Positive relationships: Professional collaboration in the early years

You’ll find insights into the statutory early years foundation stage framework and practical ways to help you support your staff, along with a case study that brings professional collaboration to life.

This article is part of a series exploring the four overarching principles of the early years foundation stage: the unique child, positive relationships, enabling environments, and learning and development.

Why professional collaboration matters in early years

Positive relationships are at the heart of children’s development and wellbeing. When children feel secure in their relationships, they’re more likely to explore their environment, try new things and build confidence. For this reason, the early years foundation stage framework identifies these relationships as an overarching principle, and emphasises the importance of strong connections between children, practitioners and families (Department for Education, 2024).

Positive relationships aren’t only built between adults and children, they also develop through professional collaboration. By sharing expertise, reflecting on practice and supporting each other, practitioners build confidence, deepen their understanding of what works, and improve outcomes for children, strengthening the whole team (Ofsted, 2024; Sylva et al., 2004).

What does professional collaboration look like in practice?

In high-quality early years settings, professional collaboration is reflected in the overall culture and relationships, rather than isolated activities. This looks like:

• A shared sense of purpose and collective responsibility for children’s learning and wellbeing.
  Settings with a strong, unified team ethos achieved higher quality provision and better progress for children (Sylva et al., 2004).
• Open, trusting communication, where team members feel safe to share ideas and challenge thinking.
  A culture of trust and open dialogue supports staff development and leads to improved learning and wellbeing outcomes for children (Ofsted, 2024).
• Valuing and drawing on one another’s expertise, recognising that all practitioners contribute to improvement.
  When early years staff learn from each other and share expertise, they feel more confident in their professional judgements and can provide more responsive, inclusive provision (Nutbrown, 2012).
• A commitment to ongoing learning, with regular team reflection and engagement with new research and best practice.
  Settings that prioritise structured reflection and peer learning are better equipped to meet diverse needs and adapt practice quickly (Siraj et al., 2016).
• Coordinating with feeder settings and external professionals and building strong professional networks.
  Ongoing communication and collaboration help settings offer seamless support for children and families, and maintain high standards of care, especially for children under three (Mathers et al., 2014).

Four ways to strengthen professional collaboration in your setting

As a leader, you play a crucial role in creating the conditions for effective collaboration. Here are four practical ways to strengthen collaborative practice:

1. Encourage staff to reflect together during existing routines
   Reflection often slips down the priority list when other demands take over. By weaving it into existing routines, such as tidy-up time or end-of-day check-ins, you make it part of the everyday rhythm, rather than an added extra. These moments don’t need to be long or formal; even a quick question can spark valuable insight. When reflection becomes a regular habit, it helps nurture curiosity and improvement.
2. Empower staff to implement small, practice-based tweaks
   Encourage practitioners to try out one simple change during group times or when children are engaged in continuous provision, such as using a new language scaffold or an interaction technique. Then invite informal feedback during existing team meetings. This approach keeps it light-touch, realistic and relevant to daily classroom life.
3. Strengthen external connections
   Engage in reciprocal visits with local nursery or childminder settings, ideally during protected planning, preparation and assessment or in-service education and training time. You can facilitate short, focused observations on transitions, routines or shared priorities.
4. Make engaging with research and reflection part of the culture
   Integrate research summaries or short video clips into staff briefings. For example, share an insight from the Education Endowment Foundation Early Years Evidence Store or a blog from an Early Years Stronger Practice Hub and connect it to current areas of focus (such as supporting early communication).

Case study: Collaboration in action during transition

Dixie-Louise Dexter and Nicola Middleton at Ashby Hill Top Primary School show how a collaborative approach with other professionals helps every child feel secure and valued as they begin school life.

You can read about their approach in this case study: How we collaborate with families, pre-schools and professionals to support early years transition.

Questions for staff reflection

Research shows that leaders who intentionally create enabling conditions make professional collaboration possible and sustainable (Chartered College of Teaching, 2024). Ask yourself:

• How do you protect regular time for staff to meet, reflect and learn from each other, making collaboration a valued part of each week?
• In what ways have you built a culture of trust, where staff feel safe to share ideas, challenge thinking and try new approaches?
• How are you encouraging your team to engage with research and external networks to bring in fresh ideas and best practice?
• What do you do to value everyone’s contribution, ensuring all voices are heard and expertise is shared across the team?

Summary

Professional collaboration is a cornerstone of positive relationships in early years settings, and you play a vital role in making it happen. Creating the right conditions, such as protecting time, building trust, and encouraging your staff to engage with research, enables teams to work together, share expertise and reflect on practice. In practice, collaboration can take many forms: from a supportive chat over coffee to a formal partnership between schools. Each interaction, whether big or small, helps build a culture where staff feel valued and confident, and every child gets the best possible start.

References:

• Curtis, R, & Moore, H, Chartered College of Teaching (2024). Early years leadership: Creating the enabling conditions for effective professional development. Early Childhood Hub.
• Department for Education (2024). Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage.
• Mathers, S., Eisenstadt, N., Sylva, K., Soukakou, E., & Ereky-Stevens, K. (2014). Sound Foundations: A Review of the Research Evidence on Quality of Early Childhood Education and Care for Children Under Three.
• Nutbrown, C. (2012). Foundations for Quality: The Independent Review of Early Education and Childcare Qualifications.
• Ofsted (2024). Best start in life part 1: setting the scene.
• Siraj, I., Kingston, D., & Melhuish, E. (2016). Assessing Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care.
• Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Sammons, P., Siraj-Blatchford, I., & Taggart, B. (2004). The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education Project.