We are very proud of our key person approach where every child at The Co-operative Childcare is assigned a key person, a special role that involves responsibility for working with a small number of children giving them reassurance to feel safe and cared for. The key person also builds close bonds with parents as we recognise that parents are their children’s most important educators and also build on their routines and learning at home.

We define the key person role as the following:


Our key persons help our babies and children become familiar with their settings, and to feel confident and safe within them. They build a genuine bond with their children and offer a settled, close relationship. We understand that when children feel happy and secure in this way, they are confident to explore and try out new things.


Our key persons talk to the parents of their children to make sure that their child is being cared for appropriately. Although they have a close relationship with their children, our key persons ensure that this never undermines children’s ties with their own parents. They also keep careful records of each child's development and progress and share these with their children and parents.


We understand that children need adults to depend upon for reassurance and comfort and this in turn allows them to become independent themselves. Our key person's close relationship with their children encourages them to be confident and self assured and they also recognise when children are likely to be less independent such as in new situations, feeling unwell or anxious.

We are committed to making a key person available for each child and that also means providing a second key person so that when their main key person is away, they always have a trusted, familiar person available to them.

Our Co-operative values of trust, honesty, and openness are important to the key person role and for our parents, they know they are values they can trust.