Early Years leadership – What makes a great leader?

When it comes to early years leadership, quality care provision starts at the top, says Sue Robb…

We all know the importance of strong, effective leadership. It is not a new mantra. Nevertheless it is always a highly relevant one in early years settings. This is because competent, committed and adaptable leaders are vital for securing continuous quality improvement.

Through leading by example, as well as providing guidance, it’s the person in charge who sets the quality benchmark, tone and aspirations for a setting.

Much has been documented about effective leadership. The National College actively promotes the importance of this area through its system leadership work.

A core part of a leader’s role is to ensure the quality of a setting’s practice. They are responsible for setting the example in terms of how staff interact with the children they care for and teach.

The EYFS framework focuses our attention on the importance of our interactions with our children in order to secure high-quality learning and teaching.

Staff and children in the most effective settings have warm, inclusive and trusting relationships. These are vital ingredients in children’s emotional wellbeing and development.

Sound systems

Robust systems and structures need to be in place to promote the active engagement of families in their children’s learning and development.

Parents, guardians and carers should feel supported and involved. They also need to recognise the importance of the home learning environment they provide for their children.

Positive relationships and your setting’s enabling environment mean that practitioners will be confident in their interactions with children in order to further their learning.

The expectations that you set as a leader are the building blocks staff will use to provide meaningful personal development plans for each child, tailored to that child’s needs and interests.

Indeed, good managers will always be mindful of identifying children’s needs as early as possible, and putting detailed plans into place to support their next learning steps – this is critical.

Monitoring progress

Children’s progress must be a central objective, even if this is about detecting where there are problems and obstacles.

Ensuring plans are in place to support these needs is an important aspect of the leadership role. Leaders in quality settings enable their staff to give consideration not only to what children learn but also to how they learn, as in the Characteristics of Effective Learning – again a core part of the EYFS.

In addition to the positive practices that you set out, encourage and develop, your enabling environment needs to be safe and stimulating.

At the very heart of the practice is the requirement for staff to understand the principles of the EYFS. Therefore, the most effective leaders are the most mindful of their workforce.

Emphasising a strong sign-up to the understanding of child development for all staff and ensuring that staff members see themselves as lifelong learners is fundamental.

Of course in supporting this, leaders should make CPD a priority in their planning. Provide opportunities on:

• identified needs such as working with two-year-olds
• specific areas of learning
• observational assessment
• working with fellow professionals such as health visitors
• communicating with parents

Make the training that staff receive even more impactful by creating defined practices for sharing learning and new ideas with colleagues ‘back at base’.

Leaders can also foster learning from other settings through a ‘buddying’ approach, with settings working together on a common theme.

Selecting great staff

A key challenge is securing members of staff who:

• enjoy working with children and families
• have ambitions for their own learning
• can reflect on their own practice
• have a passion for ensuring the very best for their children

One way of effectively selecting the most committed and motivated employees might involve observing would-be staff interacting with children as part of the selection process.

New recruits into nursery settings should also have a named colleague who can support them in their developing role. This is all part of providing a structured recruitment and staff development process.

A question of support

As managers of people, leaders in early years settings have an overview of how to assess staff performance and identify areas for development.

It’s important to aim for a system where there are clear performance management systems in place to support all staff.

This is not just about ensuring that staff are on target, but also that they feel supported by the leadership in a setting. This is an important factor in ensuring that you can identify and overcome problems in practice, as well as being essential for overall morale.

Ideally, early years leaders need to encourage a continuous cycle of self-evaluation, improvement and reflection.

Part of this is asking yourself, am I ensuring that I empower my practitioners to see themselves as learners, seeking to improve their practice?

Ultimately staff need to be aware of the support available to them. Effective leaders:

• have a cycle of self-evaluation in place
• identify and agree improvement priorities
• draw up a plan to address the priorities
• set out a sensible time to action the plans
• create a schedule for reviewing them to inform the next self-evaluation

Quality provision at all levels within a setting is essential for improving children’s outcomes. Key to this is strong, effective leadership.

There are a number of resources to support leaders and practitioners of all levels on the Foundation Years website.

With such leadership practices in place, and with the support of fellow managers and the resources mentioned, leaders will find themselves well placed when Ofsted comes calling.

In fact, you should feel empowered to take control of the inspection to ensure an outcome that reflects the quality of the setting you lead.

Sue Robb was formerly head of early years at 4Children. Today, she is head of early years at charity Action for Children.