The information below is particularly relevant for practitioners working with children in the early years or those at a similar developmental stage. ‘Practitioners need to decide what they want children in their setting to learn, and the most effective ways to teach it.
Practitioners must stimulate children’s interests, responding to each child’s emerging needs and guiding their development through warm, positive interactions coupled with secure routines for play and learning.’ (Early Years Foundation Stage EYFS 1.16)
Nurturing children's mental health in early years contributes to the development of emotional resilience, social skills, and learning. Some children may encounter difficulties that impact their social and emotional skills.
Websites
- Building Brains For Lifelong Health | AFWI | Oxford Brain Story provides information for practitioners on how our earliest experiences can impact our long term physical and mental health.
- Early Support Information on Behaviour: This resource explains reasons behind children's behaviour and offers strategies for managing challenging behaviour.
- Help for early years providers : Mental health for early years children a helpful article written by the Department for Education (DfE) in consultation with a team of early years experts and senior health professionals, including NHS England and the National Children’s Bureau.
- Promoting mental health and wellbeing | NSPCC Learning resource packed with tips and resources to help promote mental wellbeing in the children.
- The Leuven Scale - Emotionally Healthy Schools use the Leuven Scale to assess a child’s Wellbeing and Involvement
- Help for early years providers : Sense of self feeling safe and secure helps children develop their independence. Find out how you can help them on this DfE website.
- PACE the PACE approach helps a child feel safe, promotes secure attachments and enables a child to reflect on their thoughts and behaviours without being judged.
- What is attachment? | Anna Freud information on attachment, signs of attachment differences, and guidance for building healthy relationships.
- Wellbeing activities for children - BBC Tiny Happy People wellbeing activities to boost toddler’s mental health.
Self-help resources
Resources to support a child’s positive mental health and wellbeing
- Giving Effective Praise:
- Expressing feelings in the Early Years
- tactilestrategies with OT
- calmingstrategies SLT/OT
- Let's talk about...trauma informed and responsive early years practice a useful CPD bitesize Sway to help early years practitioners learn how to support children who have experienced trauma
Resources to create an Emotionally Healthy Early Years setting
- The Building Wellbeing Plan (docx format, 176Kb) is designed to help settings to map out their provision available at different levels of intervention.
- Early Years Well-being plan (pdf format, 188Kb) will provide you with a completed example of a Building wellbeing plan in an early years setting.
- The Foundations for an Emotionally Healthy Early Years Setting Self-Assessment tool (docx format, 129Kb) shows the measures that need to be in place to support an effective whole setting approach to promoting wellbeing. There is also an Excel version of the self-assessment tool (xlsx format, 123Kb) to collate views from a larger staff team.
- Foundations for an Emotionally Healthy Early Years Setting Action plan (docx format, 177Kb).Following the self-assessment process, areas requiring additional development may be identified. These can be captured on an action plan.
- Promoting well-being step by step guide (docx format, 176Kb) offers information on how materials can be used within settings.
Training
Understanding Behaviour in the Early Years Understand what children may be communicating through their behaviour. Gain a deeper understanding of children’s social and emotional development, and the factors influencing this. Find out how to provide, develop and maintain an emotionally secure provision for all children.
Early Years SEND Advisory Team training offer The Early Years SEND Advisory Team provides a comprehensive range of training to assist settings in the identification and support of Early Years children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The training offer includes: Early Years SENDCO Core training, SEND training for Childminders, the Graduated Response, planning and reviewing SEN support and outcome plans, effective communication and partnership with parents and carers as well as specific sessions to address particular areas of learning need.
Specialist support in setting
The Early Years SEND Advisory team work with individual children under 5 years of age who have complex learning, communication and/or social interaction differences. Individual children can be referred using an Early Support SPORFI form (docx format, 585Kb). Support is given to the family and/or the child’s early years setting or nursery class in collaboration with other agencies from education, health and social care.
The Early Years SEND Advisory team also provide universal and targeted support to Oxfordshire early years settings and schools in order to promote effective inclusion of children with SEND. Settings and schools can use the SENDCO Helpdesk to ask for ‘no names’ advice and targeted setting support.
A Single Point of Request for Involvement (SPORFI) is a multiagency form used to request support from various educational and health teams for children under 5 with special educational needs and/or disabilities. For further information see the Single Point of Request for Involvement (SPORFI) Flowchart.
Complete the SPORFI form to make a request. Services that can be requested include:
- Speech and Language Therapy
- Speech and Language Therapy (feeding)
- Physiotherapy
- Occupational Therapy
- Early Years SEND team
- SENSS – Physical Disability
Health Visiting Services offer support to families at home and in the community from pre-birth until the child turns 8 years old. See information on how Health Visiting and early years settings working together.
Early Help Children’s Services Early help refers to the collaborative approach taken by all services working with children and families to provide support for a family before problems escalate. Accessing early help can address potential issues and improve outcomes for children, young people, and families. More information can be found on Early Help and the Locality Community Support.
The Behaviour Inclusion team offer guidance, advice and support to aid inclusion of children in school-age classes with SEMH needs, preventing suspension and exclusion and supporting reintegration into education. Advice from Behaviour Inclusion Officers can be accessed via the SENDCO Helpdesk or the schools linked Exclusion and Reintegration Officer to support a referral.