National Minimum wage

(14/12/06) As part of the Government's targeted minimum wage enabling and enforcement program, the childcare sector was the sector chosen for year .

Children’s Services (England) Update

03/11/06) This bulletin provides an update on the latest developments in Children's Services.

Information sharing Index: Consultation on draft regulations

(03/11/2006) A consultation on the draft regulations for setting statutory early years targets for Local Authorities is currently taking place.

Common Assessment Framework: Briefing Note Number 5

(07/09/06) The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) is a simple assessment checklist to help practitioners identify children and young people who would benefit from common assessment. It is a process for undertaking an assessment to help practitioners gather and understand information about the needs of a child based on discussions with the child, their family and other practitioners as appropriate.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

(14/08/2006) UNISON response to the The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) – Consultation on a single quality framework for services for children from birth to five.

Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards

(13/07/06) From April 2006 every Local Authority should have created a Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB), these are designed to be the key mechanism for ensuring relevant organisations will co-operate in ensuring children’s welfare. LSCB’s are part of the wider context of children’s trust arrangements.

UNISON response to the Children’s Workforce Strategy

(12/07/2006) UNISON is the biggest trade union in the UK representing people who work with children – in schools, childcare, child protection, children’s’ centres, children’s’ homes and a host of other settings. The Government has made a strong commitment to improving children’s services and a whole host of initiatives re currently being carried out. UNISON is campaigning to ensure that the funding, training and staffing are all in place to ensure a highly skilled and motivated workforce can deliver for children.

Information Sharing

(12/07/2006)As part of the Government’s Every Child Matters (ECM) strategy guidance has been produced called ‘Information Sharing: Practitioners guide’. This is aimed at all those who work with children and young people, paid or unpaid and across all sectors. The document is a guide for staff in making difficult decisions as to whether to share information about a child who they believe may be at risk.