5. Partnership

Gowans Terrace Centre nursery in Perth works with parents, health visitors and schools to give its children the best start in life.

"Our centre wouldn’t function as it does if we didn’t have a lot of involvement from professionals. We work closely with health visitors in particular. They meet the family at a younger age than we do, so when the child reaches the age of two, health visitors often recommend families to attend here.

We also work a lot with education, since a lot of the children are in a period of transition. On the whole we encourage families to send their child to the nursery of the school they’re going to attend in their pre-school year, so the majority of our children move on then. We also have a family support worker

come in and offer massage and relaxation therapy for parents. It creates time for them, and happy parents obviously has a knock-on effect for children."

Gill Kay, social worker