Anna Freud Centre asks early years staff to share experiences of children's wellbeing
Annette Rawstrone
Monday, October 26, 2020
Early years practitioners are being asked to participate in a survey to explore the mental health and wellbeing needs of children attending nurseries across the UK.
The Anna Freud Centre, a national charity dedicated to providing training and support for child mental health services, believes that nursery workers are a key source of information, and that their insights may have remained untapped for too long.
Dr Camilla Rosan, head of the Early Years Programme said, ‘Every day nursery workers look after and support children with an extraordinary wide range of backgrounds, life experiences and mental health needs. But up until now there hasn’t actually been that much research which explores their views of the world.
‘We’d really like to know what their frontline experiences are, and about the kinds of needs the young children in their care experience most day to day. There is also little information about the challenges they face when trying to manage these needs, so we’ll be asking about these.’
The survey asks question about how often practitioners encounter children affected by a range of issues, and different life experiences that can affect mental health. Subjects range from family bereavement to different child behaviours or family homelife challenges. It also asks nursery staff about the challenges they may face when managing these needs.
‘At the moment, most of our understandings of young children are based on research which focuses on the experiences of parents, and also trained mental health professionals who work within early years,’ says Dr Rosan. ‘But we realise that nursery workers will have the unique ability to offer an overarching perspective of what is going on with our under fives across the UK. If we take the time to explore their experiences, they could shed more light on the current nature of our nation’s mental health landscape, when it comes to early years.’
The project is part of the Centre’s wider plan to create wide-scale, sustainable change and to support preventative work with infants and families. It will also be used to shape and inform the Centre’s Early Years in Mind learning network, a free digital learning network aimed at helping early years staff to support the mental health of babies, young children and their families.
The survey, which takes a few minutes to complete, is available until 13 November 2020 here
