Islington Play CEO
We have been looking at and thinking about policies this week. IPA has evolved in different ways and in different directions over its entire 43 year history meaning policies and procedures have been adopted due to organisational need, to model good practice and in response to legislation. Different parts of the organisation and indeed different individuals have been more (or less) keen to develop policies for managing.
We aim to have policies across the organisation but we currently have different custom and practice on all nine sites that needs to be woven together, taking what works and discarding out of date and bizarre practice. For example one site would use a 'fake cake' for children's birthdays as part of their healthy eating strategy rather than talk through, with parents, the issues about what we feed our children. The new food policy should help.
The youngest told me he was excited that it was Tuesday this morning. I asked him why and he said 'because it's not Monday'.
I could see where he was coming from.
Is it just me or is the X word making its self felt with everyone? Christmas is coming and at the rate that time is flying since my long distant summer holiday it will be here very soon.
I cannot dress correctly for the weather. When I leave in the morning and get home at night it is foggy and cold (and dark) but when I am in Islington the world is bathed in the golden light of a late summer and I am hot. Am I over romanticising it?
I actually had some holiday this week and went up north to visit Liverpool Uni with the eldest. It was very exciting and actually inspiring. Who knew?
There seems to be a flutter of staffing issues brewing at IPA and we are meeting to talk about what is happening. Partly the managers at all levels are getting an understanding of their roles and therefore need to use procedures to deal with issues but also I wonder if the changes that have been being implemented over the last 12 months are effecting longer term staff who need to really decide whether this is the place for them. IPA has, like many other organisations, been pushed to become a lot more professional and organised in a small space of time. Some staff find the transition easier than others, some cannot respond to the pace of change needed in a charity that delivers directly to children that may be in challenging circumstances and who are surrounded by many local and national initiatives and regulations.
Some staff feel conflicted about the systems, coming from a play background, it can be strange to offer freedom and dare we say it encouragement to be anti- authoritarian, rebellious, free thinking, inquisitive and challenging whilst we work within a very regulated, monitored boundaried framework.
Strange dilemma- Can a member of staff unsubscribe from receiving work information emails to her work email address?..........