Early years experts from Bright Horizons are sharing their research around the impact of a nurture-focused professional development programme with delegates at an international forum.

Caroline Wright, director of early childhood and Ann Stubbs, head of pedagogical research and development, are presenting research on the impact of Bright Horizons’ Nurture Model on practitioner behaviour at the World Forum for Early Childhood Education in Canada this month.

The Nurture Model, which launched last year, aims to develop practitioners’ knowledge and practice of key concepts around emotional development and wellbeing. It focuses on child development, neuroscience and helping adults to understand the impact of their role in supporting children’s emotional wellbeing through building strong, supporting relationships.

Findings from the research, which focused on 15 settings in England and Scotland, included:

• 125% increase in practitioners consistently role modelling good self-regulation skills
• 153% increase in practitioners recognising when colleagues may need help, and feeling able to step in and support respectfully
• 170% increase in nursery managers’ and leaders’ ability to describe the impact that staff wellbeing has on children’s development

“We wanted to explore the depth of practitioner knowledge and understanding of key concepts associated with the neuroscience behind emotional development and wellbeing in very young children,” said Wright. “We’ve tried to pinpoint how practitioners implement new learning into their practice and also whether they are able to use what they’ve learned to influence others, including colleagues and parents/carers.”

Wright said the training had been introduced to meet a need to provide practitioners with a greater depth of knowledge and understanding about wellbeing, and the associated concepts of early brain development, emotional development, co-regulation and self-regulation, due to a deficit in current qualifications for early childhood practitioners.

Bright Horizons will use the research to continue to develop its Nurture Model, which was created in partnership with clinical psychologist, Dr Sarah Mundy.

• Visitors to June’s Nursery Managers Show in Birmingham can hear Bright Horizons’ early childhood specialist Cheryl Davis and nursery manager Krupa Mamtora talk about the impact of the Nurture Model in person