Establishing fruitful and productive partnerships with parents is crucial to achieving the best outcomes for children – as well as commercial success – for nursery businesses. Whether it be face-to-face or via digital channels, effective communication between practitioners and parents is key.
Connect Childcare provides management software to nurseries. To gain an insight into best practice in communication in early years settings, we recently surveyed 107 nursery managers. The results revealed two clear themes. First, there is no substitute for honest, ongoing channels of communication. However, this comes with its challenges – not least, where to find the time for such meaningful, two-way dialogue. The second core theme is that app-based communications are, increasingly, a reliable companion to in-person conversation. Here are some of the key lessons we have learned about effective communication with families.
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Develop a robust communications strategy. It is essential for managers to develop a communications strategy with a focus on engaging parents. With a variety of tools available, it is likely each family will have their own preferred communication methods when it comes to liaising with their child’s nursery which can include in-person chats, email, phone or messaging.
In our survey, 64.5 per cent of nursery managers said face-to-face communication was their predominant and most productive way to communicate with parents and carers. About a quarter said they used an app for this purpose.
Technology is great for nurseries to speak to parents in real time about key milestones in a child’s life. This will never be a substitute for in-person conversation – even if parent catch-ups generally take place on a bi-annual basis – but a mixture of face-to-face chats and digital updates often works well. -
Think about your setting’s core values. When developing a communications strategy it is important to ensure it ties in with your setting’s goals and values and the way you approach the curriculum. You may want to consider home visits to families before children start at your setting. This is a great way to find out more about a family’s preferred method of communication and the best way to engage with them as well as finding out more about the child and their needs and interests.
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Ensure staff get appropriate training. The sharing of personal information about children must be approached with care and sensitivity so it is important to ensure staff get the right training and you have clear policies in place. Many managers we surveyed reported families love to see photos and videos from a child’s day, with many settings sharing these in real time.
However, it is important to remember that some families may not want you to take photos of children as part of regular updates while some children may not like having their photo taken. Staff must be briefed on individual children’s and family’s preferences especially when sharing information via secure messaging apps.
All content due to be shared should be reviewed by a senior member of staff. Observations on a child’s progress and activities can be noted down in real time but saved as a draft for another member of staff to authorise. This helps ensure the information shared is appropriate, accurate and families’ preferences are respected. This is particularly important when sharing group photos of children and there may be reasons for a particular child not to be identified. -
Focus on security and confidentiality. Securing the integrity of information shared through your nursery’s apps and other digital channels comes down to the selection of appropriate software. Maintaining a solid level of data security is of paramount importance. The sharing of data and content about children should exclusively occur through secure channels. This is vital for data security and confidentiality but also safeguarding reasons. Ensure staff are aware of their collective responsibility to share information safely and securely – only using the systems you have in place.
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Promote digital inclusion. It is crucial to address digital illiteracy and related challenges – like limited access to smartphones and secure internet – in order to ensure inclusive communication with families. Nearly 16 per cent of the managers we surveyed reported instances of families having difficulty with electronic communications.
However, about a quarter reported problems with verbal miscommunications and about 30 per cent said they had experienced problems with documents getting lost or not being read by parents.
While email and in-app communication are useful, don’t rely solely on one tool. It makes sense to use a diverse set of communication measures to effectively engage with parents and strengthen parent-practitioner relationships. However, when evaluating your nursery’s communication strategy, the most important question you can ask parents is: “How best can we support your family?”
- Chris Reid is chief executive of Connect Childcare
www.connectchildcare.com
