At Cwtch Childcare we aim to support parents and other carers to help their children settle quickly and easily by giving consideration to the individual needs and circumstances of every child and their families.

Our aim is for children to feel safe, stimulated and happy in our settings and to feel secure and comfortable with all our staff team. We also want parents/carers to have confidence in both their children's continued well-being and their role as active partners, with the child being able to benefit from what the setting has to offer.

All our staff team know about the importance of building strong attachments with children. They are trained to recognise the different stages of attachment and use this knowledge to support children and families settling in to our settings.

Your settling in session is for 1 hour and is free of charge.

You are welcome to stay in the reception area, but we do encourage you to leave your child in our care so that we can monitor how your child settles. Don’t worry, we rarely experience any problems, but if we did we would call you straight away.

Once your first settling in session has taken place the setting manager or your child’s key worker will feed back how it went and if further settling sessions are required. If either the setting manager or parent/carer feel more settling in periods are required can be discussed.

At the settling in sessions we will also discuss with you any routines, family life and any other important needs of your child.

Our settings will work in partnership with parents/carers and families to settle their child into our settings environment by:

• Allocating a key worker to each child and their family, before they start to attend. The key worker welcomes and looks after the child ensuring that their care is tailored to meet their individual needs. They offer a settled relationship for the child and builds a relationship with parents/carers/families during the settling in period and throughout their time at the setting, to ensure the family has a familiar contact person to assist with the settling in process
• Providing parents/carers with relevant information about the policies and procedures of the setting
• Encouraging parents/carers and children to visit the setting during the weeks before an admission is planned and arranging home visits where applicable
• Planning settling in visits and book a free 1 hour introductory session. These will be provided free of charge over a one or two week period, dependent on individual needs, age and stage of development. More settling sessions may be required and the Settings Manager will discuss this with parents/carers.
• Settling in visits and introductory sessions are key to a smooth transition and to ensure good communication and information sharing between staff and parents/carers
• Reassuring parents/carers whose children seem to be taking a long time settling in to the setting and developing a plan with them
• Encouraging parents/carers, where appropriate, to separate themselves from their children for brief periods at first, gradually building up to longer absences if required
• Assigning a buddy/back-up key worker to each child in case the key worker is not available. Parents/Carers will be made aware of this to support the settling process and attachment
• Reviewing the nominated key worker if the child is bonding with another member of staff to ensure the child’s needs are supported