Impact case study database

Research by Powell and Goouch, focusing on the care and education of babies, has resulted in impacts for LAs, training, ECEC settings and individual practitioners. A key route to delivering impact for the research were the annual Baby Room conferences held between 2013 and 2018. Attended by over 400 students, practitioners, ECEC managers and representatives from over 25 LAs (as well as colleagues from Australia, China, Japan, USA, and the Netherlands), they played a key role in engaging practitioners, and acted as a catalyst for the establishment of practitioner-led Baby Room Projects across the UK, including East Sussex, Surrey, West Sussex, Derby and Cornwall. (5.5.)

Raising awareness of the key importance of ECEC (birth to two) and changing policy and practice within LAs

After hearing about Baby Room Projects at the 2017 Baby Room Conference, East Sussex County Council was ‘galvanised’ to establish a project within their own LA (5.9.). The subsequent Baby Room Project in East Sussex in 2017-2019, (involving 146 practitioners and 600 children and families) resulted in ‘acknowledgement of the importance of the under-two’s provision’ (5.9.). East Sussex County Council states there is now an increased awareness of the complexities of baby room work and the need for specialist professional development (5.1., 5.9.). Before the project, the ‘East Sussex Education Improvement Strategy: Excellence for All’, only referenced children aged 2 years and over, but now recognises ‘children’s learning from birth’ (5.9.). As a result of engaging in a Baby Room Project, East Sussex was also awarded an Outstanding Children’s Services Award from Children’s Services specifically ‘acknowledging the work of the project’ (5.1.) and its role in ‘putting baby rooms practice firmly on the map’ (5.9).

Similarly, Baby Room research (2016-2019) in Durham, initially involving over 20 nurseries and over 200 babies a day (before being extended across the county), ‘raised the profile and status of Baby Room work within the Education Directorate’. It resulted in Durham’s Early Years Education working with other parts of the Children and Families Agenda across the county, and with Goouch and Powell’s enquiry-led approach being used by health visitors and speech and language practitioners across Durham. It also resulted in collaborative working with public health practitioners on the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, ‘Better Start Health Programme’ (5.8.). Durham County Council’s Childcare Improvement Advisor credits the project with influencing her approach to engaging practitioners. She writes how the project did not just provide ‘new knowledge’ but gave her ‘confidence to implement new techniques’. ‘We didn’t just learn how to ‘do’, instead the ‘what’ and ‘why’ became much clearer’ (5.8.).

New specialist and enquiry led training opportunities for baby care professionals

There is now new and enhanced training that specifically focuses on promoting greater attachments and personalised interactions between babies and their carers for Baby Room practitioners across Durham; Bristol; (5.5.); Cornwall (5.10.), and East Sussex (5.1.). The significance of this training is that Baby Room practitioners have tended to be amongst the lowest paid and least educated, and their professional development has tended to either focus on working with older children, or on very practical issues and developmental goals. This new, enquiry led training, which uses engaged pedagogy, was developed from Powell and Goouch’s research findings (R1-R5). It fills a significant gap, and new training now considers the impact of the whole environment on babies, including the importance of sights, smells, regular eye contact, physical contact, and singing.

In Bristol, in 2017, Specialist Leaders of Education with the Bristol Early Years Teaching School Consortium stated that since the Baby Room research, the early years community has adopted the enquiry-led, action research principles of the Baby Room (5.5.). Similarly, in Cornwall, a programme of training sessions is currently delivered to baby room practitioners ‘based upon the training model of the Baby Room Project’ (5.10.). In Durham, the Childcare Improvement Advisor stated that since the 2016 Baby Room Project, training has been delivered more collaboratively with practitioners (5.8.). The ongoing specialist training in Derby is also reflected in a 2020 video outlining the significant impact the training and Baby Room Project has on improving interactions between babies and parents (5.2.). Finally, in East Sussex, this new training for early years practitioners was implemented ‘across the county’, and in 2020, they were commissioned to extend the training to Brighton and Hove providers, including Health Visitors and Community Nursery Nurses (5.9.).

Similarly, the ‘Mother’s Songs’ research (2013-14) underpins a core module of the British Association for Early Childhood Education CPD programme ‘Froebel Travelling Trainers’, which has already been completed by 125 early years practitioners. This research has been embedded ‘into the fabric of the content, structure and delivery’ of the course. As a consequence of this training, 16 nurseries in London, Guildford and Hampshire have implemented new policies and practice in singing to babies in nursery settings and with families. Additionally, the research has strongly influenced the Froebel Trust’s grant making policy and is ‘probably the most important and impactful research commissioned with funding from The Froebel Trust’ (5.7.).

Increasing confidence, creating communities of practice and raising the profile of baby care professionals

Recognition of the importance of the research is evident in the wide coverage given to Baby Room projects by Nursery World, the leading trade magazine. Since 2013, there have been 16 separate articles, features and interviews on the research findings and achievements.

Involvement in Baby Rooms projects has created communities of practice, promoted a sense of empowerment and, according to Nursery World: given practitioners ‘a voice’ (5.4.). In Durham, the research ‘raised the profile of pedagogy with babies’ within the Education Directorate, with the Durham Council Early Years Advisor stating: ‘They were the forgotten workforce, but now they feel like a group of professionals because they’ve had these opportunities.’ (5.5.). In 2017 practitioners reflected on the impact of involvement in the Durham Baby Rooms Project in Nursery World, stating: ‘Meeting up with other baby room practitioners has made me go back to basics and I’ve rethought the importance of attachment’, and ‘Since starting the project, my confidence has increased’ and ‘the project has made me feel more empowered and given me more respect for myself as a baby room practitioner’ (5.5.). In East Sussex, baby rooms practitioners also reported increased recognition for their work and the specialist skills they hold (5.9.) and they now feel less isolated (5.3.). Research created newly constructed communities of learners, resulting in enhanced professional status and the creation of various local communities of practice, with ‘strong, mutually supportive relationships’ (5.9.) - particularly in Durham, East Sussex and Bristol, but also in Kent, Medway (5.5.) Rotherham and Northamptonshire (5.11.). Practitioners in East Sussex commented: ‘It’s really brought us together as a team for the benefit of staff, children and families (5.3.). The project focused attention on the importance of what happens in baby rooms, highlighting that ‘practitioners do not just ‘play’ with babies all day; it is a highly complex role’ (5.4.).

Changes in practice within ECEC settings

This sustained focus on birth to two provision, has substantially enhanced professional practice and ethos amongst practitioners and resulted in a more reflexive and baby focused approach to interactions with parents and babies. The 2020 East Sussex County Council report states that as a result of the Baby Room Project, there is now a significant increase in ‘respectful and individualised interactions’ [with babies] and partnerships with parents’, and pre and post project interactions with over 600 babies has improved from a mean of 68.5% to 92.3%. Three years after the project, 90.9% had continued with the changes and practitioners self-reported a 39% increase in their communication skills with babies (5.1.). The same report states ‘…the changes we’ve made to our practice have hugely impacted the moods of both the babies and practitioners’ and ‘the babies have become less anxious and stressed during daily routines and overall seem a lot happier, especially during nappy changing’ (5.1.). As a result, the East Sussex Baby Room Project subsequently won the 2019 Nursery World Award for early years provision displaying exemplary practice (5.6.) with the Early Years Support and Intervention Office stating: ‘The whole ethos of many baby rooms appears to have changed’ (5.9.). Similarly, East Sussex Early Years Improvement Team claim that being involved in the project resulted in ‘improved parent partnerships’, leading to ‘children being quicker to pick up language, interactions becoming more meaningful and staff identifying developmental challenges faster’ (5.3.). Significantly, Baby Room research also resulted in the enquiry-led practice being implemented with practitioners working with older children in 85% of settings (5.7.), and following the project, in 2019, each nursery received a GBP500 grant from East Sussex County Council to spend on resources to support communication and interactions.

Similarly, in Rotherham, practitioners gained funding from Rotherham’s Metropolitan Borough Council to establish their own Baby Room Project, involving 36 early years settings. The project ran between 2010 and 2013 and by 2015 the proportion of Rotherham early years settings receiving an Ofsted ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ award, increased from 55% to 85%. The Council’s Early Years Quality and Curriculum Advisor stated that in part this ‘can be directly attributed to the impact of the [Baby Room] Project’ (5.11.). An example of improved interaction with babies is given by Rotherham recognising the value of nappy changing time. They stopped changing nappies using the "conveyor belt" system and only allow the key person to change their key children's nappies, resulting in improving ‘interaction during nappy changing, with practitioners making this time special for the babies' (5.11.). In Durham, the Baby Room Project (2016-19) resulted in practitioners changing the way they interacted with parents and babies, including ensuring nursery drop-off transition focused on the whole family, and explaining to parents how their interactions can support early development at home (5.8.). In Bristol they introduced a specialised Baby Room induction for staff, highlighting the importance of respect and interaction while changing nappies, the importance of making feeding times special, and the need for quiet times where babies are held lovingly and eye contact is maintained (5.6). In Derby (finalist in the 2019 Nursery World Awards 5.4.), practitioners now focus much more on the baby’s whole environment and ‘As a result, parents say they now feel more confident understanding their children and happier leaving them at nursery’ (5.6., 5.2.). Finally, in Medway, practitioners commented: ‘I’ve become more reflective – questioning whether I am talking in an appropriate way for a child’s developmental age and if an activity is pitched correctly’, and changes ‘have led to a much calmer and stimulating environment’ (5.5.).