Recruiting Families to the Nursery
Extract from Coram Family and Childcare Trust report
Talking to parents about using your setting can start from the very earliest stages of the development of your nursery. At Friendly Families Nursery, parents were keen to see the space and to know more about the nursery early as they started thinking about childcare options.
How can you be open with families about your plans for the nursery?
The timeline for opening a new early years provision can be very uncertain, particularly at the early stages, given the reliance on the Ofsted registration visit. There will still be many decisions to be made on the structure of your childcare, and so it can be difficult to be able to answer parents’ questions at this stage. The Parent Directors found that local parents were keen to know answers to the key decisions early, such as educational approach, fees and opening hours. This was to help with their own decision making. We found it important to be open with parents on the steps we needed to take, and how we wanted to make decisions collectively. This was an opportunity to get more parents interested in being involved. We were aware that some parents who had been very engaged in the approach were not able to join the nursery because we didn't open quickly enough to meet their needs. The timescales can feel very inflexible for families who have pressures such as returning to work after maternity leave.
How can you engage with families who may be interested in your provision?
At the early stages, for Friendly Families Nursery, we looked for ways to make families in the local area aware that the nursery would be reopening and to create opportunities to invite them into the setting. These included weekday stay and plays and community lunches or other activities at the weekend. We set up a Facebook page so that families could stay up to date with developments and find out what events were happening at the nursery. Parent Directors and other parents involved in setting up the nursery also attended local events, such as summer fayres to talk about the nursery to other families. We printed a large banner to hang on the outside of the nursery to increase visibility. These activities initially aimed to get families interested in the nursery rather than to sign up for a place and also created a wider pool of local families to get involved in decision making and setting up the nursery. Once registered with Ofsted, the nursery was listed on key websites that families use when looking for childcare including the local Family Information Service and childcare.co.uk.
How can you keep parents up to date?
As soon as some of the key decisions were made, these were shared with parents and we created a website so that it was easy for families to find out more information about the nursery and register interest. Once the opening date was set, we were able to start asking parents to register to attend. At Friendly Families Nursery, we found it useful to collect contact details for parents who expressed an interest in using the nursery. This meant that we could keep them up to date with developments and decisions to help maintain their interest in the setting. Some parents felt a WhatsApp group was the best way to keep in touch. They set one up and invited other parents to join. These different connections helped the nursery to be able to engage families and register children to attend once we were able to set an opening date for the nursery. But it is worth noting that this was not the only route. The majority of families using the nursery once it opened had not attended activities there before it was Ofsted registered.
Summary
Establishing relationships with local families is important but you also need to make plans to keep people in touch and updated. Being clear about the work that needs to be done before opening, and inviting parents to help with that was an effective way of getting parents engaged.
How can you be open with families about your plans for the nursery?
The timeline for opening a new early years provision can be very uncertain, particularly at the early stages, given the reliance on the Ofsted registration visit. There will still be many decisions to be made on the structure of your childcare, and so it can be difficult to be able to answer parents’ questions at this stage. The Parent Directors found that local parents were keen to know answers to the key decisions early, such as educational approach, fees and opening hours. This was to help with their own decision making. We found it important to be open with parents on the steps we needed to take, and how we wanted to make decisions collectively. This was an opportunity to get more parents interested in being involved. We were aware that some parents who had been very engaged in the approach were not able to join the nursery because we didn't open quickly enough to meet their needs. The timescales can feel very inflexible for families who have pressures such as returning to work after maternity leave.
How can you engage with families who may be interested in your provision?
At the early stages, for Friendly Families Nursery, we looked for ways to make families in the local area aware that the nursery would be reopening and to create opportunities to invite them into the setting. These included weekday stay and plays and community lunches or other activities at the weekend. We set up a Facebook page so that families could stay up to date with developments and find out what events were happening at the nursery. Parent Directors and other parents involved in setting up the nursery also attended local events, such as summer fayres to talk about the nursery to other families. We printed a large banner to hang on the outside of the nursery to increase visibility. These activities initially aimed to get families interested in the nursery rather than to sign up for a place and also created a wider pool of local families to get involved in decision making and setting up the nursery. Once registered with Ofsted, the nursery was listed on key websites that families use when looking for childcare including the local Family Information Service and childcare.co.uk.
How can you keep parents up to date?
As soon as some of the key decisions were made, these were shared with parents and we created a website so that it was easy for families to find out more information about the nursery and register interest. Once the opening date was set, we were able to start asking parents to register to attend. At Friendly Families Nursery, we found it useful to collect contact details for parents who expressed an interest in using the nursery. This meant that we could keep them up to date with developments and decisions to help maintain their interest in the setting. Some parents felt a WhatsApp group was the best way to keep in touch. They set one up and invited other parents to join. These different connections helped the nursery to be able to engage families and register children to attend once we were able to set an opening date for the nursery. But it is worth noting that this was not the only route. The majority of families using the nursery once it opened had not attended activities there before it was Ofsted registered.
Summary
Establishing relationships with local families is important but you also need to make plans to keep people in touch and updated. Being clear about the work that needs to be done before opening, and inviting parents to help with that was an effective way of getting parents engaged.
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