How to support children growing up in a service family

For most children, talking about their end of day routine involves going home to parents and carers who are often returning from a day at work themselves. For children in service families, however, ‘hometime’ can mean a different thing at different times of the year and/or places. This is just one aspect of family life that may be different for children of service families. For young children, these differences can have big consequences on the way they interpret the world around them and build relationships with others.

Service families face a number of significant barriers to accessing consistent quality education and it is important that early education and care provide a strong foundation on which to build a child’s learning throughout life.

This learning workout will explore some of the barriers faced by service families and offer some ways in which we can support young children to overcome them in early education and care. 

Who are service children? 

Service children are: "children whose parent, or carer, serves in the regular armed forces, or as a reservist, or has done at any point during the first 25 years of that person’s life.”

The experiences of service children are very individual due to the specific nature of their involvement in the service. Some children might experience a parent or carer being away from home for long periods of time, whilst others might be more familiar with movement of the whole family unit. Regardless, service children are more likely to face barriers to accessing education throughout their first 25 years of life.

These might include:

• physical movement due to deployment
• lone parenting
• media representation
• parent/carer illness or bereavement

It is important that early education and care professionals are aware of these challenges in order to provide an inclusive and supportive provision for all.

In the UK, there is no accurate record for the number of service children in education, including early education and care, and this has significant impact on the resources and training available to equip professionals with supporting their unique circumstances. However, 2021 research estimates approximately 180,000 service children of UK Regular Personnel in the UK.

There are many positive associations with service family life, including a sense of pride for their parent/carer’s work or a greater understanding of the world, for example. However, it is also important to recognise some of the challenges faced by service families in accessing quality early education and care, and understanding how we can support families as professionals in setting.

Supporting service children 

Let’s have a look at some of the ways to support service families through early education and care…

Communicate the calendar

A service family calendar is often more complicated with the commitments of deployments and working away from home. Make sure to check in with families to ensure that you are aware of transition periods at home to support in setting too.

Give space for feelings

Service children’s experiences are complex and unique. For children in their early years, transitions such as deployment, are often expressed with feelings of sadness at the loss of a physical presence in the family home but can, in more extreme cases, impact toileting and appetite too. As one of the consistent spaces for service children that offer a clear routine, it is important that early education and care professionals are able to provide opportunities to express these emotions away from the home environment. This might include talking time opportunities, mindful sensory activities designed to promote emotional outlet and roleplay activities that give children the freedom to act their experiences out too.

Build a community and work together

Transitions and relocation raise particular difficulties for children with additional support needs due to the changing resources and access levels in other areas. Waiting lists are more common than ever and can result in children being overlooked as they transfer from one department to another. The insight of an early education and care provision is invaluable for supporting applications for referrals and being able to support a strong case for accessing specialist services can have a powerful impact on the families we work with.

Key takeaways