BEST PRACTICE
The EYFS requires every child to have their own key person – here’s a guide to the role and why it’s so important for children
A key person is an educator assigned to a small group of named children as the main person looking after them while they attend an early years setting. They are also usually the main point of contact at the setting for the child’s parents. Being a key person is much more than just carrying out routine tasks such as feeding, changing, settling to sleep, providing activities and record-keeping.
A key person does not just bring their skills as an educator, but their personal characteristics too – their empathy, patience and genuine concern, as well as their knowledge of child development. They are there to form a close and personalised relationship with the child and the younger the child is, the more important this relationship is.
Being a key person is a relationship-based approach to working with children, in the context of wider staff-to-staff and staff-to-parent relationships. It is a whole setting task. It is an ongoing journey and, like all relationship journeys, there are times when it may derail and need to be helped to get back on track. Developing a sensitive and compassionate approach creates caring environments for children, families and educators in which everyone thrives.
A key person is a primary source of learning for a child. They have skills and knowledge available to the child as and when the opportunity arises. They have access to a set of material resources and are creators of an environment where learning can happen. Over time, being a key person means that they accrue a wide range of experiences working closely with children of diverse needs, interests, abilities and backgrounds.
In this way, practical knowledge is built up and, when this is coupled with theoretical training and understanding, a more profound and insightful understanding of children’s development and learning emerges. When this is added together with that of other colleagues in the setting, the cumulative effect benefits the setting as a whole.
A key person has responsibility for, and plays a significant role in, ensuring the emotional wellbeing of every child in their care. A baby or young child needs to be able to depend on their key person being predictable, that is that it is the same person, one who is warmly responsive in ways that make the child feel safe and cared for.
The key person gives this continuity, providing a presence that the child can depend on as the basis for a growing sense of independence, which includes the ability to form relationships with other adults in the setting. Where there is no key person to provide this attachment-based relationship, a baby or young child may experience the separation from their parents as acute distress, as well as the care in the setting being disjointed and impersonal.
For a key person to have a positive effect on the wellbeing and development of a baby or young child, that person needs to model appropriate responses, to be mature in the way that they handle distress, crankiness or noncompliance. More than anything the key person needs to be a contented person, whose own wellbeing is high.
Being contented at work, getting on with colleagues, having support when non-work issues are pressing and feeling valued by managers and parents are essential to ensuring that a key person feels good at work and communicates this to the children they care for. From having secure attachments in their family and then in early years settings, babies and young children are better placed for learning how to navigate their way in the world, to understand right and wrong, and to manage or regulate their own emotions and behaviour.
FREE Being a key person mini-guide
This is an extract from the Alliance mini-guide Being a key person.
To download a free copy, visit the Members’ Area of our website at portal.eyalliance.org.uk.