Parents and Carers as partners

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January 2024

 

We believe that in order for children to receive quality care and early learning that suits their
individual needs, parents and staff need to work together in a close partnership. The two-way
sharing of information is key to this. The nursery team welcomes parents as partners and this
relationship needs to be built on trust and understanding. It is important that we, as practitioners,
are able to support parents in an open and sensitive manner.

The nursery wishes to ensure parents are an integral part of the care and early learning team
within the nursery.Our policy is to:

• Recognise and support parents as their child’s first and most important educators, and to
welcome them into the life of the nursery
• Generate confidence and encourage parents to trust their own instincts and judgement
regarding their own child
• Welcome all parents into the nursery at any time
• Welcome nursing mothers. The nursery will make available a private area if possible
whenever needed to offer space and privacy to nursing mothers
• Ensure nursery documentation and communications are in a format to suit individual
parent’s needs, e.g. Braille, multi-lingual, electronic communications
• Ensure that all parents are aware of the pre-schools policies and procedures. A detailed
parent prospectus will be provided and our full policy documents will be available to
parents at all times available in the main entrance and on the nursery website
• Maintain regular contact with parents to help us to build a secure and beneficial working
relationship for their children
• Support parents in their own continuing education and personal development and inform
them of relevant conferences, workshops and training
• Create opportunities for parents to talk to other adults in a secure and supportive
environment through regular activities like open days, parents’ evenings, workshops and
social events.
• Inform parents about the range and type of activities and experiences provided for
children, the daily routines of the setting, the types of food and drinks provided for children
and events through regularly distributed newsletters and the nursery website

• Operate a key person system to enable a close working relationship with all parents.
Parents are given the name of the key person of their child and their role after the child
starts. Support two-way information sharing regarding each child’s individual needs both
in nursery and at home
• Inform parents on a regular basis about their child’s progress and involve them in the
shared record keeping. Parents’ evenings will be held once a year. Parents will be
consulted with about the times of meetings to avoid excluding anyone
• Consider and discuss all suggestions from parents concerning the care and early learning
of their child and pre-school operation
• Provide opportunities and support for all parents to contribute their own skills, knowledge
and interests to the activities of the pre-school
• Inform all parents of the systems for registering queries, compliments, complaints or
suggestions, and to check that these systems are understood by parents. All parents
have access to our written complaints procedure
• Provide opportunities for parents to learn about the Early Years Foundation Stage and
about young children's learning in the nursery and how parents can share learning at home
and where they can access further information
• Provide a written contract between the parent(s) and the nursery regarding conditions of
acceptance and arrangements for payment
• Respect the family’s religious and cultural backgrounds and beliefs and to accommodate
any special requirements wherever possible and practical to do so e.g. the use of dummies
• Inform parents how the nursery supports children with special educational needs and
disabilities
• Find out the needs and expectations of parents. These will be obtained through regular
feedback via questionnaires, suggestion system, newsletters and encouraging parents to
review working practices. We update our website on a monthly basis with photos and
information regarding the children’s development through that month and we send the
children’s learning journey home termly. These are then evaluated by the nursery to
promote nursery practice, policy and staff development.

 

This policy will be reviewed annually by the Day Care Manager