Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/why-have-a-mission-statement/5019194/
Everyone seems to have a piece of early years practice. It is overwhelmed by regulation, guidance and opinion from regulatory bodies, from academics, from consumers, from the media, and in recent years has felt ‘owned’ by every stakeholder except the provider. The recent economic downturn has only served to increase our awareness of the forensic scrutiny early years services are under, measured in every way by others.The purpose of a mission statement
Having a vision, and sharing it through a carefully crafted mission statement can release us from the weight and confusion of daily life in child care and enable us to lift our heads above the parapet and take a longer view, because a mission statement is ours. It informs others of our values, those aspects of the organisation which are not subject to the benchmarks others impose, and which we do not seek to trade. Rosamund and Ben Zander, in their book The Art of Possibility (2002), aptly describe a mission statement as “helping to see things in terms of the realm of possibility, rather than as a downward spiral of constraints and limitations.”
There are other reasons why having a mission statement is now more important than ever. ...