Research task
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In childcare settings planning helps to enable effective learning and care for children so they are able to develop normally and be actively involved in their lessons. Planning includes ensuring routines and activities are based around individual needs. The needs of the children can be understood through careful observation and shared information from parents/carers. It is important to include children’s needs when planning so that all of the children can get involved no matter what differences they may have; as stated in the Equality Act 2010. For example, the author had to help plan an activity for a PE lesson which was suited to all of the children, one of the children was disabled and in a wheel chair. This meant that physical activity would be difficult for this child, so to ensure the child was included we changed the focus of the lesson to hand-eye co-ordination and provided the child with extra support from a teaching assistant.

Practitioners should implement the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework into their planning, as this covers the welfare and development of children. The welfare section of the framework covers ongoing checks within the setting and ensuring all staff has had the applicable security checks, as well as checking equipment to guarantee safety for children in the setting. The development section considers personal, social, emotional and physical development; it also covers different types of communication, language and literacy as well as providing children with a good understanding of the world.

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Daily routines are an approach of planning and it is important to use them in early childcare because they support the delivery of maintaining a happy, safe and secure environment for children. Within planning practitioners can ensure to include in their daily routines safety at home times, sleep/rest times, meal and snack times, also to try and avoid cross-contamination as well as supporting hygiene routines. For example, practitioners can ensure safety at home times by following the policy in the setting which instructs practitioners on what to do when parents/carers collect their children from the setting. Some settings may have to ask unknown people the date of birth of the child they are collecting, or possibly ring the parents of the child to ensure they are being picked up by the right person. Other settings may have passwords and buzzers for parents/carers to enter the building. These procedures help to maintain the care and learning needs of children. When children’s needs are not being met, this can affect their general health and behaviours. It is essential to plan routines beforehand, in addition to regularly reviewing any activities and routines to ensure they are meeting all of the children’s needs to EYFS standards. Children’s needs change all the time, this could be due to their stage of development, interests and background. (Tassoni, 2007, p. 265) Wrote that ‘Abraham Maslow (1908-70) argued that that humans have a range of needs’ and we are all motivated to achieve specific needs and then proceed to fulfil higher needs. Maslow invented the hierarchy of needs which is a pyramid that contains the different stages of needs. The first stage involves the basic physical needs of humans which are to have food, warmth, clothing and shelter. Diet is an element in physical needs and can be applied to a daily routine. For example in a childcare setting children are able to have access to clean water and regular healthy meals throughout the day.

The second stage is emotional needs and this involves security and protection. Safety is one element of the emotional stage which is regarded in childcare settings and took into account when panning routines and activities. The practitioners keep children safe by ensuring there are locks which are placed higher up on doors so the children are unable to reach them, this is so no one can enter the building or escape from the