History
The PANCo Programme
In 2009, three visionary health and education professionals joined forces to develop an innovative health and wellbeing qualification for the early years sector. Thus the Cambridge Childhood Partnership (CCP) was born and the Physical and Nutrition Coordinator (PANCo) concept created – a learning resource developed by practitioners, for practitioners
Wellbeing in Action
In 2010 we successfully delivered our first CACHE endorsed PANCo programme in Cambridge to 60 eager early years professionals. As a group we realised that although health and early years professionals might come from different backgrounds they shared a common goal of wanting to support health and well being in the early years and if they worked together they could create a truly holistic approach.
Clear direction
Two years on – 2012 CEDAR (Centre for Diet & Activity Research) evaluation of the programme highlights that the work we have done in developing the (PANCo) role has gone from strength to strength. The programme, designed as a well-being in action intervention has enabled early years staff not only to develop reflective practice skills and personal confidence as an agent of change, but also to develop and apply their knowledge of behavior change and support strategies within their own childcare care setting.
Going National
Fast forward to 2014. Building on the success of the PANCo programme has led to the development of a Level 4 Certificate for Early Years Advanced Practitioners. We are working in partnership with CACHE to develop the qualification. Our aim is to embrace the wealth of experience of the Level 3 early years workforce and challenge practitioners in both their daily practice and theoretical understanding, filling a much needed void in CPD.
Giving back
CCP became a Community Interest Company in 2015. Championing and shaping the future health and wellbeing agenda at local and national level CCP collaborating with and contributing to educational and professional bodies including the Dfee, DoH and APG
The future
2016 – The thing about learning it never stops and nor do we. We are building a mentoring platform to support our PANCOs – maintaining the continuous exchange of ideas, knowledge and practice. So that we can reach even more people we are also branching out from our classroom beginnings and taking PANCo online. And this is just the beginning………..