Open Kindergarten project - the importance of holistic, person-centred support for parents and carers

Earlier this month, the third phase of the Open Kindergarten project was launched in Scotland. In this new phase of the project, the Open Kindergarten model – which offers parents and carers the opportunity to develop parenting skills, confidence and knowledge – will be tested in different settings in central Scotland. As the new phase begins, Amy Woodhouse, Chief Executive of Parenting across Scotland, discusses how the project has evolved over the past six years and shares her hopes as the project partners begin work on the next stage.  

I’ve been involved in quite a few projects over the years that had great potential but couldn’t continue after their initial funding period ended. I’m sure I’m not alone in that experience. It can be a frustrating and demoralising business to feel like you need to keep reinventing the wheel.

How nice therefore to be able to share with Children in Scotland members that our new Open Kindergarten project has just entered its third phase of funding and its sixth year of activity in Scotland!

In essence Open Kindergarten is a model of parenting support where groups of parents, carers and their young children meet regularly in family centres and are supported by highly-qualified early years staff who work alongside specialists to develop parents’ skills, confidence and knowledge. The origins of Open Kindergartens go back much further than six years of course. Widespread in Nordic countries, they’ve been in operation for 50 years or more and are very well known and understood there.

Scotland’s journey with Open Kindergartens began in 2015 when Clare Simpson, then Manager of Parenting across Scotland, visited Sweden, Norway and Denmark to explore those countries approaches to supporting families in the early years. A key feature of the study visit was understanding how they used the Open Kindergarten approach.

In 2018 Children in Scotland, Parenting across Scotland and the University of Stirling were able to secure funding for a feasibility study to explore whether the Open Kindergarten model could be adapted to Scotland to improve outcomes for children in the early years. It concluded that Open Kindergartens had lots of potential and would be worth exploring further.

Between 2019 and 2020 the project partnership began piloting Open Kindergartens in Midlothian and Edinburgh, bringing in Midlothian Sure Start and Granton Early Years Centre as delivery partners. Fifty-one families took part in Open Kindergarten sessions. The evaluation identified the key components that defined the Open Kindergarten approach in Scotland:

• It is person-centred, relaxed and informal.
• It is parent-led.
• The open-door policy means that you can drop in without a referral.
• It is free.
• The practitioner’s approach focuses on warmth, authenticity and receptiveness.

The report concluded that Open Kindergartens filled a gap in early years services and had a positive impact for both parents and children. Parents were very positive about their experiences – for some it was their only source of support.

“I feel like when I come here, I can just feel relaxed and be normal and she can just play away and I can talk to other mums about how I feel, what’s went on, and it’s like we share different things, different techniques, and it’s like, okay, I’ll give that a try. Yes, and it’s good to have other support other than my partner, which is nice.” — Parent

After the pilot project finished, Midlothian Sure Start mainstreamed the Open Kindergarten approach within their services, offering Open Kindergarten sessions to parents across multiple sites in the area. Five years after they started delivering, they are still convinced that the approach offers something distinct and valuable to families.

Now the partners are back together with funding from the Scottish Government’s Whole Family Wellbeing Fund. We’re going to be testing the Open Kindergarten model further to see how it works in different settings, times and venues. We want to be able to get the model to a stage where it is defined enough to be rolled out across Scotland. Parenting across Scotland will be leading the project this time and Children in Scotland will be focused on developing the elearning resource, to support wider uptake. Midlothian Sure Start will be working with delivery partners to extend the model across East Lothian, West Lothian and Edinburgh. The Open University will evaluate this expansion.

We’re excited for this new phase and regularly reminded of how important holistic, non stigmatising parent-led support is. It should be something that is freely available to every family and embedded within local service infrastructures – not subject to the whims of short-term funding. We are proud to help Open Kindergartens become part of the mainstream support system.

Please click here to find out more about the Open Kindergarten project