Announcing the next cohort of our blended learning programme starting Spring Term 2025 (dates to be confirmed) – contact us now to reserve your place
For further information and prices or for any queries please contact me on jacqui@flourishingpeople.co.uk
Our world has changed significantly in the past couple of years, presenting Early Years businesses with a whole new set of challenges. Early Years consultants and advisers need to develop a high level of business consulting skills, in addition to their own specific areas of expertise, in order to effectively provide the support that owners and managers of childcare settings need to deal effectively with these challenges.
Accredited by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), the UK’s leading professional body for managers, consultants and advisers, the Childcare Business Advisers Programme, which is in its 11th year, has been redesigned in line with the newly revised CMI qualification framework. We use a blended learning approach to support people who are considering or who have already begun to establish themselves in roles as consultants and advisers within the sector, working either for a local authority or as independent practitioners.
The programme acknowledges the impact on Early Years providers of what is happening in the UK economy and assumes that:
- Some areas of the UK economy are being hit hard by challenges faced by the economy as a whole. This is resulting in job losses in certain sectors and lack of staff in others. In some areas increased levels of hardship within our communities are having a significant impact on parents’ ability to afford childcare fees, and their eligibility for funded places.
- The growth of ‘hybrid’ working patterns post-COVID, with parents expected to work from home all or part of time on a permanent or long-term basis rather than to travel to an outside place of work every day, has caused them to rethink their childcare needs. Being able to offer flexible options to suit parents’ working patterns is becoming more critical than ever before.
- The new funding regime presents further challenges to providers with many of the business models previously used to create a sustainable balance between funded and fee paying places being closed off.
- Advances in the use of AI and other technology are moving at a pace which is constantly accelerating and changing our world in ways that few of us could have imagined just a few years ago.
- Providers will need to plan for this “new normal” situation and will need to be increasingly agile in order to adapt as the situation changes. This is a constantly changing situation so certain assumptions have to be made which may or may not change in the coming months. Being able to anticipate the future and react with agility are crucial characteristics for consultants and advisers to develop.
Features of our blended learning programme
The Childcare Business Advisers Programme is designed to cover the syllabus of the Level 5 Award in The Principles of Management Consulting, a degree-level qualification awarded by the Chartered Management institute (CMI).
By completing the post-course assignment, which is externally marked by CMI examiners, you can gain this important qualification to demonstrate your competence.
You will learn about:
- Essential consultancy skills
- Diagnostic tools to support each stage of the consultancy cycle
- Overcoming communication challenges facing a consultant
- Establishing credibility through an ethical approach to consulting
- Adding value to your clients through your role as an adviser.
A package of additional optional modules is available for those participants who are considering becoming an independent consultant or who are already operating as one (at an additional cost):
- Setting up and running a consultancy business in the EY sector
- Promoting your services and establishing your reputation
- Accessing sources of funding, information and resources to support settings.
- Overcoming challenges as an independent consultant.
Who should attend?
The programme gives you the key skills and knowledge to confidently add value to Early Years and Childcare providers, whatever your role or specialism. This includes:
- People who are currently employed in specialist roles within local authorities whose role requires them to act as consultants or advisers to Early Years providers
- Those considering setting up as independent consultants who wish to build their confidence and develop under-pinning knowledge and skills
- Experienced independent consultants who wish to build on their existing abilities and acquire an accredited qualification to recognise and confirm their existing competence.
What do participants on previous programmes say?
“It brought out some of the skills that maybe I wasn’t aware I had – it’s given me more confidence to go into settings”
“This course has helped me grow in confidence. It has shown me that I had a wider range of experience than I gave myself credit for. The knowledge I have gained has enabled me to provide a greater breadth and depth of support to the clients with a greater focus on the financial and growth elements that previously would have been passed on to a different team member.”
“The programme provided an opportunity to update my knowledge base, but also I welcomed the opportunity to share learning and best practice, and to network”
“This qualification has enabled me to really look at the work that I do for my clients and how I manage that relationship.”
“This has been a confidence building exercise recognising my strengths and what colleagues and clients think of me, but more importantly, it has helped to identify my steps in terms of my continued professional development.”
Please forward this information to colleagues who you feel may benefit from it.