Childcare practitioners in Plymouth are benefiting from an innovative scheme set up and funded by the city council's early years team to share best practice.
The Open Door programme is providing the impetus for local nurseries to visit each other and exchange good practice. The scheme provides a more formal basis for early years advisors to promote this.
Vicki Cross, proprietor of Pathways Day Nursery, transformed her setting after making two visits this summer. Sue Fitzsimmons, manager of the Toad Hall Pre-School, says her staff enjoy the public recognition of being hosts.
'We were often suggesting to settings that they visit other providers to see high-quality provision first hand,' says Julie Packer, the early years advisory teacher who leads the scheme. 'We were using the same settings and began to wonder how often we could keep asking, as they were getting no financial reimbursement or status for doing us these favours.'
Under the programme, which started as a pilot in late 2005, the city's nine host settings enjoy public recognition of their status, while they and their guests have funded supply cover for the visits.
The hosts, who have to be quality assured and have a good or outstanding Ofsted report, cover the nought to five age range. They represent the geographical spread of the city and include a range of settings, from children's centres to full-day and sessional care.
'It is a bespoke service,' says Ms Packer. 'Visits can be tailored to suit a setting's specific needs. The idea is that people visit a setting in their locality so they can walk there.
'Visits usually last a session, but supply cover for a day is funded from the quality budget to allow the host to prepare beforehand. We also fund supply cover for the visitors for a day so they can review what they have seen, and we suggest visitors go in pairs. Two people will remember more and it enables them to give feedback together on what they have seen.'
For the nurseries that need to improve, the process is crucial. 'If we have a setting that received an inadequate Ofsted report, we might advise the manager to visit a host setting with a room leader and then the next week send two of the room staff on a visit,' says Ms Cross.
She reports that the children, parents and staff are thrilled with the changes she made to her nursery as a result of her visits to the Lark Children's Centre and RJs Nursery.
'I went to see how others set out their furniture and their equipment so activities could be child-initiated. I wanted to get rid of all the bright colours here. It was too busy, with so many toys that the children were a bit bewildered. I wanted to calm it down and make it more inspiring for them to learn.
'We looked at what the children really wanted from their nursery, what they enjoy doing and how they learn. We evaluated our toys and got rid of the plastic stuff.
'We did it all in three weeks. The colours now are more natural. We have created enabling environments and have a construction zone, a creativity zone and a big home corner. It transformed our practice.'
Ms Cross adds that the children respect their new nursery. 'They are not running up and down. They want to explore and are more focused. The staff say it is a nicer place to work. They are not always having to tell the children what to do and instead follow the children's lead, while the parents say they have a posh nursery now.'
Ms Fitzsimmons believes that being an Open Door host provides a formal recognition that the nursery's practice is sound. 'It highlights our commitment to professional development and gives us all a sense of pride in our pre-school,' she says.
'When people come we share ideas. It is a two-way process. One visitor gave us a recipe for making artificial snow out of soap flakes and we gave them one of our recipes.
'We talk to people about our equipment, how we set up the hall or maybe about part of the curriculum, like the circle time we have developed - whatever aspect it is that they want help with.'
Julie Packer explains that the Open Door programme is part of a multi- pronged approach. 'For example, on outdoor areas, practitioners can go on LA training, then they can go on Forest School training and then they can go on an Open Door visit. They hear about the theory, they see the theory in practice and meet the practitioners,' she says.
'It's all about widening the scope for sharing good practice.'