Qualification: NCFE CACHE Level 3 Diploma for the Early Years Educator
Unit: Unit 2.5: Work in partnership
Learning outcome: Understand how to work in partnership
Assessment criteria: Identify when parents/carers need support
Early Years practitioners work closely with the parents and carers of the children that they care for, and so are in a prime position to observe any changes that may indicate that a parent or carer needs additional support.
Parents and carers may need additional support for many reasons, some of which are listed below:
- Socio-economic factors (e.g. money or poverty)
- Traumatic experiences (e.g. bereavement or relationship breakdown)
- Lack of sleep
- Mental health conditions or addictions
- Physical illness
- Stress
- Difficulty performing childcare tasks (e.g. breastfeeding, feeling close to child)
Early Years practitioners should be on hand to help support families because this can have a direct impact on the welfare of the child. Sometimes parents and carers may just need someone to talk to or confide with, whilst other times they may need professional help. For the latter, Early Years practitioners should be able to refer or signpost parents and carers to the appropriate services.