Gillies, D (2006).  A Curriculum for Excellence: A Question of Values In. Available at: https://brill.com/view/journals/ser/38/1/article-p25_4.xml (Accessed: 01 December 2023).

Information Commissioners Office (2019). An overview of the Data Protection Act, 2018. Avaliable at: https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/2614158/ico-introduction-to-the-data-protection-bill.pdf. (Accessed 1^st December 2023).

McLeod, S (2023) Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development: 4 stages, Simply Psychology. Available at: https://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html (Accessed: 03 December 2023).

Monaghan, A (1970). The challenge of transformational change and leadership in Scottish primary schools: A case study intervention approach. Available at: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/74374/ (Accessed: 02 December 2023).

NHS (2020). Childsmile. [Available at] https://www.childsmile.nhs.scot/ (Accessed 03 December 2023)

O’Donohue, W. and Ferguson, K.E. (2001). The Psychology of B F Skinner. [online] Google Books. SAGE. Available at: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Psychology_of_B_F_Skinner/R4WhG53RukQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=skinner&pg=PR5&printsec=frontcover(Accessed (02 December 2023).

Priestley, M. and Minty, S (2013). Curriculum for excellence: ‘a brilliant idea, but...’, Brill. Available at: https://brill.com/view/journals/ser/45/1/article-p39_5.xml (Accessed: 29 November 2023).

The Royal College of Nursing (2018).  Is legislation the answer? Available at: https://www.rcn.org.uk/magazines/Bulletin/2018/March/Is-legislation-the-answer. (Accessed 1st December 2023).

The Scottish Government (2016). Implementing Early Learning and Childcare under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014: Progress Update. Available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/implementing-early-learning-childcare-under-children-young-people-scotland-act/.  (Accessed 1^st December 2023)

The Scottish Government (No date). Race equality and anti-racism in curriculum for excellence learning Available at: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/minutes/2020/12/curriculum-and-assessment-board-minutes-december-2020/documents/cab-meeting-18-december-paper---race-equality-and-anti-racism-education/cab-meeting-18-december-paper---race-equality-and-anti-racism-education/govscot%3Adocument/CAB%2B-%2BMeeting%2B13%2B-%2B18%2BDecember%2B2020%2B-%2BPaper%2B-%2B13%252803%2529%2B-%2BRace%2BEquality%2Band%2BAnti-Racist%2BEducation%2Binfo%2Bpaper.pdf (Accessed: 29 November 2023).

Well UK Equally Charter for Equal Health (No Date). Available at: https://equallywell.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Equally-Well-Charter-for-Equal-Health.pdf (Accessed 02 December 2023).

In Scotland, there are many pieces of legislation which aim to develop and enhance practitioners' practice throughout the early years. One of these is ‘The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014’, this is a legal framework which aims to provide a variety of measures and services to support children and young people, the framework places duties on local authorities to promote children’s well-being and protect them from harm (The Scottish Government, 2016). The act requires practitioners to take into account children’s views and express opinions on issues/decisions which affect them. It introduced the named person scheme, which meant children would have a named contact for nursery/school etc who parents could contact if they had any concerns or wanted to discuss their children’s progress in development. However, the scheme did come with some controversy some individuals feel that the named person scheme infringes privacy. Overall, this framework has had positive influences on practice throughout Scotland. It places a strong emphasis on involving children in decision-making. This act influences my professional practice as it highlights ways to involve children such as: discussing their learning and having open conversations about their views and how to support them (The Scottish Government, 2016).

The Data Protection Act 2018 is a UK law which provides steps to ensure information which is shared and stored. The framework was introduced in 1998 and updated in 2018. The law states how information in the workplace should be collected, processed, stored and deleted. This act aims to safeguard children and ensure their rights to privacy (Information Commissioners Office, 2019).

This act influences practitioners as it details how they should store children’s information and what they can/can’t share on online platforms such as seesaw and to PLJ’s (Information Commissioners Office, 2019).

‘The Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001’ established the Scottish Commission for the SSSC. The act provided provisions for registries and regulations of care services and social service workers for matters involving child care, family, etc. The act aimed to improve standards of the social care services throughout Scotland to ensure they carried out practice following the law. The act ensured people working in the sector of social services adhere to the rules of the codes of practice and provide high-quality care (Care Information Scotland, 2010). Failure to comply with the rules stated in the act and abided by law meant that individuals could be de-registered from the SSSC and no longer able to work in these sectors (Care Information Scotland, 2010).

Piaget’s cognitive development theory inspired the development of the Curriculum for Excellence. His theory explored four stages of development that children go through during the early stages of their life and each stage had specific goals children would reach before progressing onto the next. He called these stages “the: sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage and formal operations stage” (McLeod, 2023). The curriculum has stages and levels for different age ranges and children’s levels. This is to ensure educators provide children with appropriate learning experiences they can engage with and develop before progressing to the next.

The Curriculum is used throughout practice as teachers carefully follow the set-out curriculum to create lessons which are enriching and give children a wide range of skills the common framework allows teachers to evaluate practice and performance and the curriculum ensures there is a consistent approach throughout the education board when assessing learner journeys (Gillies, 2006).

The Scottish curriculum approach has many benefits, it highlights a holistic approach to education and flexible learning plans for each individual child. Also, the approach underlines the importance of creativity as well as critical thinking and problem-solving (Monaghan, 1970). However, teachers have a high workload and the increasing pressure makes it hard for them to continually follow and implement the curriculum in their daily planning and assessment of learning. Furthermore, poor communication throughout different educational settings in council areas means that there is a lack of clarity if the curriculum is being followed in each school board the same way, this means that the curriculum cannot be deemed fair for all as children will not be receiving the same learning experiences (Monaghan, 1970).

Also, there are still many inequalities and discrimination within the curriculum in practice. There is a lack of educational resources in deprived areas and children from lower-income communities have a lack of opportunities and will face more challenges in their education. Having poor educational resources creates the attainment gap for students from different socioeconomic backgrounds compared to their peers, it is harder to give children equal resources when they may not be able to use them easily at home, etc. This creates inequalities throughout practice (The Scottish Government, No date).

In Scotland Equally Well is a policy which sets out the key ways to support children in early years. The government aim to make Scotland the best place for children to grow up and is partnering with local authorities to create initiatives which will support children’s health and wellbeing. Equally Well prioritises how to tackle health and wellbeing issues which are currently affecting children throughout Scotland (Well UK Equally Charter for Equal Health, No Date). The policy inspired the initiative Childsmile which is a national programme throughout Scotland in which the NHS partners up with the government to reduce inequalities in children’s dental health. There are three elements to the initiative – helping prevent children from having poor oral health, showing them how to clean their teeth and providing resources for all children to improve their oral health. Childsmile will travel to Scottish primary schools giving oral checkups to nursery and P1 children for free, they will sometimes clean the children’s teeth for them when doing checkups and give the children a free toothbrush and toothpaste (NHS, 2020). Childsmile is a successful initiative as it teaches children the importance of good oral health and how to clean their teeth, by giving everyone a toothbrush and toothpaste, every child has a fair health opportunity (NHS, 2020). The initiative is widely successful throughout Scotland. There have been major improvements in oral health for children but, socioeconomic inequalities such as parents not being able to afford oral hygiene products may impact children’s oral health over time. Children from deprived areas have a higher risk of gum disease. These children may not have parents who can afford or push good oral hygiene at home. This means that Childsmile isn’t 100% effective as it isn’t fair for every child (NHS, 2020).

The Childsmile initiative promotes repeated behaviours of brushing your teeth every day. Skinner was a child behavioural psychologist and conducted studies into child mannerisms/behaviour. He suggested behaviour is created through reinforcement. Children will repeat behaviours based on reaction – if a child is praised they will repeat these behaviours to receive more positive reactions. He called his ‘Operant Conditioning’ (O’Donohue and Ferguson, 2001). Within Childsmile they praise children for having clean teeth and encourage them to keep cleaning their teeth to keep them clean, this positive praise will make children more likely to continue to clean their teeth.

When collecting, storing or disposing of information I comply and follow the guidelines of ‘The Data Protection Act’. This Act highlights how information should be collected (for privacy taking out names, location or if names are included is it with initials, etc), stored (locked storage area) and disposed of (if it is the computer files deleted according, paper must be shredded) (The information of Commissioners Office, 2019). In my setting, we use folders to store information and we write down nappy changes, health and safety (incidents, etc) and have PLJs. All of our information is kept in a locked cupboard in the staff room and only taken out when we need to update information or in the case of the PLJs, they are brought out each morning and placed where the children can easily access them to read through and at the end of the day are put away in a locked cupboard. When we no longer require certain information we shred the paper and dispose of it accordingly. I have a key for the cupboard which is kept on a lanyard I wear which no one else can access. I never use full names when writing important information unless it is 100% required. My setting has one senior in charge of looking at our information and how we store it, they ensure that we are following protocols and upholding the standards, they conduct monthly assessments of practice and identify any areas of improvement needed with further training. I ensure that I am working to uphold the standards of data protection through regular training which educates me and keeps me up to date with the principles, safeguarding and security measures of the act.

The Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 is upheld in my practice through training provided by my setting and staff discussions. We have regular reviews in which as a setting we asses the care we are providing to children, their families and we review our policies and procedures to ensure they are as up-to-date as possible. Staff qualifications and training are kept on record to ensure everyone has as much up-to-date knowledge as possible. I regularly attend training meetings both in person and online to keep my training up to date. Services are informed of our practice, up-to-date training and care provisions, if they have feedback we take this into consideration and update our practices monthly.

In practice the SPC outlines for safeguarding must be followed and if there are any signs of abuse, neglect, or concerns around vulnerable individuals safeguarding you must follow the SPC guidelines and protocols for reporting the incident (Care, 2016). Vulnerable groups need looked out for and benefit from these protocols as they may not have the voice needed to raise their own concerns/awareness of the issue. In my practice I uphold this as I follow the correct protocol when I see any incident I feel should be escalated higher to avoid the child coming into risk or harm. It is important practitioners keep up to date with these protocols otherwise it may not be fully effective.

The SSSC is a regulatory body within Scotland responsible for registering new social service workers and regulating the members to ensure they are meeting the standards of practice and conduct (Scottish Social Services Council, 2016). Within practice, it is my job to ensure that I am on the register and keep up to date with their blogs, training video opportunities and regulations. There is a list of codes I must follow within my practice and one of these is “1.4 Give workers clear information about their roles and responsibilities, relevant legislation and the policies and procedures they must follow in their work” (Scottish Social Services Council, 2016). I uphold this act in my practice as I help new employees register for the SSSC on their website and have shown them how to fill out forms. This ensures I am keeping up with the codes in my setting as all employees are registered with the SSSC. The SSSC has many benefits, staff benefit from registration as they provide multiple training opportunities and send monthly emails to members with up to date practices. However, some argue that the codes are to strict and can be overwhelming for practitioners (Scottish Social Services Council, 2016). Also some settings do not help employees register those left to complete applications on their own may find it a long process and challenging.

Care, S. (2016). Revised SSSC Codes of Practice. [online] Scottish Care. Available at: https://scottishcare.org/revised-sssc-codes-of-practice/. (Accessed 11/01/2024)

Care Inspectorate (2018). Health and Social Care Standards. [online] Care Inspectorate. Available at: https://hub.careinspectorate.com/national-policy-and-legislation/health-and-social-care-standards/. (Accessed 11/01/2024)

Scottish Social Services Council (2016). SSSC Codes of Practice - Scottish Social Services Council. [online] SSSC. Available at: https://www.sssc.uk.com/the-scottish-social-services-council/sssc-codes-of-practice/. (Accessed 11/01/2024)

Scottish Social Services Council (2016). Codes of Practice for Social Service Workers and Employers About the Codes. Available at: file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/SSSC%20Codes%20of%20Practice%20for%20Social%20Service%20Workers%20and%20Employers.pdf (Accessed 11/01/2024)

The Scottish Government (2017). Health and Social Care Standards: my support, my life. [online] Gov.scot. Available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/health-social-care-standards-support-life/. (Accessed 11/01/2024)