1. Wewanted
toensure
thatparents’
viewswere
represented
truthfully
WWW.NURSERYWORLD.CO.UK 23 SEPTEMBER-6 OCTOBER 2013 NURSERY WORLD 29
POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS WORKING WITH PARENTS
We’relisteningA project in Cornwall has been aiming to improve the care of children by building stronger
relationships between practitioners and parents. Tracey Griffiths reports on its progress
PHOTOGRAPHS AT LIZARD CHILD TRUST, HELSTON, CORNWALL, BY APEX NEWS AND PICTURES
parents and carers’ (2012:21).
Mentoring was threaded through
the research project and helped the
setting ensure practitioners were sup-
ported with training and professional
development opportunities.
Practitioners embraced mentoring
as a source of support. It saw practi-
tioners develop self-awareness and
identify self-improvement strategies
as they reviewed their own skills and
practice, leading to practitioners tak-
ing ownership of their learning and
development. Since the end of the
project, LCT has continued to take an
approach where mentoring and prac-
titioner reflections underpin profes-
sional and personal growth.
BUILDING RESPONSIVE
RELATIONSHIPS
Home visits
With practitioner confidence on
the rise, we introduced home visits
through a newsletter, discussion,
posters and a welcome pack.
T
he Lizard CHILD Trust
(LCT) regards research as
part of its setting’s moni-
toring toolkit, and much
of this research evolves out
of everyday events, conver-
sations and interaction with others.
One example is a small-scale research
project to establish how we might
involve parents in their children’s
learning journey.
The research indicated that par-
ents had a strong desire to be more
involved in their children’s learning
and engage with practitioners but
were unsure what they had to offer
in terms of teaching and learning. It
also revealed that practitioners were
keen to develop relationships with
parents, but having the confidence
to talk with parents about children’s
learning varied across the team.
We reflected on this and recognised
that our practices focused on involv-
ing parents lacked clarity and needed
a fresh approach. LCT then spon-
sored a nine-month research project,
which aimed to answer the follow-
ing question: ‘How can we develop
responsive relationships with parents
that support children’s learning?’
This new project took the form
of practitioner-led action research,
using a combination of complemen-
tary methods to develop partnerships
through parent workshops, home
visits and mentoring to build practi-
tioners’ confidence. We regarded the
research as a journey that parents and
practitioners embarked on together
and wanted to ensure that parents’
views were represented truthfully.
BEING PREPARED TO
BETTER ENGAGE
To gain a better understanding of
why some practitioners lacked con-
fidence, they were invited to assess
their confidence levels prior to and
after home visits.
It was important to ensure that
practitioners were fully prepared to
rise to the challenge of engaging in
responsive relationships with par-
ents, and we hoped that this self-
assessment process would enable us
to meet the practitioners’ immediate
needs and plan for future training.
Interestingly, it became clear that
a practitioner’s ability to engage with
parents was not linked to qualifica-
tion levels; rather, it was connected
to actual working experience with
parents, with the least experienced
practitioners being less effective at
engaging. In response, we focused on
building strengths using review and
reflection via peer mentoring, with
the mentor acting as a critical friend.
With the publication of the Nut-
brown Review, we saw we were not
alone in realising that this was an
issue. The review noted that, ‘The
most impressive knowledge of child
development and ability to identify
individual needs and support a child
will count for little if that informa-
tion cannot be shared effectively with ➤
Practitioners’ ability to engage with parents was linked to their experience working with them

2. WWW.NURSERYWORLD.CO.UK
Parents were able to share their own expertise on how best to support their child’s well-being
30 NURSERY WORLD 23 SEPTEMBER-6 OCTOBER 2013
POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS WORKING WITH PARENTS
REFERENCES
l Foundations
for Quality: the
independent review
of early education
and childcare
qualifications, final
report, June 2012,
by C Nutbrown.
Department for
Education
l ‘Sharing Ideas with
Parents about Key
Child Development
Concepts’ by C
Arnold in Involving
Parents in their
Children’s Learning.
2nd ed, by M Whalley
(2007). London:
Sage Publications
Most parents welcomed these vis-
its, with a few choosing to ‘opt out’
for various reasons. These views were
respected and practitioners offered
up alternative ways to engage, such
as one-to-one meetings and opportu-
nities to have lunch with their child
at the setting.
At the home visit, we aimed to
encourage information sharing and
to promote partnerships between
practitioners and parents that were
equal and active. We found that
meeting families on their ‘home turf’
encouraged parents to share their
expertise about their child. Parents
told us that they were reassured by
the emphasis that the setting placed
on supporting children’s well-being
and many offered ideas to help practi-
tioners provide consistent provision.
To help measure the impact of this
strategy, we invited parents and prac-
titioners to offer home visit feedback,
and there was an overwhelmingly
positive response.
Feedback suggested it is a suc-
cessful strategy for improving and
developing responsive relationships
– and is summed up by one parent
who said, ‘Practitioners can under-
stand the child in the context of their
home/family circumstance... and
develop personalised, tailored early
years provision to enable the child to
achieve their potential. It’s what every
parent wants.’
Parent workshops
We wanted to offer workshops that
would build relationships and enable
us to become co-educators and share
strategies to support children’s learn-
ing. What parents were not doing –
the deficit approach – was something
we wished to avoid. Nor did we want
parents to view us as experts teaching
them parenting skills.
We used practical activities to
introduce key concepts such as sche-
ma development and ideas to nurture
children’s well-being throughout the
workshops, and we explored ideas
to support this with the use of video
footage of children at the setting.
Parents were asked to record foot-
age of their children engaged in
learning at home, which we shared
and discussed at the next workshop.
This approach:
l generated discussions about adult
engagement styles that supported
children’s well-being and patterns
of interest
l enabled parents to demonstrate
their own expertise on how best to
support their child’s well-being
l flagged up the importance of
parents sharing such information
with practitioners to enable them
to continue to support learning
l enabled us to share the message
that acknowledging children’s
well-being helps to create a secure
base from which they can begin to
engage.
Feedback provided by parents
involved (36 individuals) indicated
that they valued sharing ideas with
practitioners and had identified
some of the benefits to be gained
when partnerships are formed. One
of the unplanned outcomes was the
potential to create supportive part-
nerships between parents. There was
an overwhelming response from par-
ents about how much they valued the
opportunity to talk to each other.
Our parents have helped us to learn
about the rich source of information
they hold about their children, and in
this environment they openly demon-
strated their expertise.
Removing barriers
Some of the previous attempts to
involve parents in events at the set-
ting had seen poor attendance and
much of this was due to childcare dif-
ficulties. To remove this barrier, LCT,
which holds charitable status, agreed
to provide free childcare.
Based on the outcomes of this
research, a local community group
has provided funding to enable the
trust to continue developing the
workshops. This was also an unex-
pected outcome.
Outcomes
Providing free childcare to support
workshops and additional staff to act
as mentors has required considerable
financial investment from the trust.
However, research outcomes such as
increased communication between
parents and practitioners are creat-
ing a greater understanding of chil-
dren’s learning and developmental
needs. There is also the considerable
increase in practitioner confidence
along with an ongoing mentoring
system that supports continued pro-
fessional development.
This research evolved from infor-
mation provided by parents and we
responded to what they were saying
and took action. Arnold writes, ‘If
parents are listened to, their children
receive the powerful message that
their family, its culture and values are
worth something in the wider world’
(2007:52). We want that powerful
message to reach our families.
Practitioners need to be receptive
to parents’ views and ways of becom-
ing involved in their children’s learn-
ing. Offering a variety of methods for
them to become engaged and encour-
aging them to share their expertise is
a good starting point.
The research valued feedback
and reflection with all involved and
this helped us to respond effectively.
Parents are being listened to and the
views, expressed in their feedback,
are helping to shape policy, proce-
dures and practice at the setting. n