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In our recent report, Opening the Door to the Baby Room: Learning from the Experiences and Perspectives of Baby Room Educators and Nursery Managers (which you can access here: https://thebabyroom.blog/report-2/), we found that the most commonly recognised qualifications do not offer sufficient information on children under the age of two years old, creating a baby room knowledge gap.

County Durham has developed a professional learning resource called Compassionate Baby Practice as part of their mission to bolster baby room practice in their local early years strategy. Two things drove the decision to create this resource:

• Level 3 qualifications do not cover the care of babies in depth, and what little is discussed barely scratches the surface of the practicalities of working in the baby room, leaving new baby room educators unprepared for their role. County Durham continually hears that teams are training new baby room educators themselves because they are not work ready upon completing their course, a sentiment that has been echoed repeatedly in our research.
• With the completion of the expansion in September 2025, County Durham knows they will have an influx of babies across nurseries which requires the recruitment of more staff. This is incredibly difficult in the midst of a recruitment and retention crisis. Knowing this, they asked themselves how their EY team could support the EY community in Durham to deliver the best and safest baby room practice. The answer was found in Compassionate Baby Practice.

Bridging the baby room gap

Compassionate Baby Practice is a professional learning resource created for new and existing baby room educators working with 0-2 year olds. It covers the ‘baby basics’, or the main things practitioners need to know when working with babies, filling the baby room knowledge gap left by qualifications. This knowledge gap, when left unaddressed, becomes a skills gap and a confidence gap that greatly impacts the level of quality provision in the baby room.

This resource was designed to be used as an induction document for new educators, as well as with educators who want to refresh their practice in the baby room. It is a document that the LA hopes baby room educators will keep coming back to throughout their career. It takes the elements that people would describe as ‘common sense’ baby room practice, and makes it explicit and visible.

This document was designed in partnership with multiple agencies, including the NHS, public health, health and safety teams, family hubs and the early years team in the council. This inter-professional working adds confidence to the resources, making sure the content is relevant and appropriate. Compassionate Baby Practice touches on 14 topics that are foundational to working in the baby room:

• A secure start: An introduction to health, safety and safeguarding
• Professional presentation at work
• Safe and mindful baby handling
• Helpful handovers: How to talk with parents
• Attachment, attunement, and professional love
• Environments and resources
• Hygiene practices
• Weaning and mealtimes
• Safe preparation of food
• Food allergens
• Choking and gagging
• Nurturing nappy changes
• Caring for an unwell baby
• Safe and sound sleep times

Intentional design for engagement

While this 90-page resource is overflowing with information, County Durham intentionally designed it to be easy to understand and navigate:

• Each topic is broken down into manageable chunks, encouraging educators to read, pause and reflect before moving on to the next topic. This format encourages educators to engage with it over an extended period of time instead of reading through it all in one go.
• The LA has filled it with pictures from real baby rooms across County Durham, videos, and links that take educators straight to more resources.
• The resource will be available through Canva, meaning that it is easy to update on a regular basis with the most recent advice around baby room practice.

Compassionate Baby Practice is just the start of County Durham’s baby room professional learning offer, with more resources on pedagogy coming in the future. The LA strongly believes that getting it right in the baby room starts with the basics. Baby basics are not something that you read once and move on from – it should be something we keep coming back to, refreshing our knowledge and practice to ensure we can offer the best start in life to babies and families.

To find out more about Compassionate Baby Practice and speak with a representative from County Durham LA, you can get in contact via the following form: https://forms.office.com/e/v9ws3Z2TUp

County Durham has been working hard to bridge the baby room knowledge gap left behind by the most commonly recognised qualifications. Our report (which you can access here: https://thebabyroom.blog/report-2/) offers recommendations for central government, local authorities, training providers, and nurseries on how to support baby room educators to continuously develop their knowledge and skills in the face of these challenges, so have a read to find out more.