Hard to Reach Parents

The statement Hard to Reach Parents could be used to describe parents who are difficult to involve in the setting or the settings activities. There are many reasons why some parents are hard to reach.

There are parents who might be seen as deprived in a certain area, this could include self-esteem, confidence, awareness of their need, power, employment and skills. Milbourne (2002, pp.287), states that this “lack of confidence often arises from isolation - geographical, economic and social” this isolation could be linked with refugees / asylum seekers who have deliberately chosen to live a quiet life to avoid being moved. “Engagement with this group is understood to be difficult because the families may not be aware of their need” (Barnes et al, 2006, pp.110).

 There are also parents who have problems due to their life choices, either through socially unacceptable behaviour - such as those taking part in criminal activity, drug and alcohol abusers, or families where there is domestic violence; or because they belong to communities whose lifestyle might place them toward the boundaries of society, such as Travellers. Doherty et al (2004) argue that “some of the reasons why such families are not engaging with services are that providers tend to shape the service to the characteristics of the group rather than to the needs of individuals within the group.”

 Some parents have difficulties relating to communication, such as they have poor reading and writing skills or additional language needs. This can be a barrier for hard to reach parents accessing early years settings. Crozier and Davies, (2007, pp.296) states that

 " In many cases it is the provider who is understood as creating the barrier here, rather than the service user and that too often, providers, especially settings, ‘pathologise’ parents and lay the blame on them for something which is out of their control. This in turn, becomes a reason why settings fail to act to overcome the barrier."

It is important that parents are involved with the setting because  “Parents are children’s first and enduring educators. When parents and practitioners work together in early years settings, the results have a positive impact on children’s development and learning.” (PEAL, 2007).

Similarities and Differences within the EYFS and Primary School

Working in partnership with parents in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) has similarities and differences with the partnership with parents within Primary Education. There has been research into different aspects of parental partnership and how best to involve all parents, so that they are included in their child’s development throughout the education system.

Although there are some difficulties which arise within the partnership, there are sometimes barriers which occur within the home-school partnership, but it is not always the matter of hard to reach parents. Sometimes the problems occur on the practitioners side, supporting this Bryans(1989, pp.39) states “teachers often do not have sufficient training… and may draw up an arbitrary line of defence to keep the parents away”

“No two parents, no two children, are the same” (Pugh, 1989, pp.16). It is vital that in the EYFS the differing needs of both the children and the parents are met through the partnership, some parents may be unable to attend the establishment due to varying factors, and different aspects of life may be barriers, such as work.

The EYFS sets standards for learning development and care of children (https://www.gov.uk/early-years-foundation-stage, 2014) is mainly achieved through the partnership between the organisation and parents or people at home. However in comparison there is still the aspect of inclusion of parents through updates and meetings with staff on a regular basis to discuss and evaluate their child’s progress in Primary Education; this is slightly different to the EYFS, “Most settings encourage parents to spend time in the setting throughout their child’s time there” (Drake, 2006, pp.121). 

The partnership with parents is both vital in the EYFS and within Primary schools. However the partnership within the two different stages has different strategies for involvement. In Primary schools parental involvement is more home based as opposed to in the EYFS it is more institutional based.  

Communication with parents

Communication in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is vital as “settings should develop effective partnerships with parents in order to enhance the learning and development of the children with whom they work.” (KEAP, 2007) For parents and practitioners to work together it means that there are positive achievements for the child in their learning and development stages. (Beckley, P et al, 2009)


Learning Alliance state that: “working in partnership with parents is central to the EYFS” (Learning Alliance pre-school, 2014) this is because all practitioners need to find out about a child’s experiences so far so that they can plan with the best intention for the individual child.

All children at the beginning of their journey will be allocated a Key Person. A key person is someone who will build a strong relationship with the children they have been allocated and they will make sure a child feels safe and secure in the environment that they are in. (Lindon, pp.6, 2010). Early Years Matters states that the key person is: “a familiar figure who is accessible and available as a point of contact for parents and one who builds relationships with the child and parents or carers.” (Early Years Matters, 2014) this means that a parent’s first point of contact for an issue or concern would be the key person. A key person also takes notes and pictures of what the child has been doing during their week and can then send this home to parents to allow them to follow their child’s journey.
During term time letters can be sent home to parents, these let parents know what their child has been learning about. This gives the parents the opportunity to follow this up at home and complete extra learning activities.

Introduction

"A look into the recent past will give an understanding of how the approach towards working with parents has changed. Before the 1960s Early Years and childcare workers saw themselves as experts as far as children were concerned and there was little co-operation between them and parents" (Ward, 2009, pp.33). Making links with parents is especially challenging when it comes to hard to reach parents as it is difficult to make a connection with them, which may potentially help their child's development.“When the links are supportive between home and school settings, the more potential there is for healthy development”(Rege and Almeida, 2013, pp.54). 


“Parents and the home environment they create are the single most important factor in shaping their children’s well-being, achievements and prospects.” (Department of Education and Skills [DfES], 2007, cited in Ward 2009, pp. 1)

This shows just how important the influence of parents/guardians is in reference to a child’s education and development at the Early Years Foundation Stage. Set up for children below the age of 5, the framework sets out key areas of learning, which activities at home should ideally be based upon (Potter, 2007).  Child development is at a critical stage during the first five years, proceeding at a rapid rate (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000) showing the importance and need of parental support during this period.

 

All 3 and 4 year olds in the UK are entitled to 570 hours of free education or childcare each year; some local authorities also allow free education for 2 year olds (DfES, 2014). It is important for the staff in the Early Years setting to build a close and trusting relationship with the child, as by doing this it allows the staff member to pay attention to the relationship between the child and parent. If the relationship between the parent and child is not caring and supportive, the child could struggle to build relationships with the key workers in the Early Years educational settings. Some have claimed that ‘this adds to the argument that supporting parents is a relevant and essential task for Early Years practitioners’ (Ward, 2009, pp. 25).

All of this evidence emphasises the importance of parental involvement with young children in accordance with their personal learning and development within the classroom. The level of attachment that a child can achieve with a teacher can be directly linked to the relationship of the child and his/her parent, and can predict the success or failure at later stages of schooling depending on its quality (Pianta, 1997 cited in Ward, 2009). For this reasoning, it could be claimed that partnership with parents during the Early Years Foundation Stage is not just an ideal, but a necessity.