EYFS: Working with Parents - Hand in hand

Working with parents has been a long-established principle in good early years practice. When it is done well, the benefits extend far beyond just meeting the needs and interests of the child. Parents are more likely to trust those who are working with their child, and will feel valued and empowered. Many parents who have experienced genuine working together are also likely to play a more active role in their child's later education.

It is not just parents and children who benefit though, as anyone who has worked closely with parents will attest. Settings that have strong relationships with parents are often happy places in which to work. Parents bring insights, ideas and feedback that enrich the work of practitioners.

In view of the reported benefits, it is therefore not surprising that the new statutory framework will require all settings to work closely in partnership with parents. This is reflected in the way that many of the statutory guidance phrases in the current EYFS have been strengthened to become unambiguous legal requirements.

A good example of this is the change from 'should' to 'must' in relation to sharing information. From this September, 'Providers must enable a regular two-way flow of information with parents and/or carers' (paragraph 3.26) whereas before the similar statement was the lesser 'should'. So in terms of complying with the statutory framework, what do you need to consider?

There are 50 or so mentions of parents within the new statutory framework. So, a good first step is to go through and highlight the requirements. Any statement with a 'must' is an absolute requirement that has to be complied with while anything with a 'should' requires you to take it into consideration within your practice.

There are some requirements that remain the same, especially those in relation to your information about your provision. You must, for example, give parents information about the EYFS, the routines and activities, as well as information regarding food and drink (paragraph 3.72).

As you might expect, there are still requirements about sharing your policies and procedures with parents, as well as requirements for getting permission to take children on outings And also, where it is required, there are requirements for getting permission to administer medicines.

NEW REQUIREMENTS

While there are plenty of similarities between the current framework and the new, there are some things that are well worth focusing on. It might be worth, for example, looking at the paragraph about staff ratios (paragraph 3.27), as there is now a requirement that settings give information to parents about how staff are deployed. This might help prevent situations where parents turn up to leave their child with the key person, only to be told the same day that this person is no longer employed. There is also a suggestion, but not a legal requirement, that whenever it is practicable, parents should be involved in the decision-making about staff deployment.

The role of the key person

The existing framework established the principle of every child being assigned a key person. In the new framework, the key person role has been strengthened, and it comes up both in the Learning and Development requirements (paragraph 1.11) and in the Safeguarding and Welfare (paragraph 3.26) section.

In terms of significant changes, firstly there is a requirement for settings to let parents know the name of their child's key person when their child first joins. For settings who take a 'wait and see' approach, allowing children to choose their own key person, a different way of working may be required. Parents also need to be given information about what the key person role entails.

Supporting children's development at home

New to the EYFS is the requirement that 'the key person must seek to engage and support parents and/or carers in guiding their child's development at home' (paragraph 1.11).

This goes further than just sharing information about what the child has been doing in the setting or finding out what the child's interests are at home. For some settings, this will be plain sailing as they are already providing suggestions for activities, lending resources or providing tips about managing behaviour.

There are plenty of other ways of working on this, such as incorporating ideas that parents might like to try at home into planning, or as part of talking through the children's learning journeys.

The main concept to take on board is that just putting out a selection of leaflets for parents to pick up is probably not sufficient. This requirement needs the key person to provide tailored, personalised contact with a child's parents and will require great skill and sensitivity as few parents will welcome a lecture on how to bring up their children.

Involving parents in developmental assessment

Throughout the statutory requirements, there are clear directives that parents 'must' be involved in any conversation about how their child is developing. This is welcome as it is unfair on parents to hear that concerns have been expressed about their child's development while they were kept in the dark.

It is also a requirement that the involvement of parents be a two-way process and so practitioners are expected to use information from parents as part of their ongoing formative assessments. It is also good to see that the information that parents provide should be used for the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile towards the end of the reception year.

Progress check at two

The two-year-old progress check is new to the EYFS. Guidance about how to carry out the check, The EYFS check at age two. A Know How Guide, has been written by the National Children's Bureau.

First of all, it is worth noting that there is a legal requirement to 'agree with parents and/or carers' on the timing of the check. While there is the ambition that information from this check will be shared with other professionals, especially health visitors, this can only be done with parental consent.

The written summary of the check, which looks at the child in relation to the three Prime areas, needs to be discussed with parents, but also it is clear in the NCB's guidance that it would be good practice for it to be drawn up with them.

Complementing the new focus on supporting children's development at home, settings are legally required to discuss with parents 'how the summary of learning can be used to support learning at home' (paragraph 2.5). Again this will require sensitivity and a strong trusting relationship between settings and parents.

FINDING OUT MORE

While at this current time there is no supporting guidance about how to work in partnership with parents, there are plans for this to be made available this summer. This is to be written by 4Children and will appear on www.foundationyears.org.uk.

GETTING READY

• Go through and check off each of the statutory requirements in relation to parents.

• Gain feedback from current parents about how initial information on the policies of the setting were conveyed to them. Ask for suggestions on how the information could be presented to new parents, for example through a welcome pack, website or a verbal communication.

• Consider whether staff training is required to support key persons in their strengthened role.

• Make sure staff understand the implications of giving inaccurate or inappropriate advice to parents.

• Work with staff and parents to consider strategies that support the home learning environment.

• Consider whether your setting should invest in home visiting. Home visits are a great way to build relationships with parents.

• Collect up-to-date sources of information helpful to parents.

• Visit www.peep.org.uk and www.literacytrust.org.uk for leaflets that provide parents with ideas for activities and explanations of play and development.

MORE INFORMATION

The EYFS progress check at age two. A Know How Guide and further related materials can be found at: www.foundationyears.org.uk and via www.ncb.org.uk/ey/resources/EYFS

Details of NCB's training in parental engagement can be found at www.peal.org.uk

See also page 42 for details of other EYFS documents.