The resource provides practical advice and frameworks for service leaders, commissioners and policy teams, so they can develop a whole-system approach to supporting the mental health of babies and young children.
Published by the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) and the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL), the resource acknowledges that identifying and addressing the mental health needs of these children can be difficult for professionals, and aims to move towards a shared understanding of the topic.
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All early years services can benefit from the toolkit, which encourages services in local communities to communicate and work together to promote positive mental wellbeing among this group of children.
Sally Hogg, senior policy fellow at PEDAL, said: “At present, professionals from different settings and sectors can have different views on what mental health means for babies and young children and use different language to describe it. Our toolkit will help to move towards a shared understanding, which is vital for effective action.”
The toolkit includes a framework to describe mental health at this life stage, a socio-ecological model, and lays out what a whole-system approach to mental health in infants and young children might look like.
The framework “captures the essence of what it means for babies and young children to be mentally healthy now, and the capacities that young children develop to be mentally healthy as they get older,” Hogg said.
Joanna Moody, senior policy adviser for child mental health and wellbeing at UNICEF UK, said: “Supporting multi-sector working, along with addressing the structural inequalities that affect families, can help give children the best start in life.
“This toolkit and framework will support professionals, policy makers and services with a shared understanding of mental health in this age group, to ensure better outcomes for the families and children in their care.”
Dr Clare Lamb, lead for under five’s mental health at the University of Cambridge’s Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Child and Adolescent Faculty, added: “We know that children with mental health needs benefit from a multi-disciplinary and multi-agency approach. It is important that professionals, policy makers and services all develop a better understanding of the mental health needs of this age group.”
