Universal mental health support in the early years in the context of the UK: early years professionals’ views

Despite the strong national drive in the UK to improve children’s mental health, significant concerns have been raised about initiatives aimed towards school-age children, excluding the nation’s youngest. Surprisingly, little is known about whether early years training adequately prepares practitioners to support young children’s mental health, as well as investigating how this happens in practice. The present research examined the value of universal mental health provision in early years education in the UK by exploring early years practitioners’ views on training and continuous professional development, as well as their perspectives about practices and procedures they use. Early years practitioners reported that early years qualifications in the UK had failed to prepare them by excluding social and emotional learning almost entirely from basic training. Whilst continuous professional development related to mental health was marginally more available, it remained largely exclusive to a small percentage of the early years workforce, namely those working in local authority settings. The study advances our understanding of the UK early years practitioners’ preparedness to support young children’s mental health by emphasising the importance of a highly skilled workforce, reinforcing the need for increased mental health training for all early years professionals.