The placement was a Children's Centre from part of the Dudley North Cluster that is made up of five different centres situated around the borough. All of the centres are within walking distance from one another. The working hours at this placement varied and most of the time were just short sessions of 2-3 hours each week, depending upon what classes and sessions the placement offered. This placement meant I was able to work with children but also work closely with parents and other professionals such as family support workers, social works and play workers. During my time spent at the placement I worked with parents in classes such as "get cooking" this helped parents to gain more knowledge about healthy options for them as well as their family. It is also taught the parents how to cook certain meals. Other sessions I shadowed during my time were antenatal sessions, these sessions were really interesting as it showed clearly how the children centre supported and helped new mothers become prepared for their new child. During these sessions other professionals sometimes attended such as educational physiologists and health visitors. I found this placement was particularly helpful in giving me a good in sight not only about what the centre offers in their setting for the community but also how their staff support families and children outside of the settings in homes. The staff at the setting gave me an insight on what procedures they would follow when conducting a home visit, depending on the circumstance of the visit, eg supporting child with speech difficulties, families on child protection registers. The placement do allow the opportunity for you to shadow certain home visits, so you can gain a real experience of what one would involve.
As this placement was local to my house I stayed at home.
As I worked across the whole cluster of five children centres, at the start of the day I would get to placement by car. However when commuting from one centre to another throughout the day I would share the same transport with the support workers at from each centre.
Things to do, things not to do
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