It is important to include families in helping to shape your decisions in relation to developments you want to make.  Families know their circumstances best and what types of support will work best for them.  Families are the child’s first and most enduring educator, this makes their input vital.

Benefits

• Strategies are more likely to be successful
• Expectations can be managed
• The child will receive consistent messages from home as well as the setting
• Deeper understanding results

Ways of including parents

• Displays
• Discussions
• Questionnaires
• Forums/focus groups
• Voting opportunities e,g, we are thinking about option a or b. Families can the vote on the preferred option.

Processes will evolve over time.   Parents need to be seen as individuals in the same way as children are.  Different approaches will have different outcomes for different parents.

You might like to read this example of how a setting is currently sharing how the EYPP is being spent.