Valuing diversity and promoting equality

 

Policy statement.

Statement of intent

Our Settings are committed to providing equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice for all children and families; embracing the diversity of the families and Staff, as well as those we come into contact with from the wider society and valuing their contributions. 

We aim to:

  • Provide a safe and secure environment in which all our children can flourish and in which all contributions are valued.
  • Include and value the contribution of all families to our understanding of equality and diversity.
  • Provide positive, non-stereotypical information about different ethnic groups and people with disabilities.
  • Improve our knowledge and understanding of issues of equality and diversity.
  • Allow inclusion to be a thread which runs through all of the activities of our Pre-School’s.
  • Make this Policy available to all Staff and Parents to read.

Equality Act 2010.

This Act is the most significant piece of equality legislation for a generation. It simplifies, streamlines and strengthens law, ending the tangle of equality legislation. It consolidates discrimination law within a single Act and aims to end the discrimination that blights so many people’s lives. A copy of the Act can be downloaded, in full, at www.opsi.gov.uk.

What does the Act do?

The legal framework for this policy is:

The Act brings together, for the first time, all the legal requirements on equality that the private, public and voluntary sectors need to follow. It affects equality law at work and in delivering all sorts of services, it replaces all the existing equality law including:

  • The Equality Act 2010
  • The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007
  • Children Act 1989, 2004, 2006.
  • Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001.

Most of the new law is based on the previous legislation which has been streamlined but there are some important differences.

How does the change in law affect early years Settings?

 Settings will have to consider the Act in relation to being, an employer and a service provider. They will have to make relevant changes if necessary, such as adjustments to employment procedures, early years policies and procedures, physical access and training provision, the learning environment, curriculum planning and the resources used.

The most important change will start with practitioners themselves, reviewing their own attitudes and how they communicate with other people. How we speak, write and visually represent others, as well as our intonation and body language, sends powerful messages, either positive or negative, to the people around us. These all reflect how we feel about other people.

Parent/ Guardian Policy

 We aim to provide inclusion and integration of children with disabilities and special needs, we also respect and celebrate cultural diversity and actively promote positive images and positive role models to the children in our care.

We will always endeavor to provide the best possible quality care for all children, including those with special needs and will do our best to ensure that all children have the opportunity to reach their full potential.

PWC believes that all children should be treated as individuals, in a manner appropriate to their age and stage of development. Awareness of the child’s additional needs will not detract from their integration and inclusion within the environment and will be positively used to support the child and their development whilst in our care.

We therefore request that Parents/guardians provide any additional information to support the PWC Staff in supporting your child. It is important that this information is current and accurate.

Any signs of direct or indirect negative discrimination resulting in one person being treated less favourably than another will be challenged, and appropriate action taken.

Curriculum Planning 

PWC Staff will integrate children with special needs into our Setting’s, making any reasonable adjustments to the provision. The team will need to work with any outside agencies, including sharing information in a transparent way, this will be achieved by:

  • Transfer of Information from and to other Settings.
  • Working alongside Parents, ensuring confidentiality and building trust.
  • Observations, evaluation, planning and reviewing of activities.
  • Appropriate resources.
  • Maintaining accurate records.
  • We aim to provide a fun and stimulating environment for all children, offering broad and relevant differentiated learning opportunities. To ensure that this is offered the PWC Staff members will meet on a regular basis in order to plan activities to enhance the learning of all children whatever their needs.

Valuing Diversity in Families 

  • We welcome the diversity of family life and work with all families.
  • We encourage children to contribute stories of their everyday life into the Pre-School.
  • We encourage Parents/carers to take part in the life of the Pre-School and to contribute fully.
  • For families who have a first language other than English, we value the contribution their culture and language offer.

When meetings are arranged, consideration will be taken to ensure that all families are made to feel welcome and all attempts will be made to make such meetings accessible to all.

Diversity

 By promoting positive attitudes to diversity and recognizing differences, P.W.C staff will help children to value and respect different aspects of their own and other people’s lives, this will be achieved by:

Food

  • We work in partnership with Parents to ensure that the medical, cultural and dietary needs of children are met.
  • We help children to learn about a range of food, cultural approaches to mealtimes and eating and to respect the differences among them.
  • Monitoring and Reviewing.
  • To ensure our Policies and procedures remain effective we will monitor and review them annually to ensure our strategies meet the overall aims to promote equality, inclusion and valuing diversity.

Curriculum/Equipment

The curriculum offered in the Pre-School encourages children to develop positive attitudes about themselves, aiding and supporting them to feel special and able to achieve great things. It also teaches and encourages them to value people who are different from themselves. It encourages children to empathise with others and to begin to develop the skills of critical thinking. Our environment is as accessible as possible for all visitors and service users. If access to the Setting is found to treat disabled children or adults less favorably then we make reasonable adjustments to accommodate the needs of disabled children and adults.

We do this by:

  • Making children feel valued and good about themselves.
  • Operating a Key Person system.
  • Ensuring that children have equality of access to learning.
  • Making adjustments to the environment and resources to accommodate a wide range of learning, physical and sensory impairments.
  • Reflecting the widest possible range of communities in the choice of resources.
  • Avoiding stereotypes or derogatory images in the selection of materials.
  • Acknowledging a wide range of festivals.
  • Making appropriate provision within the curriculum to ensure each child receives the widest possible opportunity to develop their skills and abilities, e.g. recognising different learning styles of both sexes.
  • Creating an environment of mutual respect and tolerance.
  • Helping children to understand that discriminatory behavior and remarks are hurtful and unacceptable.
  • Ensuring that the curriculum offered is inclusive of children with special educational needs and children with disabilities.
  • Ensuring that children whose first language is not English have full access to the curriculum and are supported in their learning.
  • Providing a range of equipment and resources that are age and stage appropriate.
  • Selecting books, equipment and resources that promote positive images of people of all colours, cultures, genders and abilities, are non-discriminatory and avoid racial and gender stereotyping.

 

The Equality Act 2010

Replaced all previous equality legislation such as the Race Relations Act, Disability Discrimination Act and Sex Discrimination Act. It also provides some changes about which schools need to be aware.

The Equality Act 2010 provides a single, consolidated source of discrimination law, covering all the types of discrimination that are unlawful. It simplifies the law by removing anomalies and inconsistencies that had developed over time in the existing legislation, and it extends the protection from discrimination in certain areas.

As far as schools are concerned, for the most part, the effect of the new law is the same as it has been in the past – meaning that schools cannot unlawfully discriminate against pupils because of their sex, race, disability, religion or belief and sexual orientation. Protection is now extended to pupils who are pregnant or undergoing gender reassignment. However, schools that are already complying with the law should not find major differences in what they need to do.

The exceptions to the discrimination provisions for schools that existed under previous legislation – such as the content of the curriculum, collective worship and admissions to single-sex schools and schools of a religious character, are all replicated in the new act. However, there are some changes that will have an impact on schools as follows:

  • Introduction of a new single equality duty to replace the previous three separate duties. This includes new specific duties which are less bureaucratic and more light touch than previous duties, requiring schools to publish equality information and objectives.
  • It is now unlawful for employers to ask health-related questions of applicants before job offer, unless the questions are specifically related to an intrinsic function of the work. This means that schools should no longer, as a matter of course, require job applicants to complete a generic health questionnaire as part of the application procedure. Schools are advised to review their existing practices to ensure they are complying with both the Health Standards Regulations and Section 60 of the Equality Act.
  • It is now unlawful to discriminate against a transgender pupil.
  • It is now unlawful to discriminate against a pupil who is pregnant or has recently had a baby.
  • New Positive Action provisions will allow schools to target measures that are designed to alleviate disadvantages experienced by, or to meet the particular needs of, pupils with particular protected characteristics. Such measures will need to be a proportionate way of achieving the relevant aim – for example providing special catch-up classes for Roma children or a project to engage specifically with alienated Asian boys.
  • Extending the reasonable adjustment duty to require schools to provide auxiliary aids and services to disabled pupils.  Following the recent consultation on implementation and approach, this duty was introduced in September 2012.

Training

All PWC Ltd permanent Staff members have the opportunity to access PWC training, although specific training may be needed to support children with special educational needs, this will be arranged through consultation with the Owner and PWC training manager. Our managers will also attend SEN training provided by their local early years or education authority on a regular basis.

If we do not have the specific knowledge or training courses available, we will take advice from outside agencies in order to support the needs of the child.

 

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