When the 2014 Code of Practice was introduced the increased emphasis on working with the families of children with SEND was a key feature, and nobody can really argue that better engagement and joined-up working results in better outcomes for children and young people with additional needs.
“Where a setting identifies a child as having SEN they must work in partnership with parents to establish the support the child needs. (SEND Code of Practice, Para 5.3)
“Parents should be involved in planning support and, where appropriate, in reinforcing the provision or contributing to progress at home.” (SEND Code of Practice, Para 5.41)
As the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) found in their analysis of schools’ efforts to work more collaboratively with parents, “The average impact of the Parental engagement approaches is about an additional four months’ progress over the course of a year. There are also higher impacts for pupils with low prior attainment.”
There is obviously no ‘one-size-fits-all’ when it comes to models of engagement with parents and carers as the needs and experiences of the families themselves will be just as diverse as their children, and it will, of course, depend on the age of the pupils you have in your setting – as well as the nature of their SEND. But, whilst you may feel that you know your pupils with SEND well, parents and families will always be able to offer more insight and information about their child’s early history, their background or their interests, some of which might help to move a situation forward or unlock potential gains.
Traditional parents’ evenings and meetings involving information sharing remain the most common events whereby family members are invited into school; however, for the parents/carers of children with SEND much more needs to be done if positive relationships are to be built – and this is important, as the SENCo often has (and arguably should have) more contact with parents than any other staff member in school.
Along with the usual EHCP reviews, Team Around the Child meetings and other individual pupil-focused interactions, my experience tells me that group Q&A sessions at certain times of the year and for targeted groups of parents are great in order to prevent copious emails flooding your inbox with the same queries. For example, as part of the transition process, you could hold a session for families of new Year 7 SEND pupils in early September to talk through all of the things which simply come up every year…How do they pay for their lunch? Is there any support with homework? What if they are worried about going on the busy playground at break time? etc. Or, it could be just before the end of year trip to go through arrangements for those with additional needs. And nowadays, these types of meetings can be virtual – one thing we’ve all learned from the recent pandemic is the advantages of a quick get-together on Teams or Zoom, and busy parents often like the convenience of this too.
I have also found that offering ‘drop-ins’ and coffee mornings can work well for some, as they can provide an informal setting in which parents can ask questions, meet and share with other families, and they also provide you with the platform to share ideas about supporting effectively at home e.g. revision planning and strategies. Not surprisingly, according to the EEF, the biggest impact of increased parental engagement was seen where parents committed to work regularly and directly on a specific type of intervention with their child at home.
Don’t forget, many parents are daunted by the prospect of entering a school and talking to teaching staff, especially if their own experiences were negative. Although the nature and the purpose of a meeting with parents can vary, always…
- Be prepared. Ahead of any meeting, ensure you have the most recent information to hand.
- Actively listen to what parents are telling you; learn from them. They know their child best and are likely to have their own strategies for dealing with challenges and difficulties.
- Show empathy. You may be dealing with the same child, but they are viewing this situation from a very different angle.
- Validate their feelings. Recognising and acknowledging how a parent is feeling – which is not necessarily agreeing with it – can offer comfort and reassurance. It can also deflect a potentially difficult situation. You could say things like, “I can see that you’re upset/angry,” or “I understand that you’d like the situation be improved…”
- Be flexible. If you cannot agree with the parents on a strategy or approach for their child, offer to give it a go for an agreed period of time and to then evaluate the impact. Undertake to reconsider this course of action if it does not go as planned. (Where possible give options and never back parents into a corner.)
- Establish and maintain trust by delivering what you have promised to do. If you have told parents that something can be done, then do it.
- Avoid giving false hope – be realistic about what can be achieved.
- Be mindful of using diagnostic labels. This would be especially important if no diagnosis has been made (as you may be wrong in your assumption!) and also if the parents are ‘not ready’ to hear their child’s needs described using a particular term.
- Take notes or have someone present to make notes for you. This way, you will ensure you have a clear record of what was said and agreed. These should be shared with parents too.
And other more general tips might include:
- Make sure the staff in your school are supported to understand and manage some of the challenges of working with parents/carers of those children in their classes with SEND, particularly newly qualified teachers.
- Always make sure everyone in the room is introduced if the meeting extends beyond you and the parent/s.
- Maintain respect and a non-judgemental attitude. At the centre of any positive working relationships lies a genuine respect for the families of the children and young people in your setting.
- Be aware of the fact that some of your parents may struggle to access print-based letters and reports due to their own learning/literacy needs.
- Avoid using jargon or acronyms – the world of special educational needs is littered with unusual vocabulary and bizarre abbreviations!
- Consider the accessibility of your setting: Where might you meet a parent who is a wheelchair user? Will you need an interpreter to communicate effectively?
- Make sure your SEND Information Report is accessible online – and ideally written collaboratively with parents/carers.
- Particularly with younger children or those with speech and language-related needs, find ways of communicating to parents what their child has been doing in school.
Would you like support to develop your confidence in working with the parents/carers of your SEND pupils, or are you at a point where reviewing your school’s engagement model is a priority in order to improve pupil outcomes? For support and challenge with the tricky topic of parental liaison, please get in touch with me using the contact form below.