A key person has special responsibilities for working with a small number of children, giving them the reassurance to feel safe and cared for and building relationships with their parents.' (Positive Relationships 2.4, Key Person)
BENEFITS
The benefits of a 'key caring' approach can be profound.
For babies and children, having a close and affectionate relationship with one or two adults who are responsive and emotionally available to them, away from home and family, provides the reassurance and comfort they need to feel safe. Knowing they are cherished and 'held in mind' by their key people amid the hustle and bustle of daily life in a setting gives them the confidence to explore and develop independence.
For parents, the approach makes sure that they also feel reassured and confident about their child's experience of being cared for away from home. It provides the opportunity to build a partnership with someone else who is fully committed to their child's well-being and, with the parents' help, will become familiar and 'tuned in' to their child's particular needs and motivations.
For the key person, the benefits from this intense and demanding approach are to be found in the satisfaction and fulfilment that comes from being someone who really matters to a child and their family, and who is recognised for their professional commitment and the impact that they have on a child's future development.
For the setting, there are growing indications that increased practitioner involvement and job satisfaction not only reduces staff absence and turnover, but also leads to improved care and learning for children, and greater confidence and 'client satisfaction' among parents.
CHALLENGES
But what about the challenges? Implementing such an approach, and making sure it is done well, creates hard work for both managers and staff. Practitioners and parents alike have many real concerns about the challenges of key caring, and these are often used to justify a 'watered-down' approach, or downright resistance! However, most of these concerns stem from serious misunderstandings about the approach. For example:
'It is not possible to be available all the time for every child.' That's right, it isn't possible - not even for parents. But a true key-caring approach doesn't attempt to achieve the impossible task of having one adult constantly available to each child. It seeks, instead, to minimise the amount of needlessly stressful situations that a child is exposed to. And it is from the security of these safe relationships that a child learns that unavoidable separations, though sometimes painful, can be tolerated and managed.
'What happens when staff leave?' It is natural to worry that it is wrong to encourage children to attach to staff who might leave the setting before the child does. But the realities of life, and certainly of school later on, make this inevitable. Once again, the emotional well-being and security that comes from repeated experiences of being cared for and 'held in mind' will help build the resilience and positivity that enable a child to cope with loss and transition. Also, having a partnership of two key carers, rather than just one, reduces the impact of individual key people leaving or being absent for any length of time.
'Children need to relate to other adults and children.' But the key people approach is not about restricting the child to one adult and a small group of children. The key carers provide a safe base which is built on a caring and affectionate relationship. When they have confidence in that relationship, children are better able to explore and interact with others, because they know reassurance and comfort are available whenever they need it. However, children are less likely to take risks and explore if they don't have that security behind them.
'But what about teamwork?' Again, the point of key caring is not to abandon the principles of teamwork and collective responsibility, but is more to give high priority to the individual care and attachments that children need in order to thrive. Key caring does not prevent a practitioner from supporting, helping or otherwise engaging with children who are not in their own group, nor from planning or preparation as a member of a team.
'It's too much of a responsibility and blurs the boundaries between personal and professional involvement.' This is an issue that does need serious consideration. Being a key carer for a child involves intensive hard work and commitment, and the complex responsibilities bring with them very real physical, emotional and intellectual demands. Managers and head teachers need to recognise this, giving the support, supervision and mentoring that practitioners need if they are to fulfil these responsibilities well - and without damage to their own well-being. Particularly important is reviewing relationships with children and families and providing guidance on professional boundaries, making sure practitioners are clear about where their role begins and ends. Practitioners will have varying concerns and anxieties relating to their individual experience, so there need to be frequent opportunities for individual and group discussions about all aspects of the role.
'It will undermine the attachments children have with their families.' Luckily, attachment is not something that comes in a fixed amount, where having more of it in the setting means there must be less of it at home. Research suggests exactly the opposite - having strong attachments at home seems to make it ultimately easier to develop attachments at nursery, and these relationships are in no way undermined by an increased number of secondary attachments. Attachment relationships at home are likely to be supported by good secondary attachments in nursery. This is significant where there are risks that can affect the primary attachment relationship (for example, post-natal depression, health issues, bereavement, etc; see Nursery World's Attachment series).
This triangle of relationships between the child, their parents and the key carers, is at the heart of the approach. The key person is not only helping the child to know that they are 'held in mind' by their parents and by the key carers, but, just as importantly, keeps the child's parents firmly in mind for the child, emphasising that no matter how close a child might get to their key person, they will never be more important to them than their parents and family.
Part 3 of this series will appear in Nursery World on 8 May
References and further reading
- Sally Thomas (Feb 2008) Nurturing Babies and Children Under Four (DVD and Resource Pack). Heinemann
- Peter Elfer, Elinor Goldschmied, Dorothy Selleck (2003) Key Persons in the Nursery: Building Relationships for Quality Provision. David Fulton
- Elinor Goldschmied and Sonia Jackson (1994) People Under Three - Young children in daycare. Routledge
- 'Being Held in Another's Mind' by Jeree Pawl, www.wested.org/online_pubs/ccfs-06-01-chapter1.pdf
- Siren Films 'Life at Two - Attachments, key people and development' (with user notes), www.sirenfilms.co.uk
- 'Implementing the Early Years Foundation Stage', Set 1, leaflet 2 on The Key Person and Interactions by Early Education, www.early-education.org.uk
- Nursery World series on Attachment, 11 October, 8 November, 13 December 2007, and 10 January, 14 February 2008
- A one-day course, 'The Key Person Approach and Relationships for Emotional Well-Being, Thinking and Learning', is being held at Roehampton University, London. For details contact p.elfer@roehampton.ac.uk
Links to EYFS Guidance
- UC 1.1 Child Development
- PR 2.4 Key Person
- EE 3.2 Supporting Every Child.
