Baby Unit Co-ordinator

**Role of Baby unit co-ordinator**

The Baby unit co-ordinator is responsible for the overall running of the Baby unit in our nursery.

At a glance, their role includes delivering and maintaining high quality care that stimulates children and aids each child's personal development. It also involves supervising other baby unit staff, sharing professional knowledge to improve practices, and making sure all regulatory requirements are complied with in the setting.

As a leader the baby unit co-ordinator should not only build positive relationships with staff, but also with the parents and carers of the children. This ensures open communication, so everything operates smoothly and to a high standard throughout the baby unit, including children’s education, care, and playtime.

A co-ordinator’s duties cover many aspects. Here’s a breakdown of the main duties of their role across a range of areas, from education to health and safety, and how each of these duties is achieved:
**Promoting high quality childcare**:
The Baby unit co-ordinator must ensure the environment of the playroom is highly stimulating. This means it meets all standards, regulations and guidelines of the EYFS, such as the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning. This includes providing high-quality resources and experiences for children which aid all areas of their development. For example, a range of different play areas which support different skills, such as a Sand Area for digging, and a Creative Area for painting, arts and crafts, and so on.

They also support good practices around Inclusion. For example, ensuring appropriate support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)and those who use English as an additional language (EAL).

Some level of planning ahead and adjusting care and resources to meet EYFS guidelines is also expected, though the unit co-ordinator will often consult with the senior management team for long-term planning or any major changes to their practices.

**Communicating with parents, carers and local authorities**:
It’s important for the Baby unit co-ordinator to communicate openly and effectively with the parents and carers of the children in their care. This includes providing professional feedback about each child’s development and education on a regular basis, such as through a detailed Progress Summary Form. It also includes making sure all relevant information about the child is provided by parents, such as any allergies or special requirements they might have.

The Baby unit co-ordinator should also encourage other members of staff to build positive relationships with parents and carers, and provide advice and support to help them do this, if needed. Take a look at these Top Tips for Parental Engagement in the EYFS for advice in this area.

As the Baby unit co-ordinator, you may also need to maintain good communication with local authorities and governing bodies that are associated with the nursery setting to ensure a functional and professional relationship.

**Keeping children safe and healthy**:
The Baby unit co-ordinators top priority is to keep all children in their care safe and healthy at all times, by minimising any risks throughout the setting. This involves keeping the setting clean and free of danger, with the help of your staff.

To do this, you’ll need to have a strong understanding of all health and safety policies and procedures that are relevant to nursery settings. This includes safeguarding, risk assessments, emergency and security procedures. You must also ensure all staff understand any health and safety policies relevant to their role, and that they’re capable of following procedures effectively.

**Supervising staff and assigning tasks**:
As a Baby unit co-ordinator, you’ll spend a large chunk of your time supervising other staff members, so you’ll need to maintain strong and positive relationships with members of your team.

You’ll support and supervise the needs of nursery workers and assistants, such as assigning specific tasks and providing advice, so you can all collectively deliver the best childcare possible.

You may mentor staff members through training sessions, schedule their day-to-day duties, and deliver appraisals for their self-development.

You’ll need to ensure staff members are filling out the correct paperwork in line with their role, such as records of development or progress checks.

You’ll also liaise with the senior management team to deliver relevant training, such as any changes to the EYFS Framework.

Your ultimate goal is to ensure that all staff members in your nursery room can work together effectively to meet all guidelines of the EYFS, as smoothly as possible.

To become a qualified Baby unit co-ordinator in our nursery setting, you’ll need a solid understanding of the requirements of EYFS, including how to meet Ofsted standards. We require Level 3 or above qualification in early years child care.