Community nurseries and inter‐professional liaison

Abstract

The success of integrated provision for pre‐fives is closely related to the nature of inter‐professional liaison. This paper rejects the notion that such liaison amounts to surveillance and control of families and adopts the view that effective liaison is essential to support families in times of crisis. With the current metamorphosis in family life in Britain, external support is vital at critical times especially when socially deviant behaviour in children becomes evident. The paper examines the extent and nature of inter‐agency liaison in the context of two community nurseries in very different socio‐economic environments and concludes that effective liaison can significantly reduce the number of young children taken into residential care but that organisational structures are necessary to promote effective liaison.