Family Partnerships

What are they?

“Parents, carers and families are by far the most important influences in a child’s life. Their support can play a vital role at all stages of education… Parents who take on a supportive role in their children’s learning make a difference in improving achievement and behaviour. The active involvement of parents can help promote a learning community in which children and young people can engage positively with practitioners and their peers.”

(Parental engagement and family learning, Education Scotland, 2021)

Key messages:

Vision, Values and Aims: All parents and carers, children and practitioners understand the setting’s vision, values & aims and are included in creating and reviewing these.
Relationships and supportive partnerships: Relationships are used effectively to enhance the experiences and outcomes for children. The setting must establish unconditional positive, supportive partnerships with families from the start. This supports confidence and self-esteem within families.
Tailored communication: Practitioners tailor the communication with parents to their needs, e.g. written, electronic, and face-to-face. Creative approaches, which are well matched to the needs of families, are used to engage families throughout their contact with the setting.
Parental contribution: The setting values and supports parents and carers in understanding their contribution to children’s learning.
Life of the setting: Parents are encouraged and supported to become involved in the life of the setting.
Children’s learning: Parents and carers are supported to regularly and meaningfully engage in their children’s learning at home and within the early learning and childcare setting. They have the opportunity to share achievements from home.
Family learning programmes: The setting offers access to family learning programmes that enable families to engage in various learning opportunities to meet their individual needs. Family learning approaches seek to address parents’ own learning needs in areas such as literacy and numeracy and equip them with the skills and knowledge they need to support their children throughout their education.
Family circumstances: The setting is responsive to family circumstances, for example, those at the risk of disadvantage or poverty, families affected by imprisonment, those with English as an additional language, or suffering from mental health issues.
Collaboration: Families benefit from our cooperation and collaboration with colleagues from sectors supporting referrals to other agencies.

Ways we can do this:

Vision, Values and Aims

Families should be involved in creating and regularly reviewing the setting’s vision, aims, and values. These are revisited and updated in line with setting improvements.

Parents and carers should be fully consulted on and contribute to the Setting Improvement Report and Setting Improvement Plan (SIP/SIR).

Relationships and Supportive partnerships

Positive relationships with parents, carers, and other family members must be encouraged through an open-door policy from the beginning of the child’s time in the setting.

The setting should offer parents and carers home visits with keyworkers to discuss their child’s progress, needs, interests, and complete Care Plans before the child starts.

Provide families with clear information before and after periods of transitions, e.g. by holding information evenings, distributing information packs for new starts, organising visits to the setting before the child’s entry date and sending home photographs of the child’s first week in the setting.

Ensure that measures are in place to ensure inclusiveness and address any difficulties that parents and carers may have in joining in with the life of the setting, for example, due to work commitments, technology, childcare, or health issues. This might include offering a variety of times for certain activities or meetings, helping parents with literacy difficulties to complete paperwork, providing crèche facilities for parents of children with younger siblings, or offering translated versions of essential documents to families with English as an additional language.

Welcoming environment

The environment is warm and welcoming for visitors. Displays inform visitors of the practitioner team and provide helpful information for parents, e.g. timings, lunch menus.

Tailored communication

Find out preferred methods of communication for parents; for example, use drop-off and pick-up times to engage parents.

Parental contributions

Parents are encouraged to share the wider achievements of their child and are allowed to contribute to care plans and learning journeys.

Life of the setting

Parents and carers are encouraged to contribute to the life of the setting, with opportunities for parents, carers and other family members to share specific skills, tell stories or join in with play activities.

Encourage parents and carers to volunteer to assist with group outings and excursions.

Ensure that children and their families contribute their views during planning and self-evaluation exercises.

Hold regular “stay and play” sessions where parents can enjoy engaging with their children in play, observing and joining in with some of the structure and routines of the day.

Offer parents and carers the opportunity to join and assume leadership roles in ancillary groups such as the Board of Trustees, PTA, Parent Council or fundraising committee.

Children’s learning

Encourage parental involvement in learning journeys and floor books, making these accessible to parents, carers and children.

Keep parents fully informed about their child’s progress and achievements by regularly sharing Learning Journeys and offering sufficient consultation time with practitioners (both formal and informal) throughout the year. The use of a digital learning journal platform may facilitate this. See Digital Technology- Showbie for more information about using Showbie to create digital learning journals.

Work with parents and other agencies to identify needs and how to meet them.

Practitioners must ensure that a high standard of clear and meaningful communication is maintained between the setting, the families, and any other professional agencies involved in achieving the best outcomes for the children.

Other agencies might include (but will not be limited to) Occupational Therapy, Learning Support, medical practitioners, Social Workers, Home Visiting Teachers, Health Visitors etc. (see Inclusion). Practitioners should be proactive in maintaining communication with these and other services as appropriate.

Practitioners working within the setting should, when necessary, be given time to prepare for and to attend any professional meetings around the child or consultations with other professionals and families.

Family learning programmes

Consider family learning programmes where appropriate for parents, carers and children to learn together and parent and carer only learning.

These should seek to include all, especially those who may face barriers to their involvement. Family learning opportunities help parents understand the significant impact of the home learning environment at all stages of their children’s education. They recognise and make the most of everyday learning opportunities.

Incorporate initiatives such as Flying Start, PoPPs, Incredible Years and PEEP into the everyday life of the setting to provide opportunities for parents and carers to further develop their own skills and learning.

Family Partnerships

What are they?

Key messages:

Ways we can do this:

Linked Areas of Practice 

Family Partnerships supported by SHOWBIE

Family Learning

Inclusion

Personal Plans

Self-Evaluation

Transitions

Vision, Values & Aims

Tools 

Reflecting on Practice

SBC Guidance to support

National Guidance to support

Further Reading to support

Training to support