Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do, and learn how to do it better by interacting regularly. Over recent years CREC's Directors have supported many students to successful completion of MA , and PhD degrees.

The Centre is working to establish, regionally and nationally, a research community of scholars who are committed to children and family services.

The CREC Learning Circle has met regularly since 2003 for presentations or discussions on early childhood issues, and includes students, policy makers, local authority leaders and visiting academics.

From this learning community will come the future leaders, tutors and thinkers for this key area of social, educational, health and economic policy.

The schedule for 2026/27 can be seen below . They will predominantly consist of virtual meetings and opportunities for face-to-face networking/PhD peer-to-peer discussions online via Teams.

Joining links and initial information for will be shared with registered members early September. Where possible, recordings of online sessions will be made available for a limited time to members after each session, for those who couldn't attend or would like to revisit.

Join our Facebook group by requesting to join on the group page and answering all of the questions (please note, if you do not answer the questions we are unable to admit you to the group).