Features

Management queries: What to do when a member of staff says she cannot pick up and carry a child

Our panel discusses how to support staff who may be feeling the strain when it comes to physically meeting the additional needs of some children. By Gabriella Jozwiak

Q. We take it in turns to give one-to-one support for a child with SEND who needs a lot of holding. A member of staff is being increasingly negative to the child and says she can’t pick up and carry them because it hurts her back. I feel she is refusing to meet the needs of the child and am not sure how to proceed.


Becky Eckersley, SEND support team lead, Kids Planet Day Nurseries

‘First, it's important to establish why the child likes being held. I would recommend doing a SEND analysis that considers under what circumstances this child seeks being held, how she behaves once she is held, and what the child “gets out of” being held.

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