Help!

[Guest sara g]

We've just heard that we are going to have our Ofsted inspection in February, and have found out that we are supposed to have a 'behaviour incident book'.

 

We are not sure that any of our children's behaviour warrants being recorded and are also worried that this is going to encourage staff to start labelling children.

 

Can anyone tell me what sort of 'incidents' we are supposed to include, and how to share this information with parents in a sensitive way.

 

Thank you

[Guest]

Hi Sara

We had our inspection in November and there was no mention of a behaviour incident book! Our inspector was only concerned about accidents and keeping a record of any medication administered.

I wonder if they are after changes in a child's behaviour for no obvious reasons-thinking of child abuse here. Or is it biting and hitting and general other problems as regards beaviour. I would perhaps wait and see what they say if anything. It could be that if they ask you for a behaviour book then you could ask them the question as to what should be in it and use it as part of your development. Let's face it, we can't all have everything in place!!

I personally would rather chat to parents if we had any concerns and we perhaps keep a diary after discussions with them. They could also add to the diary if they are having problems at home. That way we could see if there was a particular trigger which causes the behaviour.

Good luck with your inspection-let us know how you get on.

Linda

[AnonyMouse_73]

Hi there Sara. We do keep an incident book for behaviour usualy for incidents of serious aggression from one pupil to another or a pupil to staff or other parents. Perhaps you are very lucky if you never have any incidents that warrant being recorded but other settings do, hence a general request for a book. We keep our book separate form child protection issues folder although some incidents may appear to be related- we would record them in both if necessary. We find that the book is useful as happened at my last schol, a child was excluded, we had the evidence that we needed to get the child statemented and on a BEP.

We would also record anything in which a child shows a dramatic change in behaviour but which is of concern. I must also say that the book last year had ony 2 entries and this year so far,none, but I think its about the fact that there is something in place.

I shouldnt worry too much about it, you could do as Linda suggests and wait until they say something, and say that it is something that you are looking into.

[AnonyMouse_79]

Hi,

We have a book in school for the sorts of things that Mundia describes, any incidents or concerns that cause concern in any way. So the child that turns up with a nasty scratch on face near eye would be recorded and their explanation. Similiarly any behaviour issues are noted and that way there is a body of evidence should it be required by yourselves or outside agencies. A child having amore specific problem would probably have their own book set up.

 

We use an A4 indexed book and record against child's nme with dates etc and that way you can also see at a glance if this is a first record or something that happens frequently, although of course you would be aware anyway.

Record conversations with parents too about any concerns as Linda says.

 

You can prpare quite easily by having/ buying abook, if its empty, great!

 

I expect you do all that anyway.

 

Good luck.

 

Susan

[Steve]

Hi Sara -

It would be interesting to know who told you or where you discovered that you are supposed to have such a book. One of the things that seems to be happening in the new inspections is that settings are being told that they need xxx in one area, where it's not mentioned in another area.

 

If there are 'obligatory' policies, resources or whatever, which every setting needs to have, perhaps settings need to be told what they are?

[Guest]

I think we all thought that once we were all inspected by OFSTED and them only it would level the playing field and we would all be having to provide the same policies etc. But it isn't the case. I realise that each inspector will be different in approach and what their pet area is but basic requirements such as policies, accident and incident books etc. should be the same. Then there wouldn't be this panic when you find out that somebody else has been asked to provide a policy etc. that you haven't got! Then, when you do it, they weren't that interested anyway.

I think you should look on it as an identified gap. We didn't have a parent policy when we had our inspection but we had identified it as something we wanted to do. So, we brainstormed what we already did and didn't do to involve parents and wrote it onto a whiteboard in the office. The inspectors were pleased with that and were happy that we could see what we needed to do. We are now in the process of writing the actual policy.

Perhaps you could have an action plan already of some things you would like to develop over the next year or so.

Linda

[Guest]

hi,

 

We to use an incident book for the same purposes as most of you, although this has not been recommened by ofsted, we use it to assess child behaviour.

 

We also record incidents if a child comes into the setting with an injury from home. Not only does this protect us from the parent saying the injury occured during the session, but we also use it to assess children who may have more injuries than others to see if there is a pattern.

 

Worse case senario, it can also be used in cases of child abuse as evidence of recurring injuries, or if staff have concrens of abuse.

[AnonyMouse_75]

Hi we have an incident book and were told to impliment it about 4 years ago it ties in with our behaviour policy and we record any incident where the child has caused harm to another child such as biting and hitting or to pre-school equipment. we also record if a child has been destressed during a session and it has taken longer than normal to settle or calm the child

 

we use it simularly to the accident book recording incidents that we feel we need to draw the parents attention to, we dont record every problem just the serious outbursts and challenging behaviour, parents are asked to sign the book to acknowledge that they have been told. Unlike the accident book where events are listed on the same page we use a small note pad and every incident is recorded on a fresh page to ensure parents dont read previous entries.

 

we dont use the book to record suspect marks we have seperate sheets for that called "non accidental injury" forms and we keep these stricktly confidenctial.

 

we have found the incident book a very useful record and I would recomend you consider using one. we rarely use ours but about 18 months ago we had a child that would bite regularly we were able to monitor the pattern of the behaviour and if there where any common factors such as the time of the session or the child they bit. at first the parent refused to acknowledge that their childs behaviour was a problem and by us recording it we could say that it was happening too frequently we managed to use the record to draw up an action plan and nip the bitting in the bud

 

most groups in my area have some form of incident record it seems to be the norm and many other childrens groups have them too