Security is key

While daily care routines for babies and young children are crucial to maintaining their health and safety, they are also the best way to help children learn life skills by promoting language, social awareness and self-confidence.

Daycare practice has changed considerably in recent times and the role of the key worker has been emphasised as central to achieving the best outcomes for children and parents. Meanwhile, the Government's Every Child Matters policy has heralded many changes, including those to the Ofsted inspection process for registered daycare. Inspectors are now focusing much more on what it feels like to be a child in daycare and how the individual needs of children are respected and promoted.

The job of the key worker

Key workers in day nurseries and pre-schools are the practitioners directly responsible for a small group of children. They should aim to form a strong bond with babies and young children when they first come to the setting and look after their settling-in and support.

During the initial settling-in programme, key workers should ensure that parents have plenty of opportunities to talk about their children and explain how they care for them at home. A detailed knowledge of the experiences that children have already had should inform the way in which they are looked after at the nursery.

It is essential that children learn to depend on a particular adult with whom they feel especially close. There will be times when key workers are on holiday, or working a different shift, but it is important for them to retain an attachment to the group of children for whom they are primarily responsible. They should ensure that they are there to support the daily care routines of nappy changing, bedtimes and mealtimes. Key workers are also expected to prepare play plans and write development records for their group of children.

Daily routines

The nursery day is peppered with care routines that enable children and key workers to interact and develop close relationships. These range from the greetings at the start of the day to eating breakfast, lunch and tea, as well as the pauses for sleep, rest and nappy changes. But the key worker system, with its emphasis on individual carers, stands in opposition to outmoded methods such as changing all the children at the same time, sitting children on lines of potties or putting everyone to bed at precisely the same hour.

When key workers are able to focus on the needs of their individual group of children, they learn their likes and dislikes and can communicate these to other members of staff who also care for the children.

Start the day with a smile

As children arrive at the nursery, the key worker can make sure that the handover of children from their parents is as gentle and sensitive as possible. For example:

* A peaceful start to the day is calming for children who have had a stressful morning being dressed and made ready to leave home.

* Comforting words of welcome and reassuring exchanges with parents make the separation at the start of the day a lot more bearable.

* Ensure that parents are welcomed into the nursery and that they can see the other children already there engaging in conversation and playing happily. Provide individual pegs and baskets or drawers where parents can hang or store their children's belongings.

* Suggest to older children that they help you put away their personal belongings.

* Display real interest in what families have been doing and ask children to tell you how they are feeling.

Nappy changing

Key workers should ask children whether they have filled their nappy and then investigate to see whether children need changing. This method of responding directly to what has to be done, so children don't feel uncomfortable, is much more personal and responsive than expecting babies and toddlers to be changed at fixed times of the day when it suits the organisation of the nursery.

* Talking about whether children need to have nappy changes also invites them to think about whether they have urinated or passed solids.

* Key workers quickly learn to interpret the strained faces of their key children who are defecating. Their response and interest will make these babies and toddlers feel secure because they sense an intimate bond with their key adult, similar to bonds they have made at home with family members.

* Early awareness of the act of passing liquids and solids with individual support from their key person is more likely to help children develop control of their bowels and therefore learn to use a potty with confidence.

* Suggest that older babies and toddlers help collect clean nappies from their own basket of belongings and hold objects that interest them as you change them.

* Use nappy changing as a special intimate time to discuss the day so far and to review where and how the babies or toddlers have been playing.

* Practise engaging glances and physical closeness, taking the opportunity to blow on their tummies, tickle their feet and count fingers and toes.

Rest and sleep

Babies and children, like adults, need to feel secure, warm and comfortable when they sleep. Key workers should ask parents how their babies usually sleep. Use this information to organise individual sleep or rest plans for every child with key workers supervising their charges.

* Remove restrictive clothing such as shoes, trousers and jumpers. Babies should be comfortable in a T-shirt and nappy with a light blanket to cover them in their cot.

* Give each child their favourite toy to cuddle.

* Darken the room by closing the curtains or lowering the blinds.

* Use calming methods that parents have suggested, such as stroking a child's head, humming or singing.

* Check babies and toddlers regularly and when they awake, greet them warmly, speaking softly and giving them time to look around and accustom themselves to the busy atmosphere of the nursery full of children.

* Dress them slowly, inviting them to help fetch their clothes and assist you in clearing away the toys they have used for comfort.

Mealtimes

Babies and toddlers require lots of intimate support during mealtimes. Key workers should have high expectations of children's ability to learn to make food choices and to feed themselves.

It is best for children to eat in small groups, sitting around a table, so that they learn to interact and feed themselves by copying each other and their adult carers.

* Engage in conversation with children so that they all feel important and part of the group.

* Talk about the food and encourage children to serve themselves.

* Invite children to wipe their faces and to help clear the tables.

Routines are the building blocks of daily life that help children sequence the events in their lives and that support them in adapting to new people and environments. Key workers should ensure that they make routines both enjoyable and challenging so children will feel valued, confident and secure.