It is

through deliberate intervention that we help secure equity for every learner irrespective of

ability or circumstance.

Inclusive practice is an organic process: rather than offering an alternative views or right

answers, it builds new perspectives by developing a shared dialogue. It is vital that inclusive

practice is not understood as a tool to ‘mainstream’ the difficult or the needy. Crucially,

teaching practice needs to change and become a personalized service, within a nurturing

culture that respects learner individuality and diversity.

Inclusion: personalisation applies equally to the gifted and talented and those with special needs. In

many ways it offers a powerful strategy to ensure optimum provision for all young people that is

geared to their particular needs and talents. (www.ncsl.org.uk/personalisinglearning p 8)

Inclusive practice is rooted in person-centred-planning. As Bunch describes how Canada has

shifted from a teaching service to learner-centred organisations with an approach rooted in

rights and values:

Where inclusive education in Canada is successful, all learners are viewed as true learners, true

learners at their own levels of ability. Learning more powerfully than most, as with students labelled

gifted or talented is still learning. Learning more modestly than most, also, is still learning. (Bunch,

2005, p 6)

Ultimately, inclusive practice will vary for every group, department, organisation and

delivery should always be unique to every individual student.

Our courses are practical and action based. We identify and share good practice, using this

as a starting point for development. All participants are given a vision of joint responsibility

where equality is the responsibility of all, and are encouraged to find solutions to barriers in

their own practice. Practitioners focus on the diversity of their customer base and gather

ideas about how to support each other and develop their knowledge base with regard to

meeting customer need. Skills that participants wish to develop are addressed and an

overview of action planning is given. This provides a framework in which actual next steps

become a reality within a planned timeframe.

Recent and Ongoing Work

Inclusive play - Aiming High for Disabled Children in the Wirral: A series of

training days for a mixed audience of childcare providers, social workers, play

leaders and children’s services, with aims to signpost disabled children into

mainstream provision and to improve wellbeing of all children within play setting,

afternoon clubs and seasonal schemes.

Everyone Can Play – Bradford Play Service: over a number of years, these

sessions were deliver to increased playworkers knowledge of Disability Equality

more specifically with playwork, by removing barriers and increasing participant

knowledge of children’s rights.

Disability Equality Training – NSPCC. The aim is for a more personalised and

flexible service for all children. This session gives a step-by-step tour of these

important and compulsory legislations and leads to a secure understanding of the

roots of all equality policies and procedures.

Culture change and inclusive practice at Bradford University: Workshops that

address understanding of the length and possibility of change needed to achieve

inclusive practice. One in which the importance of directly involving marginalised

groups in policy and service provision is critical. The intentional concept shift away

from assimilation accepts inclusive practice as improving community life and guided

by a desire to create a healthier organisation.

Equality & Diversity workshop: Delivery of an ongoing series of Equality and

Diversity training days to practitioners from the Pre-school Learning Alliance in

Rotherham. Themes included equality, personalizing participation, community

involvement to audiences of childminders, early years workers and play workers.

East Riding Disabled Children’s Services, Inclusion Training and ECM: For a

wide audience including participants from Extended Schools, Early Years, Youth

Centres, SENCOs, Childminding Provision, local Police Service and Health Service

Managers. This ongoing series of training days gives a personal understanding of

legislation that participants can use to improve their working practice.

Equality (single-strand) day workshop: Delivery of Disability Equality Training to

Bradford Department of Services to Children and Young People across all five

regions. The session gave an understanding of the current legislation with reference

to local strategy, and began to map out a vision of an inclusive service.

Terminology

Every person is different, and every person has different needs, by meeting

everyone’s needs inclusive practice insures rights come as a human entitlement

‘Disabled Children’ is a term deliberately written with capital letters, to emphasise the

point that ‘Disabled’ is both an appropriate and political term for people who face

oppression and segregation on a day to day basis.

The material does not deal with specific conditions related to different impairments,

the focus is on social barriers not medical problems. (based on the Social Model and

Medical Model of Disability).