Call for new framework for babies and toddlers

WATCh (What about the Children?) says that group daycare in its current form is important for three-and four-year-olds, but wants a new framework designed for babies and toddlers.

The charity also claims that its research shows that parents often also overlook the importance of attachment when choosing childcare.

WATCh carried out two separate surveys with mothers of under-threes earlier this year, and found that a third of the mothers polled said that 'social and educational opportunities' were more important than 'a close and loving bond between child and carer' when looking for childcare for their children.

Around half of the mothers surveyed - 840 in total - used some childcare, with the majority of under-threes cared for by grandparents or other family members and a third in nursery settings.

When the review of the EYFS was carried out, WATCh wrote to the then children's minister, Sarah Teather, and Claire Tickell, who was leading the review, calling for a greater differentiation in the EYFS between the under-threes and the threeto five-year-olds.

The charity's new report, Childcare Provision for the Under-Threes, has been sent to Elizabeth Truss, minister for education and childcare, education secretary Michael Gove, and Ofsted.

The WATCh report claims that the latest neuroscience studies prove that the relationship between a child and their carers has the biggest impact on their future happiness and the stronger the attachment the better. It says that 'special, loving relationships are easy to forge' when family members are carers, but that it is less easy for an infant to establish this connection with one particular carer in group settings.

However, the report acknowledges that some group daycare settings are already fostering better loving relationships between carers and infants, through innovative ways of structuring the environment, their training and induction processes (see case study).

Best practice examples include group childminder settings, where a child remains with the same key worker throughout the time they are in childcare, and where children do not move through a series of 'rooms'; nurseries which train staff about the importance of the quality of the relationship they have with infants and its impact on the child's future social and emotional well-being; a long induction phase, which allows key workers to spend time getting to know the mother and child.

WATCh acknowledges that group daycare in its current form is valuable and important for three-to-four-year olds, but it would like to see Ofsted and the Government implementing the following changes to under-threes provision:

• a new EYFS framework for 0-36 month olds - which is separate from that for the over-threes - to focus on emotional stability, not just learning
• this should be reflected in new Ofsted criteria for under-threes, which should have attachment and loving relationships at the core
• group daycare settings and childminders need educating about the change.
  

Lydia Keyte, chair of WATCh and co-author of the report, told Nursery World, 'When we did the research we were surprised that mothers were making choices about daycare that didn't put the emotional well-being of their babies as the highest priority.'

Mrs Keyte said the EYFS 'focuses more on the end game - preparation for school. It doesn't focus on the emotional development of babies and the whole issue of secure attachment.'

She added, 'Early development is so rapid and the difference between birth to three and three to five is so different. It's a big leap and the EYFS doesn't sufficiently acknowledge this.'

She said for practitioners who do not have 'a sound understanding of child development, it doesn't significantly identify the differences between a four-month-old baby and a four-year-old child'.

WATCh also says that the Ofsted inspection regime tends to be about safeguarding. 'The report format doesn't really give inspectors the opportunity to comment about attachment. Securely attached babies are much more sociable and therefore much more likely to be ready for school.'

Penelope Leach, child psychologist, said, 'With the outpouring of neuro-scientific information and the research built around it, we have more opportunity than any previous generation to understand that babies' very first relationships are crucial to building both the structure and the function of their brains and nervous systems and to realise that the physical, social and emotional development that goes on in the first year or two is the foundation of everything that's to come.

'It is the quality of their relationships with loving adult attachment figures - particularly parents but also other carers -which determines how the brain develops, particularly its social and emotional functioning. Frequent changes of carer, or lack of intimate emotional contact with those who are responsible for providing care, can cause stress and insecurity that permanently affects an infant.'

CASE STUDY: WOODLANDS PARK NURSERY SCHOOL AND CHILDREN'S CENTRE, HARINGEY, NORTH LONDON

The nursery caters for 73 children under three across the week (with up to 36 children in one day).

Peter Catling, head of the nursery school and children's centre, said, 'We put a high emphasis on the key person approach and training staff. It's also about the way we communicate with families and getting to know children in context. It's about developing consistency.'

Initially the nursery separated children by age into three different rooms, but this has now changed to just two rooms, so that all babies and toddlers under three are in a single environment. This is made up of interconnecting rooms and feels homely. There is a second room for three-and four-year-olds.

Jenny Baker, Woodlands' Birth to Threes co-ordinator, said, 'For us we feel it is right to have fewer transitions.'

Commenting on working with under-threes, she said, 'It's about being in tune with babies and working closely with their parents. We're here to love and care for your child in your absence - I call it "professional love".'

She added, 'It's about spending time with a baby, really communicating with them, and knowing the child really well, their likes and dislikes and how they are feeling. It's making sure you have that strong attachment, so that you can "read" the child and be a warm and responsive caregiver.'

Ms Baker said it was particularly important in a busy nursery that at key times of the day, such as sleep time and nappy time, a key person and their child can spend some special time together, singing, talking and having cuddles. 'It's about providing high-quality experiences so that young children feel loved, supported, engaged and listened to.'

Children at Woodlands have their own key person and a co-worker, a secondary carer who can step in when their key worker is absent. The centre is open from 8am to 6pm, which means that at some point during each day the co-worker will take the lead.

'It's for children to know who their special person is and for parents to know who is supporting their child.'

The nursery, which only has one intake a year in September, also makes sure that children are given one-to-one attention with their key worker during the settling-in period. Only four children under three are settled in each week at the nursery.

Ms Baker said, 'We take turns to settle children in so that we can support them 100 per cent throughout this important transition period. We work really closely with families and this means that staff are freed up to support the child.'

Ms Baker has recently taken part in the training for trainers 'Inspired by Babies' course, which she will now offer to other staff at the centre and to parents. She said, 'This training emphasises and underpins the importance of the first two years of development and the role that parents and carers play in building a baby's future.'