working in partnership with parents

[stomp]

Ideas needed for when parents do not give any feed-back, how can I engage them in their child?s learning, development and well-being?

What happens when you do not get any remarks in the daily diary or comments about anything the child does, I do newsletters and encourage contribution to the childs LJ but at times you come across a situation where there is no parental contribution Children bring photo?s for their own personal albums- but what happens when one child doesn?t?

The EYFS puts a duty on childcare providers to work in partnership with parents. If I the partnership is weak then I can not meet the needs of the child or the family, and I would be failing to meet the EYFS requirements.

Just document any verbal conversations in the diary yourself, ask if they went anywhere nice at the weekend and follow up with any comments about new likes and dislikes. How old is the child and how many hours do they come to you.
Do you do a parent questionaire, if mum won't fill it in and return it, ask her to quickly do it with you on pick up, see if she has time for a coffee and chat for 5 mins one evening, then you're covered for another year, you could always do it when doing an annual review of the contract.

It is difficult sometimes. I keep records of conversations and texts. Ofsted will be able to see the feedback from other parents and understand that some parents don't want to give feedback or time to their Childminder.

Thank you, I guess its all about having a flexible approach, what works with most familes may not work with all. Also something to be thinking about as i write my SEF.

Some parents are fantastic and fill you in with every detail-others dont, and never will do.
As long as you can show how you keep in touch with parents, and work with them,then you shouldn't have a problem. Ofsted know that some parents don't give feedback etc-it doesn't mean these parents are unhappy;they just don't feel the need to comment-and allow for that. It is frustrating, but there's not a lot you can do.Carry on as you are-you're doing a fab job!!