The Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC) is looking for nurseries to take part in research into how early years settings support children in armed forces families.

CREC is working on behalf of the Naval Children’s Charity and The SCiP Alliance to expand the Thriving Lives toolkit, currently aimed at supporting school-aged children, to cover early years. Between March and July 2024 CREC will research service children’s experiences and outcomes, early years settings’ awareness of and support for service children, and what effective, high-quality practice supporting service children, young people and families looks like in the early years.

The research centre will use its findings to co-construct a toolkit of appropriate resources and support which will be field-tested by a number of early years settings. CREC will be closely supported by an advisory group which includes the Early Years Alliance, the Department for Education, and RAFA Kidz.

CREC is asking early years settings across the UK to complete a short survey as part of the research phase.