Lindsay Mc Gregor is a play development worker at Kingsway and Warrington Road Children's Centre in Widnes, Merseyside. She was awarded EYP status after completing the short pathway for EYPS at Edge Hill University.
Lindsay submitted written tasks showing how she demonstrated the 39 standards in her own practice and through her leadership of others. Lindsay also prepared a tour around the setting for the assessor to show how she put her work into practice, and compiled a portfolio of documentary evidence.
For S6, assessors are looking for evidence of the candidate's understanding of other professionals' roles and their ability to work collaboratively with them and also that have they have the ability to lead and support others to do so.
In her tasks Lindsay described planning and delivering the Peers Early Education Programme (PEEP) for birth to one year old. The evidence showed how Lindsay worked with health visitors, family support workers and programme managers and led and encouraged staff to work together to recognise the contributions each could make to the children's learning and well-being.
She arranged a meeting between family support staff, two NNEBs and herself to plan and prepare the sessions. She realised that through carefully planned play and a suitable environment, children will learn at the highest level.
She worked in partnership with the family support staff and NNEB to provide support, encouragement and leadership in good practice, while also acting as a role model for the NNEB to demonstrate working with other professionals.
In the documentary evidence, Lindsay presented a newspaper article which described the introduction of a project to encourage Traveller families to send their children to pre-schools, echoing work undertaken by Lindsay and the Traveller education liaison officer. She also included a report from the Traveller education liaison officer that recorded how Lindsay had worked on this project and had also recognised a child's speech and language needs and arranged the involvement of a speech and language worker to provide support.
On the tour of the setting, Lindsay also showed her assessor the evidence of links she had made with outside agencies and services who had contributed to children's and families' well-being.
The evidence is built up from the whole picture of all this evidence. The assessor also asked questions of three nominated witnesses as well as Lindsay herself to confirm that Lindsay worked with outside agencies and had a good understanding of the significance of their roles and that she encouraged and led others to do so.
For more information on pathways to becoming an EYP visit www.cwdcouncil.org.
