Moving towards relationship‐based practices in a crisis nursery setting

Abstract

Recent theory and research suggest that effective services for children and families should take a relationship‐based perspective, with an emphasis on parent–child relationships as the central context for children’s development. This may be especially hard to achieve in agencies such as crisis nurseries, where interactions with families and children may be primarily short‐term and crisis‐oriented. This article describes the 18‐month ‘Relationships Project’, developed and implemented in one crisis nursery to infuse relationship‐based understandings and practices into its two service areas, crisis child care services and family services. The project drew upon an existing relationship‐based model to make the vision of a relationship‐based organisation obvious and learnable, and to use underlying principles as organisers for achieving cohesiveness in knowledge and in practice. The article describes this change process, perspectives of participants and lessons learned.

Keywords:

• agency
• change
• parent–child relationships
• staff development