Parental Involvment At Day Care
Day care providers should grab every available opportunity to involve parents and welcome their input. When parents participate in a child care service it makes for a very rewarding and positive experience for all concerned including the children. You can share insights that you have gleaned from observing the child at day care and in return parents can provide a wealth of valuable information giving you a holistic picture of the child.
This mutual cooperation allows both parties the opportunity to share effective methods and ideas regarding working with individual children. The day care experience for all concerned is enriched by this listening, respecting and valuing of each other’s knowledge. The parents can learn so much about the socialization and interaction of their child from the carer whilst passing on their family values and beliefs to the day care. Opportunites for communication should be provided both formally and informally and information sharing should be ongoing.
In order to maximise the effectiveness of this sharing process assess your staff and their abilities in the area of working and communicating with parents. Perhaps they need training and guidelines in order that they communicate effectively and professionally. How can staff be supported so that they don’t feel constantly harangued and scrutinised? Consider your current timetable and staffing levels - do these currently allow for time to be spent with parents and any subsequent follow ups? Try to think of innovative ways for parents to become more involved e.g. they could be a guest speaker and talk to the children about a topic of expertise, they could offer to volunteer at the day care occasionally. You should have a complaints procedure in place that allows parents to air their grievances easily and without feeling judged. You should be seen as open, friendly and professional and as such, should view complaints as constructive criticism and a means to improving the quality of your day care service. Thank parents for bringing issues to your attention and deal with the problem immediately. It is important to have a complaints procedure in place so that staff are empowered to deal with certain issues whilst management step in for more serious incidents. Perhaps have a suggestion box where parents are welcome to offer suggestions/criticism anonymously.
Your orientation and settling in procedure should facilitate parental involvement from the outset. Form a parent’s committee so they have a collective voice thus encouraging positive interaction. Parents need a daily point of contact regarding their child so integrate a key worker system into your day care. Provide information about weekly scheduling and activities either by posting details on the noticeboard or sending out a newsletter. In order to avoid any misunderstanding or confusion you should share daily information both verbally and in writing. Have a website with a blog where you can post comments about goings on at the day care and parents can, in turn, post comments. You can include a staff page on here with photos and information.
Parental involvement in your day care can potentially provide you with untold resources heretofore untapped. Parents will be encouraged to give back if they feel valued and supported. Opening up channels of communication and sharing can avoid many misunderstandings and conflicts that are borne out of lack of information. A friendly, welcoming and open day care should be your ultimate goal. An all inclusive day care is a happy day care.
ChildCareOnly.com is the brainchild of Fiona Lohrenz who has 10 years experience running a day care. Fiona has also produced a ‘Start a ChildCare Business’ DVD: Start A Childcare Business DVD. Fiona can be found at her website: ChildCareOnly.com
- Fiona Lohrenz
:: Jul.28.2008 :: Business :: No Comments »
