Parents as Partners Policy

At Winston’s Place Day Nursery, we welcome all parents as partners and support a two-way sharing of information that helps establish trust and understanding. We recognise parents and carers as children’s first and most important educators, in line with the EYFS. We are committed to supporting parents in an open and sensitive manner and include them as an integral part of the care and early learning team within the nursery. Working together ensures we can meet the individual needs of the family and child and provide the highest quality of care and education.

The key person system supports engagement with all parents, and we use strategies to ensure that all parents can contribute to their child’s learning and development. We ask parents to contribute to initial assessments of children’s starting points on entry and ensure this information is used to inform planning and next steps. We encourage parents to support and share information about their children’s learning and development at home, and the key person seeks to engage them in guiding their child’s development at home too. The key person system ensures all practitioners use consistent, effective and targeted strategies and interventions to support learning that match most children’s individual needs.

Our policy is to:
• Recognise and support parents as their child’s first and most important educators and actively welcome them into the life of the nursery, in line with EYFS partnership requirements
• 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 subject to safeguarding, supervision and health and safety procedures, and provide an area where parents can speak confidentially with us as required
• Welcome nursing mothers. The nursery will make available a private area whenever needed to offer space, comfort and privacy to nursing mothers
• Ensure that all parents are aware of the nursery’s policies and procedures. A detailed parent prospectus will be provided, and our full policy documents will be available to parents at all times in the management office and via 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 including helping them to develop their parenting skills signposting them to relevant conferences, workshops, training and support services where appropriate
• Create opportunities for parents to talk to other adults in a secure and supportive environment through such activities as open days, parents’ evenings
• 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 digital communications systems and face-to-face discussions
• Operate a key person system to enable parents to establish a close, working relationship with a named practitioner and to support two-way information sharing about each child’s individual needs both in nursery and at home. Parents are given the name of the key person of their child and their role when the child starts, and are informed of any changes as children transition through the setting
• Inform parents on a regular basis about their child’s progress and actively involve them in shared record keeping. The nursery consults with parents about the times of meetings to avoid excluding anyone
• Actively encourage parents to contribute to children’s learning through sharing observations, interests and experiences from home. This may be verbally, written or digital, including sharing photographs where consent has been provided
• Agree the best communication method with parents e.g. face-to-face, telephone ensure information about the child’s day is shared consistently, including food eaten, activities, sleep times and wellbeing
• Consider and discuss all suggestions from parents concerning the care and early learning of their child and nursery operation
• Provide opportunities and support for all parents to contribute their own skills, knowledge and interests to the activities of the nursery including signposting to relevant services, agencies and training opportunities
• Inform all parents of the systems for registering queries, compliments, complaints or suggestions, and ensure these systems are clearly explained, accessible and understood
• Make sure all parents have access to our written Complaints and compliments policy in line with the EYFS requirements
• Share information about the Early Years Foundation Stage, young children's learning in the nursery, how parents can further support 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 accommodate any special requirements wherever possible and practical, in line with the Equality Act 2010
• Inform parents how the nursery supports children with special educational needs and disabilities, including the role of the SENCO and partnership working with external professionals
• Find out the needs and expectations of parents through regular feedback via questionnaires, suggestion systems and open discussion. Feedback will be evaluated, shared with parents and used to inform action plans, future policy review and staff development.