Working in Partnership with Parents/Carers Policy

Rationale

Research shows that an on-going dialogue or sharing of regular two-way observations on learning and development with parents/carers, leads to improved cognitive, social and emotional outcome for children. We fully acknowledge that parents/carers are their child’s primary educators. With this in mind and in order to fully meet the needs of the children in our care and to ensure they enjoy and achieve to their full capacity, we actively promote and aim to develop a good working relationship with parents/carers.

Procedure

We understand that family is important and should feel valued, listened to and made to feel welcome in our home. We actively encourage the views of both parents/carers and children promoting two-way communication at all times. We will provide a warm, welcoming and professional atmosphere where parents/carers and we can feel at ease to share and celebrate relevant developmental and daily care information.

We will make parents/carers aware of the range and type of activities and experiences provided for their child, the daily routines of the setting, demonstrating how we deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage. We actively promote to parents/carers the Department of Education website for further information on the Early Years Foundation Stage at www.foundationyears.org.uk/new-eyfs

We will strive for the most convenient way to communicate information with you for example via daily verbal feedback along with any of the following written observations/daily diary/developmental file, photographs, video, emails, text messages, phone calls and newsletters. We request that you too regularly share information with us as it can be vital to identify learning needs, preferences, experiences and abilities of your child, thus enabling us to support your child’s progress more effectively and promote continuity of care. We are always happy to discuss your child and their care with you at any time that is convenient to us and you.

To ensure your child has opportunity to reach their full potential their care and learning must be tailored to meet their individual needs. To do this we will carry out planned observations and make regular assessments on your child’s learning and development. we will share this with you regularly, and you can take home their development file any time to read and make written comments - we encourage as much input from parents/carers and feedback as possible.

When your child is aged between two and three we are required to review their progress and provide you with a short written summary of their development. This summary of development aims to identify your child’s strengths, and any areas where your child’s progress is less than expected. If your child splits their time between our setting and another childcare setting the one where the child spends the most time will be responsible for completing the development summary. However we or the other setting will be expected to contribute to its completion.

If we are responsible for the summary we will share this with you and discuss how it can be used at home to support your child’s learning. We may be required to share some information about your child’s progress with other agencies but we will discuss this with you and gain your consent prior to sharing. Wherever possible we will provide the summary in time for you to take to your child’s ‘Healthy Child Programme health and development review’ with the health visitor. This will help the health visitor to identify your child’s needs accurately and fully -we ask you to inform us when this review is due.

Wherever possible we will endeavour to meet parent/carers requests in relation to the care of their children, with respect to beliefs, customs and values. We work in line with my equal opportunities policy to ensure all children can be included and empowered to feel valued and unique in our care. If we do not share the same spoken/written language as the family/child,we will take relevant action to facilitate effective communication.

Within our setting we operate a key person system. The key person must help ensure that every child’s learning and care is tailored to meet their individual needs. The key person must also engage and support parents/carers in guiding their child’s development at home. Within a childminding setting predominately the key person is the childminder, however when working with other childminders or assistants the key person role may be distributed equally.

In order for us to provide your child with the best care we can, it is mutually beneficial for all concerned to promote a consistent approach to caring for your child, therefore we ask parents/carers to discuss and record with us any routines, strategies, health and dietary requirements and expectations they have, not only during the settling in process, but as and when things naturally change and evolve, so not to confuse your child unnecessarily.

To establish a consistent approach we ask parent/carers to adhere to our Managing Behaviour policy while on our premises.We will challenge any discriminatory and inappropriate behaviour in line with both my Equal Opportunities and Safeguarding policies to ensure the well-being of the children within our care.

Other documentation we will be required to record is your child’s full name, date of birth, name and address of every parent/carer who is known to the provider (and other information about any other person who has parental responsibility for the child) which parent/carer the child normally lives with, emergency contact details for parents/carers and consent for various other procedures.

We will draw up and sign a written contract with parents/carers before the placement starts. The contract will be signed by the parents/carers and myself and dated; a copy will be provided for the parents/carers. We review the contracts with parents/carers annually or when circumstances change.

All information shared will be done so in confidence with the exception of a safeguarding concern, this is in line with my Confidentiality policy, however we will endeavour to discuss any concerns with you if appropriate to do so as in line with our Safeguarding policy.

If you have any concerns or issues regarding the care we are providing for your child please do let one of us know in line with our Complaints policy. Ofsted details are available on our Complaints procedure and on the Ofsted parent poster on view within our setting and our Ofsted registration certificate is also displayed within our setting. Parents/carers are given a copy of all our policies. Often a concern is a simple misunderstanding that can easily be resolved; un-aired it can fester and become a major issue and goes against the ethos of our Partnership with Parent/carers policy. We will inform you if we are aware of an inspection enabling you to contribute your views to the inspector and will provide you with a copy of the inspection report.

We look forward to working together and being a part of your child’s most precious years.