Partnering with Parents: Building quality relationships that benefit children

The intervention group will implement the Partnering with Parents practice support system. The intervention embeds evidence-based approaches to working in partnership with parents in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services. The aim is to create an environment welcoming of and responsive to parents as well as strengthening educators’ skills and confidence to interact with parents in a way that is supportive of their parenting. There are three components: • Making moments matter: Creating a positive relational environment every day for parents that parallels educator interactions with children and other staff. Strategies are Warm & Gentle, Tuning In, Following Their lead, Listening and Talking, and Teachable Moments. These strategies are used in typical day to day conversations educators have with parents. • More than moments: Having constructive conversations with parents when needed. This would involve raising a concern with a parent or responding to a parent's concern. • Working on concerns: This involves working collaboratively through a series of phases with a parent on an issue requiring more intensive, and possibly longer term, attention. Implementation of Partnering with Parents involves e-learning, face-to-face training and post training support. Implementation commences with identified Practice Coaches completing a set of e-learning tasks that introduce the components of the system, provide simulated filmed examples of parent-educator interactions and test their knowledge with short quizzes. Practice Coaches are educational leaders, room leaders, and managers or identified staff who will provide specific coaching to all staff in the centre on conversations with parents. Following this introductory training, project team members will conduct a half-day face-to-face training session with staff who have been nominated by their centres to be Practice Coaches. Shortly after face-to-face training, members of the project team will provide the first of three implementation support sessions by phone to Practice Coaches. Practice Coaches will support educators to implement the Making moments matter strategies for 10 weeks. We call this day-by-day coaching. Practice Coaches will each receive two additional support phone calls from the Parenting Research Centre (PRC) in Weeks 4 and 7. Practice Coaches will attend training via webinar in Weeks 2, 3, and 5 in More than moments and Just-in-time coaching as well as Working on concerns. After Week 10, parents and educators will be sent the Post questionnaire which includes Process items to capture what elements of the system are being used.