CHCRF511A: Work in partnership with families to provide appropriate care for children
Provide opportunities for family members to participate in the service/program
Contents
Provide opportunities for family members to participate in program 3
Orientation to the service 3
Who are the family members? 5
Partnerships with families 7
Parent involvement 9
Level of involvement 10
Creating an atmosphere of collaboration 11
Creating opportunities 13
Effective strategies to promote participation 13
Male inclusive practices 14
Introduction to the service 14
Facilitate parent and carer support networks 16
Provide opportunities for family members to participate in program
Orientation to the service
How do families commence care in a service? After being contacted about a possible spot, the family will attend the service, if they have not done so already, for a visit. Once they have accepted a place, the family will attend an enrolment interview to complete all necessary forms and become familiar with the service’s philosophy and policies. This visit might include an orientation to the service, or this might be completed at a later date. Orientations are very important as they set up the relationship which will be formed between the service, its staff and the new family.
Orientations need to be individualised to the family’s specific needs and wants. Some families may be able to spend large amounts of time at the service before the child starts, for others this might not be a possibility.
All families will need to:
• have a tour of the service, with greater detail spent in the room their child will attend
• be personally introduced to the child’s future primary carers
• discuss and agree on orientation visits
• have a designated area for their child’s belongings
• have a designated place for centre communications for the family to be posted
• be provided with written information about the services philosophy and policies
• have their feelings listened to and acknowledged
You may or may not be involved in orienting families to a service (depending on the procedures of the service you work at), but you will always be expected to be able to conduct introductions and to explain your role at the service clearly.
Activity 1
Settling into the service
Settling the child
It is important that families are supported and encouraged to establish a drop off and pick up routine. This routine will vary according to the individual family and child. It is important for the child to gain a sense of consistency to assist with settling into the service. The routine will need to be negotiated with the family based on their and their child’s needs. Some families are in a hurry in the morning to get to work. A quick routine, eg putting the bag away, applying sunscreen and walking the parent to the gate might be appropriate here. For other families who have more time at drop off joining in the morning activities might be a more suitable routine. What is involved is not as important as it being suitable to those individuals and being consistently carried out. Quite often the child will initiate a separation routine, eg waving goodbye through a window.
Similarly, a pick up routine is important. Children may be so caught up in playing that they do not want to go home. Assisting the family in understanding that this is a normal occurrence, and establishing a pick up routine can avoid difficulties.
Settling the family
When a new child starts at a service, we are aware that they will need time to settle. But what about their family? If this is the first time their child attends care, it might also be the first time they are apart from their child. They might have left their child in the care of family and friends, but probably never with a ‘stranger’.
Activity 2
Every family is different and may have different needs when settling themselves and their child into a service. However it is important that we acknowledge their feelings and offer support in all our interactions.
Activity 3
It is important that carers acknowledge parents’ feelings about child care and support the parents in all conversations. From the outside it might seem that our role is only to develop and support children in our care, but this can not be achieved away from their families. Relationships with families have an important role in the quality of the relationships and interactions we are able to develop with their children. Children’s families are the sole greatest influence on children’s wellbeing and development. We therefore must work in partnership with children’s families if we are to fulfil our duties to children in our care. So who are these families?
Who are the family members?
What is a family? While this might seem a silly question, like asking ‘what is a house’? it is important that we spend some time considering it. Just like with houses, your definition of what a family is will vary depending on your experiences. The definition of a house will greatly vary between someone who lives in Sydney, Barcelona or a small rural village in Africa. The definition of family might greatly vary between someone whose parents and friend’s parents never divorced, and someone who grew up in foster homes.
In Australia today there are many different family types. We are a rich and diverse society and you will meet many families when you work in children's services. Some of these may be familiar to you, others you may have never encountered before. Think of all the different types of families you have met and heard of and complete the exercise below.
Activity 4
Activity 5
Diversity of cultural and language backgrounds
Diversity of cultural and language backgrounds is often associated with people from overseas cultures, yet all of us, even those born in Australia to Australian parents, will have experienced our own cultural and language background.
Every family has their own ‘culture’, for example, always giving the chicken breast to the youngest child, or place where parents sit at the table, level of teasing between siblings, whether clothes can be borrowed between family members, and many other practices. There might be even language differences, such as types of words used, special meanings to some of these words, whether ‘please and thank you’ is expected.
These practices might be unknown to those outside of the family, and may seem quirky or strange at the beginning. It is important to get to know the family and gain an understanding of their background to assist you in communicating and working with them in partnership.
Activity 6
Diversity and shared experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and children
You will learn more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture in other units, but it is important to remember some of the shared experiences of these cultures, which include:
• Disposition. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were the first inhabitants of this land. They had sophisticated cultural structures. Australia was discovered by Captain Cook and invaded by white people. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders lost their homes, lifestyles and traditional livelihood as the white people took over their land.
• Stolen generation. Between 1910 and 1970 a very large number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were forcefully removed from their families and placed into missions. This occurred within the living memory of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait people, leading to unresolved trauma and severe distrust of official figures.
• Cultural heritage. While many of the traditional languages became extinct through government policies banning their use, some have flourished and are experiencing greater usage as younger generations take up their use. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander values and lore continue. Kinship ties, and values such as reciprocity, generosity and obligations to the group are highly valued. There are many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance and rock groups, writers and performers who follow in the footsteps of traditional culture, raising awareness of what it means to be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities continue to draw on spiritual concepts and traditional forms of community organisation to address present day issues and problems.
• Access to education and health care. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have much shorter life expectancies than the Australian average. They have a higher rate of many preventable diseases, and lower education outcomes.
• Diversity. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia is diverse. Traditionally there were hundreds of language groups, or countries. Apart from being culturally diverse, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Torres Strait Islander people live in communities ranging from remote/traditional to urban, and as with any other family, experience individual different events and circumstances.
As discussed earlier, there is great level of differences even within cultural groups. It is important to establish appropriate communication with all families so they may feel comfortable sharing this information with you.
Variations in child rearing practices, key values, expectations and learning styles
Just as there are many different family backgrounds, you are likely to encounter many variations in child rearing practices. Some will feel ‘natural’ or ‘right’ to you, as they will probably closely match your own. Same may feel ‘alien’, or ‘strange’, probably because they will be different to what you have encountered before.
As a child care worker you will be expected to be respectful of variations in child rearing practices. Consider the following scenarios:
Laura believes children eat and sleep as much as they need to. She would like you to follow Seth’s (2:3) lead, providing as little or as much lunch as he asks for, and letting him sleep until he wakes up.
Juliet believes that Roman (2:3) will not eat enough unless he is reminded. She knows that if Roman has a long nap he will not sleep through the night. Juliet requests that you ensure Roman has a full serve of lunch, and that you wake him up after 20 minute nap.
Activity 7
Regardless of their family structure, cultural or language background, each family is unique and will have their own needs and expectations of a service. We will now look at how we can build partnerships with families so that these needs and expectations can be met.
Partnerships with families
Activity 8
Basic assumptions
Regardless of the family’s background, there are a few assumptions we make when working towards establishing relationship with them:
• Everyone’s aim is for the child to be supported to develop to their full potential, become socially competent and be happy.
• Families have the greatest impact on a child’s development, and they know the child best.
• Children will develop their sense of identify through family, language and community ( which includes the child care centre)
• Families deserve support and understanding, not judgements.
• Early childhood staff work in conjunction with families, never in spite of them.
For a partnership to be successful it is dependent on an active flow of two-way communication. Each partner in the relationship is equal to the other and each will bring to the relationship a different set of values and beliefs. Yet at the end of the day the objectives and the underlying principles are the same.
Partnership or involvement?
Before we can venture too far in this topic we need first to understand what we mean by the term ‘partnership’ and how this relates to children’s services.
Features of a partnership
You have probably previously learned about the importance and benefits of collaboration, that is working together towards a common goal. Stonehouse and Gonzalez-Mena (2004: 23) state partnership shares this characteristic, while also including the following:
• mutual respect
• trust
• sensitivity to the other’s perspective and role
• ongoing, open communication (as opposed to staff just reporting or giving advice and requiring certain kinds of 'reporting' from parents)
• an absence from rivalry or competition
• recognition and valuing of the unique contribution and strengths of the partner
• a good fit between the different strengths of partners (in other words, it is not necessarily a good partnership if both partners are good at the same things)
• shared decision making.
'The focus of a partnership … [with parents] … is the child’s wellbeing, development and learning, not the operation of the services, and that leads us to think about the difference between partnership and involvement.' (Stonehouse and Gonzalez-Mena (2004) p 23)
Verbal and non-verbal communication
As you will have learnt previously, both verbal and non-verbal communication convey a lot of meaning. While we often focus on verbal communication, we need to also be aware of our body language, posture and facial expressions, as these often convey the most meaning. Think about what message you would receive in the following scenarios.
Activity 9
Parent involvement
Early childhood services have long boasted of their 'parent involvement'. Traditionally, this has related to the parents’ willingness or ability to physically contribute to the smooth running of the service. Parents or family members would volunteer to participate in such things as working bees, fundraising activities, attending excursions as volunteers, contributing materials (tissue boxes, egg cartons, a piece of fruit daily), attending the centre at specific times (to share a skill or assist with a task) or at special occasions (social function, talk, open day). Community-based centres also provided the opportunity for parents to become a member of the management committee and require their attendance at annual general meetings. Seems like a long list and it is not exhaustive! Having these reference points and perspectives may taint our appreciation of parents’ real contributions and motivations. Consider the following examples:
The Fully Involved Family
Mr and Mrs Fully Involved turn up at every centre function. They love their two daughters deeply and as such they want to know about everything that happens in their lives. They respect that the carers have training in early childhood education but also accept that their children are their responsibility and wish to participate in decisions affecting their children. They get frustrated when they see or hear of other families not being active at the service. They believe this demonstrates that they do not care for their children.
The Involved When We Are Requested To Family
Mr and Mrs Involved When We Are Requested To turn up at centre functions when the carers suggest to them that this is a function not to be missed. They love their two daughters deeply and have made a commitment to work in partnership with the carers to ensure continuity of experiences for the children. This does not mean, however, that they need to know all of the incidental information about the centre such as how much money was raised on the last fundraising drive. They trust the carers implicitly and rely on the carers to impart the information that they need to know.