Childcare is a rewarding profession, but the nature of the work means it can exert a significant emotional toll on practitioners, especially where sensitive issues are rarely discussed or acknowledged.
This is why we began our 'Let's Talk About ...' series, where groups of practitioners from a wide range of settings discuss tricky subjects, from touch to male practitioners to biting. All the groups who have participated have found airing these issues and talking frankly about them with peers to be a helpful experience. And we hope Nursery World readers have also gained from the comments and used them to examine their own attitudes.
This week's 'Let's Talk About ...' turns to risk, and how to achieve a balance in keeping children safe while allowing them to learn about risk-taking and develop independence (see pages 14-15). The private nursery staff who took part had a really interesting discussion, and concluded that perhaps they did not let children take as many risks as they thought they did!
These decisions will never be easy, however. Safety is, quite rightly, one of parents' top priorities in choosing a nursery, and while daycare is a relatively safe environment there can be tragedies. This week, we report on the closure of the Just Learning nursery in Cambourne, where ten-month-old Georgia Hollick choked to death on a piece of apple in April 2006 and which recently took on an undercover BBC reporter without checking references.
Regardless of the individual circumstances of this case, it is vital to remember that letting children take risks is very different from children being put at risk.
