Using Mental Health Standards in Early Years Settings

This booklet is written for all professionals working with the very young-whether in a nursery, day care or child-minding facilities. The Mental Health Standards in Early Years Settings are offered as a way to ensure that you also provide a mentally healthy climate for growing and learning. This is a priority at a time when we are challenged by the rising incidence of emotional and mental vulnerability amongst children and families.

The Standards can be used as guidance for the individual child-carer or child-minder. However, they are very powerful when used as a whole centre development plan – from leadership to staff mental well-being, providing a rich curriculum and working with the community and other agencies. They incorporate recent guidance and recommended practice both from the mental health world as well as the Early Years Framework.

Guidance is given on what counts as meaningful data that the child-care centre might collect, how to develop the voice of the child and good parent-to-centre communication.