French professionals and parents evaluate ChildIN standards
On April 10, 24 French professionals, childminders, parents and other stakeholders got together on a focus group in Nevers to evaluate the ChildIN Competence Framework. The meeting, that was organised by French ChildIN partners IPERIA l’Institut and the Department of Nièvre, aimed at improving the skills and training standards developed by IPERIA. Parallel to this, two other focus groups have also been set in Poland and in Portugal with the same objective.
After a brief presentation of the ChildIN project, the focus group participants spilt into working groups to analyse different case studies from the point of view of the qualities, skills and attitudes of childcare; and knowledge or childcare know-how. Then, each group checked the consistency between the case studies and the ChildIN Competence Framework.
French focus group concludes that the proposed competence framework is “rather consistent with the autistic children and families and childminders’ needs and rights. It highlights two important competence areas that must be developed by the childminder: the communication with the family and the professionals that intervene in the child’s life; and the interactions with the child.
The Competence Framework is a substantial building block for the enhancement of a harmonized training provision for home-based childminders on specific topics, and will set the basis for an improved quality of the home-based care of children with autism: its transferability potential is very high, as the competence framework and learning architecture will be applicable in any country of Europe and beyond.
