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Workforce development

Work with parents is carried out by a diverse and evolving workforce. Many within the children's workforce now have parent involvement as part of their role, although their primary expertise lies in work with children.

A growth in childminding means that childminders are now one of the largest groups of practitioners providing home-based childcare, play, learning and family support.

There has also been an increase in volunteer roles, such as toddler group organisers, who also play a part in involving parents in their children's play and learning.

Childcare practitioners who have been trained to work with children may lack confidence in engaging and supporting parents. The ability to build and maintain respectful relationships is, however, at the heart of parent support and many childcare practitioners find that they have plenty of transferable skills to enable them to embrace work with parents as part of their role.

Training and support for practitioners to work with parents as part of their role is a key element in developing a confident, skilled and well-informed workforce within the childcare sector. Effective workforce development is based on a clear understanding of the skills required to engage parents in their children's early learning, building on existing skills and identifying where additional training is needed.

Skills needed to engage parents in their children's early learning

Effective practitioners are able to:

• Recognise which groups of children are vulnerable to learning delay and make persistent efforts to involve and support their parents in these children's play and learning.
• Listen and build supportive relationships with parents within an ethos of partnership.
• Understand why parents and the home learning environment are so important.
• Help parents develop the confidence, knowledge and skills to provide positive home learning environments.
• Identify difficulties early and know when and how to involve other specialist services.
• Pass on information to parents about play and learning resources and sources of support.

Examples of generic training to support work with parents and involve them in their children's learning

All training to involve parents in their children's early learning focuses on giving practitioners a set of knowledge, attitudes, skills and resources that they can use flexibly in their work with individual families.

Parents, Early Years and Learning (PEAL)

This was developed by National Children's Bureau (NCB), Coram and London Borough of Camden. It aims to support practitioners in developing work to engage parents in their children's learning. The programme includes preparatory activities for practitioners to reflect on their current practice, followed by a day's training.

The key elements of the PEAL model are authentic relationships, communication and partnership with parents.

More information is available at www.ncb.org.uk.

Parents Involved in their Children's Learning (PICL)

This was developed at Pen Green Centre for Children and their Families in response to the expressed needs of the community. PICL is a way of working that involves respecting the knowledge of parents about their own children, and working with parents in a knowledge sharing approach.

The PICL Professional Development Programme involves two days training with the whole staff team in a setting to develop a shared ethos, conduct an audit of current practice and undertake a child study with one family.

A third follow-up training day brings participants together to review and reflect on what they have implemented in their practice since the initial training. By the end of this third day, participants will have developed an action plan for their setting and personal action plans for their own professional development.

More information is available at www.pengreen.org.

Work with Parents

This is a modular Level 3 qualification within the Qualifications and Credit Framework that maps to the National Occupational Standards. It is accredited by City and Guilds and learners can build credits towards an award or a certificate. One of the core units, Building and Maintaining Relationships with Parents, provides the core skills, knowledge and understanding for practitioners who work with parents as part of a wider role.

More information is available at: www.cityandguilds.com.

"Before any of the training I was very nervous about working with parents; I saw myself as there for the children and I just kind of ignored the parents when they brought their children to playgroup. But now I'm more confident, and I think because of the training I've received, I've got more of an idea of what I can do with the parents that will help. I feel more able to seize opportunities a bit more, and suggest something with a family .... whereas before, thinking about how I could help parents play with children at home wasn't at the forefront of my mind."

Playgroup worker

Supporting work with parents in childcare settings 

Workforce development is not just about organising formal training events. Childcare providers can embed good practice in work with parents as an integral part of on-going practitioner support, supervision and management.

Key factors for embedding good practice in work with parents in childcare settings:

• Adopt a 'whole setting' approach to training so that all practitioners see parent support as part of their role.
• Reinforce work with parents through supervision, focused staff meetings to discuss families or reflect on successes and barriers in involving parents in their children's play and learning.
• Develop cross organisational training and practitioner forums to disseminate good practice and ensure a common understanding of, and approach to, early home learning.
• Build parent involvement in children's learning into the induction training of new staff.
• Ensure that practitioners have access to resources about supporting parent involvement and learning at home, both to inform themselves and to enable them to share information with parents.

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