Essential Skills for Managers of Child-Centred Settings

‘I found this book really insightful and a manageable read – everything is broken down into easy to read chunks. I've taken a lot from the book and the main message for me was that you need to be confident about your ideas, vision and objectives as a person as well as a manager.’ – Laura Watkins, manager at St Mary’s Fun Club, St Mary’s C of E Primary School, Barnsley, UK

The authors outline ten ‘essential skills’ for leading and supporting those around you in your child-centred settings and offer sound advice so you can build your personal and professional skills and become a confident and assertive manager. With a balance of both accessible theory and practical application from a wide range of settings, this book explains management theory and will help you to develop the skills to:

• Become a confident leader;
• Set clear aims and objectives for your setting;
• Manage your time effectively;
• Make decisions and implement change;
• Build and develop a team;
• Reflect on and develop practice;
• Deal with difficult situations and people.

This book also contains case studies and ‘real-life’ scenarios from managers undertaking training with the authors which will ensure you provide an excellent service in your setting. No manager or leader should be without this user-friendly guide!

Shelly Newstead is the founder of Common Threads, a social enterprise which supports practitioners across the UK and abroad who use playwork practice in their work with children. She has managed and developed a wide range of playwork and childcare settings and written a series of management skills training courses specifically for this field.

Emma Isles-Buck has worked as a trainer and manager in childcare and playwork for various local authorities, charities and in private training companies. She has been an assessor and external verifier for playwork NVQs, helped develop playwork qualifications for CACHE and developed several management courses and workshops for different client groups. Emma now works as a freelance project manager and writer.