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<strong>Home</strong> <strong>Visit</strong>ing<br />

<strong>Toolkit</strong><br />

Working with families to promote home learning


Contents<br />

Introduction 3<br />

5 peas of transition 4<br />

<strong>Home</strong> visiting confidence audit 5<br />

Reflecting on home visiting 6<br />

Top Tips for home visiting 9<br />

<strong>Home</strong> visiting guidance 10<br />

Top Tips for practitioners supporting partnership with parents/carers 14<br />

Top Tips for home learning 15<br />

Universal ‘All about me’ guidance 16<br />

Universal ‘All about me’ record 19<br />

Top Tips for talking 25<br />

<strong>Home</strong> learning evaluation form for families 26<br />

<strong>Home</strong> learning evaluation form for settings 28<br />

Resource Directory 30<br />

Information leaflets are included in the pocket on the inside back cover<br />

2 <strong>Home</strong> <strong>Visit</strong>ing Guidance Pack © Bath & North East Somerset Council


Introduction to the <strong>Home</strong> <strong>Visit</strong>ing Guidance Pack<br />

This guidance pack has been developed to support<br />

you with planning home visits so that they will have<br />

maximum benefit to you, the children and families.<br />

By visiting a family in their own home prior to their<br />

child starting at the setting, you begin the formation of<br />

a trusting, informed relationship between the family<br />

and your setting. When handled well, parents/carers<br />

will feel valued as experts and you can begin the<br />

important process of sharing in their child’s<br />

development.<br />

<strong>Home</strong> visits also provide a great opportunity to begin<br />

discussing home learning and so this guidance pack<br />

also considers how you can help families to<br />

understand what they can do to support their child.<br />

‘<strong>Home</strong> learning’ refers to all the things that parents/<br />

carers do as a natural part of family life that support<br />

their child’s development and learning. As you will be<br />

aware, it includes everyday things such as singing<br />

nursery rhymes, helping to load the washing machine<br />

or going on a trip to the local park or supermarket.<br />

Parents/carers will benefit from your knowledge of<br />

child development to help them understand how<br />

these things help their child and how to carry out<br />

these and other activities in a way that encourages<br />

learning.<br />

Research has shown that the home learning<br />

environment is the single biggest influence on a<br />

child’s development. Sharing this fact with families<br />

can empower and motivate them to support their<br />

child’s learning.<br />

<strong>Home</strong> learning is key to narrowing the attainment gap<br />

between children from disadvantaged backgrounds<br />

and their peers. By the age of just 22 months, the<br />

learning and development of children from<br />

disadvantaged backgrounds has often already fallen<br />

behind that of their peers.<br />

We would recommend that you do NOT give parents/<br />

carers all the information included in the pack at once<br />

as this may overload them. Instead select information<br />

you wish to share at the home visit and then plan<br />

other appropriate times to share the remaining<br />

information e.g. at a parent/key person meeting to<br />

discuss the child’s first learning summary. In this way<br />

families are more likely to act on the information you<br />

share and their children will benefit.<br />

The pack contains the following documents:<br />

For you as a setting:<br />

• ‘Reflecting on home visiting’ – a tool to support<br />

your team in discussing the benefits and<br />

challenges of home visiting.<br />

• ‘Top tips- home visiting’ – a useful summary of<br />

key aspects of practice<br />

• ‘Top tips- home learning’ – a summary of how to<br />

effectively encourage home learning<br />

• ‘<strong>Home</strong> visit evaluation form’ – a sample<br />

evaluation form to reflect on each individual home<br />

visit.<br />

Information to be shared with families:<br />

• A suggested ‘All About Me record’ and<br />

accompanying guidance notes<br />

• ‘Why am I being offered a home visit’? – a leaflet<br />

for parents/carers explaining the purpose of home<br />

visiting and what to expect.<br />

What can my toddler learn...? – leaflets with<br />

ideas and practical tips for supporting home<br />

learning.<br />

The leaflets include – messy play, books, maths,<br />

treasure baskets, singing, playing outdoors.<br />

• ‘<strong>Home</strong> visit evaluation form’– a sample<br />

evaluation form to be completed with each family<br />

to measure impact of the home visit.<br />

Effects upon literacy at age 5<br />

Mean effect<br />

5<br />

4<br />

3<br />

2<br />

1<br />

0<br />

gender<br />

low<br />

birthweight<br />

duration<br />

pre-school<br />

quality<br />

pre-school<br />

social<br />

class<br />

home<br />

environment<br />

Graph reproduced with the kind permission of Edward Melhuish,<br />

co-author of EPPE, 2008, based on EPPE data.<br />

www.centreforum.org/assets/pubs/parenting-matters.pdf<br />

http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/<br />

EYFS_Parents_Guide.doc<br />

<strong>Home</strong> <strong>Visit</strong>ing Guidance Pack © Bath & North East Somerset Council 3


5 peas of transition<br />

Transitions are an inevitable part of all of our lives and effective transitions are vital to provide continuity<br />

throughout the Early Years Foundation Stage. The ‘5 peas of transition’ provide a context for effective transitions.<br />

Plan<br />

Know your children well.<br />

Who will need extra<br />

support? Who will<br />

support transition times?<br />

What needs to be<br />

shared?<br />

Who needs to be<br />

involved?<br />

Who will lead?<br />

Prepare<br />

Give children and their<br />

families sufficient<br />

warning of change.<br />

Prepare them using<br />

methods which are<br />

appropriate to each<br />

individual’s<br />

circumstances.<br />

People<br />

Identify a key attachment<br />

figure in the setting.<br />

Children need a ‘safe<br />

adult’ to support them<br />

with changes.<br />

Place<br />

Children need time to<br />

familiarise themselves<br />

with new environments.<br />

Sometimes new<br />

environments may need<br />

adaptations in order to<br />

welcome new arrivals.<br />

Play<br />

Familiarity in routines can<br />

help children to feel<br />

secure. Learn about how<br />

each child learns, value<br />

this and plan for this.<br />

4 <strong>Home</strong> <strong>Visit</strong>ing Guidance Pack © Bath & North East Somerset Council


How confident are you...<br />

B. that your vision and values, policies and practices<br />

reflect a home learning programme.<br />

Date 1st completed<br />

Date 2nd completed<br />

5<br />

4<br />

A. that parents/carers are valued as<br />

their child’s first educator and you<br />

continue to engage them by suggesting<br />

activities to support learning at home.<br />

5<br />

4<br />

3<br />

2<br />

1<br />

0<br />

3<br />

2<br />

1<br />

0<br />

0<br />

1<br />

2<br />

3<br />

4<br />

5<br />

C. that as a staff team you value and embed<br />

the role of the key person and understand<br />

how this relationship can support the child’s<br />

learning at home.<br />

<strong>Home</strong><br />

<strong>Visit</strong>ing<br />

F. that you try different strategies to<br />

engage your families so that you can<br />

begin to build trusting relationships and<br />

know them well.<br />

5<br />

4<br />

3<br />

2<br />

1<br />

0<br />

0<br />

1<br />

2<br />

0<br />

1<br />

2<br />

3<br />

4<br />

5<br />

D. that you fully inform parents/carers about<br />

your transition process and they are actively<br />

involved at every level.<br />

3<br />

4<br />

5<br />

E. that all families are aware of the purpose of a home<br />

visit and the benefits of home learning.<br />

5 = very confident<br />

3 = a little unsure<br />

1 = not at all confident<br />

<strong>Home</strong> <strong>Visit</strong>ing Guidance Pack © Bath & North East Somerset Council 5


Reflecting on home visits – What is stopping you?<br />

This resource gives you the opportunity as a staff team to answer questions that should support you in developing your provision for group times.<br />

Use the blank boxes to record your discussions and thinking.<br />

What?<br />

• What is the purpose of a home visit and what do you hope to achieve?<br />

• What does a home visit involve?<br />

• What will be the benefits to children, parents/carers and your setting?<br />

• What are the potential barriers you may face when offering parents/carers<br />

a home visit?<br />

• What strategies might you employ to overcome barriers so that home visits<br />

are successful?<br />

Why?<br />

• Why do you want to introduce home visits as part of your setting practice?<br />

• Why is home learning important and how will home visiting support with this?<br />

• Why do you think it is important to acknowledge parents/carers as the child’s<br />

first educator? And engage them in their child’s learning?<br />

• Why is it important that the whole team is committed to home visiting?<br />

• Why might a parent/carer choose not to accept a home visit?<br />

6 <strong>Home</strong> <strong>Visit</strong>ing Guidance Pack © Bath & North East Somerset Council


When?<br />

• When do you plan to offer your home visits e.g. before they start, during settling<br />

or as flexibly as possible?<br />

• When will you offer home visits in the year? How will you gradually introduce this<br />

into your practice?<br />

• When will you offer a home visit e.g. choose a time of the day or week that is<br />

quieter to support releasing staff?<br />

• When will you review your processes for home visiting?<br />

• When and how do you plan to gather feedback from parents/carers, children and<br />

staff to monitor the impact of the home visits?<br />

Who?<br />

• Who in the staff team should lead on the home visit?<br />

• Who should you expect from the family to be present at the home visit?<br />

• Who will you offer a home visit to e.g. children entitled to 2 year funding and<br />

EYPP or universally?<br />

• Who will benefit from the home visit?<br />

• Who will co-ordinate the home visits?<br />

How?<br />

• How will you make clear the benefits of home visits to parents/carers to support<br />

them to engage with this process?<br />

• How will you embed home visiting as part of your vision and values?<br />

• How flexible do you plan to be in offering home visits?<br />

• How do you plan to organise staff to enable home visits to be offered?<br />

• How will you ensure the quality of each home visit?<br />

• How will you know if the home visit has made a difference to families?<br />

• How will you encourage and reassure families who are reluctant to have a home visit?<br />

<strong>Home</strong> <strong>Visit</strong>ing Guidance Pack © Bath & North East Somerset Council 7


Where?<br />

• Where will the home visit take place e.g. consider families who share the care of<br />

a child, are moving home or would prefer an alternative to meeting at home such as<br />

a Children’s Centre?<br />

• Where are you willing to travel to?<br />

• Where do you plan to gather important information e.g. completion of registration<br />

form or, ‘All about me’ record etc before or during the visit?<br />

• Where can further information be found to support you with implementing home visits?<br />

e.g. the HUB resources, CPD, 2 year home visiting funding accessed through the<br />

Early Years Service?<br />

Finally consider...<br />

• How the child and family are going to feel about the home visit?<br />

• How will you ensure the family will feel an equal partner in their child’s learning and<br />

development?<br />

• How you will ensure the home visit is an enjoyable experience for the child and family,<br />

not just an opportunity to gather information?<br />

Remember this is not only a rewarding experience but an opportunity to build a<br />

meaningful partnership with parents/carers, which will have a long lasting<br />

impact on children’s learning and well-being.<br />

8 <strong>Home</strong> <strong>Visit</strong>ing Guidance Pack © Bath & North East Somerset Council


Top Tips for home visiting<br />

Why offer<br />

a home visit?<br />

How will<br />

it work?<br />

Who<br />

should go?<br />

When is<br />

a good time?<br />

<strong>Home</strong> visits are an invaluable<br />

opportunity to build a genuine<br />

relationship with the child and<br />

family, beginning your<br />

partnerships with parents/carers<br />

and an attachment with the child.<br />

A home visit can enable you to<br />

prepare effectively for a child’s<br />

arrival and support their smooth<br />

transition into your setting.<br />

<strong>Home</strong> visiting should be a<br />

positive experience for staff,<br />

children and families.<br />

To enable this to happen it is<br />

important to plan how you will<br />

offer this as part of your setting<br />

practice without impacting on the<br />

day-to-day running of your setting<br />

and without the home visit feeling<br />

rushed.<br />

This could be an opportunity for<br />

the key person to establish a<br />

bond with the child and family<br />

before they start at your setting.<br />

To make the most of the visit it<br />

can be beneficial to go as a pair<br />

so there is an opportunity for one<br />

staff member to speak to the<br />

parents/carers and for one staff<br />

member to spend time with the<br />

child.<br />

When considering at what point<br />

you want to offer families a home<br />

visit, think about why you are<br />

offering a visit and how home<br />

visits will fit in with your setting<br />

vision and values. <strong>Home</strong> visiting<br />

can be invaluable in building<br />

relationships before a child starts<br />

in your setting, so when they<br />

arrive they recognise key people,<br />

which reduces any anxieties.<br />

What should<br />

I have in place?<br />

When planning home visits, it is<br />

important to consider how you<br />

will safeguard your staff.<br />

Do you have a policy in place for<br />

lone working? Do your staff have<br />

appropriate car insurance? Do<br />

they have access to a mobile<br />

phone which is not their personal<br />

one? Do they feel confident to<br />

visit families in their own homes?<br />

What do<br />

I take?<br />

It is important to consider what<br />

you want to achieve at the visit as<br />

this will help you decide what to<br />

take. It could be an opportunity to<br />

complete an ‘All about me form’<br />

with the parents/carers.<br />

You may decide to take<br />

something for the child e.g.<br />

resources or something to<br />

decorate such as a name card.<br />

What about<br />

Staff expectations?<br />

For home visiting to be an<br />

effective resource, staff need to<br />

feel confident that they<br />

understand the purpose of a<br />

home visit and what they are<br />

expected to do.<br />

If staff have a clear purpose they<br />

will be able to plan effectively to<br />

gain the most out of each home<br />

visit for themselves and the family.<br />

‘Children always remember and<br />

talk about a home visit long after<br />

the event; it is a special occasion<br />

in their lives and enhances the<br />

practitioner –child relationship.’<br />

http://www.peal.org.uk/. 2007.<br />

Parents, Early Years and<br />

Learning(PEAL). [ONLINE]<br />

Available at: http://www.peal.<br />

org.uk/.<br />

With Thanks to Atelier Nursery, Barnaby Pre-school, Free Rangers Nursery, Orchard Lea Keynsham Nursery, The Learning Tree Nursery, Queen’s Road Pre-school<br />

<strong>Home</strong> <strong>Visit</strong>ing Guidance Pack © Bath & North East Somerset Council 9


<strong>Home</strong> <strong>Visit</strong>ing Guidance<br />

<strong>Visit</strong>ing families at home is embedded into many settings practice.<br />

Many settings offer to visit a child and family at home,<br />

before the child starts at their setting, as part of their<br />

planned transition process. This provides the<br />

opportunity for the child, family and practitioners to<br />

begin forming trusting relationships, share<br />

information, value home learning and aid a positive<br />

and smooth transition into the setting. <strong>Home</strong> visiting<br />

is one way to ensure you are meeting one of the<br />

statutory requirements of the Early Years Foundation<br />

Stage.<br />

‘The key person must help ensure that every child’s<br />

learning and care is tailored to meet their individual<br />

needs. The key person must seek to engage and<br />

support parents and/or carers in guiding their child’s<br />

development at home.’ DfE, 2014 Statutory<br />

Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage.<br />

Research has shown that the involvement of parent/<br />

carers in their child’s learning has the biggest impact<br />

on their long term outcomes The Effective Provision<br />

of Pre-School Education (EPPE). Building trusting<br />

relationships with parents/carers is key to ensuring<br />

they are involved in their child’s learning and<br />

development every step of the way. <strong>Home</strong> visiting<br />

provides a supportive environment to begin<br />

developing this relationship, particularly for parents/<br />

carers who may have their own reasons for being<br />

reluctant to become involved.<br />

‘The relationship between parent and practitioner is at<br />

the heart of effective services to involve parents/<br />

carers in their children’s early learning. For a parent<br />

who lacks the confidence and trust to access<br />

services, forming a warm and positive relationship<br />

with a practitioner can be the bridge to available help<br />

and information (Roberts K, 2009 Early <strong>Home</strong><br />

Learning Matters – A brief guide for practitioners).’<br />

This guidance was developed alongside a working<br />

party of practitioners, who value home visiting and<br />

feel ‘Every setting will approach home visiting<br />

differently; it’s the outcome and benefits to the child<br />

and family that are important.’<br />

Key principles:<br />

• To be used as an opportunity to begin the<br />

important journey of building positive, trusting<br />

partnerships with parents/carers<br />

• To be used as an opportunity to begin the<br />

attachment process with the child, to support a<br />

smooth transition into your setting.<br />

• To offer a genuine opportunity to gather unique<br />

information about the ‘story’ of each child and their<br />

families home learning<br />

• To better acknowledge the importance of parents/<br />

carers in their child’s early learning<br />

• For all staff to acknowledge the important role<br />

families play in their child’s learning and become<br />

confident in working with parents/carers to<br />

encourage early home learning.<br />

Vision and values:<br />

For home visiting to be effective it needs to be part of<br />

the bigger picture of how parental engagement will be<br />

supported and encouraged in your setting’s vision<br />

and values.<br />

• <strong>Home</strong> visiting needs to be a part of your setting<br />

ethos and valued by all staff.<br />

• Strong, effective leadership is needed to give the<br />

staff team the confidence and knowledge required<br />

to complete purposeful home visits.<br />

• The whole staff team need to value the home<br />

visiting process and know there are structures in<br />

place to support them. When starting out consider<br />

how to support staff to implement the setting’s<br />

vision regarding home visits e.g. through staff<br />

meetings, induction of new staff and supervision<br />

• The importance of engaging families in all aspects<br />

of your setting needs to be embedded through<br />

practice so parents/carers feel truly valued as<br />

partners in their child’s learning.<br />

• Consider if the setting vision and values reflects<br />

your ethos of wanting to improve outcomes for all<br />

children. You could use the Early Years Pupil<br />

Premium to support implementing home visits;<br />

ensuring your evidence to Ofsted shows the<br />

difference this is making to children.<br />

• The recruitment process should reflect the settings<br />

policy on home visiting to ensure new staff are fully<br />

aware of the ethos of your setting and what is<br />

expected of them.<br />

10 <strong>Home</strong> <strong>Visit</strong>ing Guidance Pack © Bath & North East Somerset Council

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