‘Understanding and supporting mental health in infancy and early childhood – a toolkit to support local action in the UK

CREC are excited for the launch of UNICEF UK and The University of Cambridge PEDAL Centre’s new resource, ‘Understanding and supporting mental health in infancy and early childhood – a toolkit to support local action in the UK. As we were part of the consultative group which helped produce the toolkit

The toolkit aims to:

• Help partners from different services and professions to develop a deeper, shared understanding of mental health in infancy and early childhood, and the factors that influence it

• Support service leaders, commissioners and other decision makers and policy teams to develop whole-system responses to ensure babies and young children are mentally healthy now, and are supported to develop the skills they need to continue to be mentally healthy throughout their lives.

• Provide resources, signposting, and conversation guides to support constructive local discussions, decisions and action about the needs of babies and young children in their area, and what more might be done to respond to these needs (including through strategy development across mental health, maternity, early years or Family Hubs & Start for Life).

The toolkit can be found at: https://www.unicef.org.uk/campaign-with-us/early-moments-matter/early-childhood-mental-health-toolkit/