Love has always been there...

4 years ago I started out on this journey researching love as part of the professional identity of the lead professional. My interest came from managers who I was working with at the time, as an FE lecturer, saying to me that they felt it was hard moving from being in a job where they could express love for the children in their care to being part of the new, emerging profession of early learning and childcare. They were becoming part of a degree led profession, which is a good thing, quality has improved with increasing underpinning knowledge and understanding and I do feel that finally ELC professionals are now being recognised among their peers in other parts of the ELC sector. However, they and I were worried that they were losing the most fundamental part of their job, love.

Love is not normally a word that is associated with professionalism. It would be unethical for a Doctor to say they loved their patients, you would not hear your Bank Manager say they loved you nor would your Optician share a loving moment over your discovery of sight after not going to get your eyes tested! But none of these professions have decades of academic research supporting the innate need for loving experiences with the humans they are working with. But there is this huge bank of knowledge around how important loving interactions are for children's all round development. The revolution which is sweeping the ELC sector at present, ACES is proof that professionals within ELC feel there is a need to be allowed to demonstrate love.

I firmly believe that love is already there, however my research data is showing that professionals have been conditioned by language used in policies and guidelines to protect them from the dangers of children being harmed. But if the ACES study shows us anything the children whose development and health has suffered has not been because they had too much love in their childhood, it was down to a lack of love in their childhood (amongst other mitigating factors). ELC Professionals are just that professional, they care very deeply for the children in their care and will do everything they can to protect those children from harm. Language in policies prevents love from being open in ELC. Words such as 'nurture'; 'care'; 'sensitivity', 'empathy' are all components of love but are being used to describe love because we are frightened to just say love. Children need love. Policy makers need to get past their fear of using the word love in their policies.

We have robust child protection guidance in practice, students are taught child protection in college, universities, there are training courses and refresher courses they can access throughout their career. And yes, sometimes the systems isn't always fool proof but for every child protection case we hear about in the media, there are many many more children protected on a daily basis that we don't hear about. There shouldn't be any children hurt, but the system isn't perfect. But does Lead Professionals in ELC supporting their staff to understand and be professional about love in practice lead to child safety issues? Or will we have stronger, happier, loving children instead because love has been brought back into the discourse of early learning and childcare?

I am searching for these answers, and whilst I am a bit stuck on one of my chapters at the moment, procrastination is a wonderful thing!

Love has always been there, we just need to make it part of the professional identity of the Lead Professional. Let them love the children.