Faculty of Education News

A new toolkit promoting a more co-ordinated and consistent approach to supporting the mental health of babies and young children has been released as part of a campaign encouraging guaranteed, high-quality services in the earliest years of life.

The resource, Understanding and supporting the mental health in infancy and early childhood, offers a basis for better informed, joined-up decision-making among the range of agencies and services which support children and families. It has been co-developed by UNICEF UK and the Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL), which is based at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge.

It forms part of UNICEF UK’s wider ‘Early Moments Matter’ campaign, which is calling on the UK Government to deliver a National Baby and Toddler Guarantee that sets out the basic services every young child in the UK is entitled to, including mental health support.

The mental health of babies, children and young people is a matter of widespread public concern, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Growing awareness that the foundations for positive mental health are built from – and before – birth has recently led to increased support for services promoting early mental health.

Among babies and young children (up to the age of five), being ‘mentally healthy’ means gradually becoming able to understand and manage emotions; experiencing nurturing, meaningful relationships; and being able to explore, play and learn.

A range of services make significant contributions to this, including early childhood education, social services, maternity services, health visitors, primary care, mental health services and the voluntary sector. This plurality, however, means that it is sometimes difficult to co-ordinate and direct efforts – not least because, as a term, mental health during the earliest years of life is not always well understood.

The toolkit aims to address this by providing a starting point for cross-sector conversations and strategy development. At its heart is a framework designed to give professionals, policy actors and services a shared understanding of mental health in babies and young children. It also encourages a common language, to help overcome the misconceptions and misunderstandings that sometimes characterise exchanges across professional boundaries.

Sally Hogg, Senior Policy Fellow for PEDAL and co-author of the toolkit, said: “It’s fantastic that there is increasing awareness that early mental health is critical for later outcomes, but sometimes the early years are seen only on those terms. The happiness and wellbeing, or conversely the stress and distress of babies and young children, deserves attention in its own right – and not just because it leads to school-readiness and healthier adult lives. This toolkit captures both what it means for babies and young children to be mentally healthy now, and how they develop the capacities to be mentally healthy throughout life.”

Joanna Moody, Senior Adviser on Child Mental Health and Wellbeing for UNICEF UK, said: “During the critical first few months and years of life, when a child’s brain is growing so fast, we have an important opportunity to support them to be mentally healthy while also laying strong foundations for the future. Supporting multi-sector working to achieve this, along with addressing the structural inequalities that affect families, can help give children the best start in life.”

Rather than acting as a ‘how to’ guide, the toolkit is a source of information and prompts which its authors hope will guide joined-up discussions. In this regard, it could be particularly useful when developing needs assessments or strategies to help babies, children and their families, and can be used at both a local level or on a wider scale.

Its core framework aims to deepen professional understanding of mental health in early childhood and infancy by discussing three elements: understanding and managing emotions, experiencing and nurturing relationships, and being able to explore, play and learn.

Beyond this, the toolkit also includes a socio-ecological model which lays out the various factors which shape mental health; describes the characteristics of effective whole-system models of support; explores the different workforce competencies required; and examines how to evaluate, assess and observe mental health in infancy and early childhood. As a resource for practitioners, it can be used in its entirety, or in stand-alone sections, according to need.

“Many practitioners across different services and sectors have a role to play in promoting babies’ and young children’s mental health,” Hogg said. “Joined-up, effective and sustained local action requires clear relationships, shared understanding and shared language. Our hope is this toolkit will enable such partnerships and further improve the health and happiness of babies and young children, now and in the future.”

Further information about the toolkit is available on the UNICEF website.

Image in this story: Laurence Crayton, Unsplash.