Nurseries need to tell parents how many nappy changes and feeds their baby's had every day. And information about staff changes, fees, mumps and menus needs to be delivered across the board. For nursery chains the challenge is to find the most effective ways of communicating a whole host of varying information.
Websites and e-mail contact are far more important than they were even a few years ago, but while many chains choose to use the internet as a tool, it looks unlikely to supersede the most accepted way of communicating - face to face.
Anne de Zoysa is director of Bringing up Baby, a London-based chain established in 1989 and now with four units and a fifth in the pipeline.
She says that the most important way staff and parents of the 250 children on its books communicate is one to one. 'The emphasis is on strong relationships from the outset. We have an open policy whereby parents can speak to nursery managers and the staff team. We find that one of the reasons that people like our nurseries is that individual, personal caring approach,' she says.
Two-way communication works via notebooks, which are filled in at the nursery and by parents to update staff on weekend happenings. 'Some parents don't have time to fill in the notebook at their end, but they appreciate knowing about it. The children get excited about the notebook and pester their parents to complete it.'
Each nursery, bar one, has e-mail and parents can communicate with the nursery or head office using that method, but Ms de Zoysa says staff prefer to encourage meetings and ask parents if they have time to come in to the nursery for a personal discussion. Feedback also comes via a suggestions book, from parents' evenings, and from parents' exit interviews.
Prospective or new parents are paired with an established parent 'buddy'
who can help with any questions and each nursery holds parent days and information meetings covering issues like sleep or diet. Parents are encouraged to share skills or areas of expertise, even to come in early for a chat or for breakfast. 'We find the more we can draw them in, the better it is,' says Ms de Zoysa. But, she accepts, 'A lot of parents are busy, and some find spending time in a nursery challenging.'
Communication channels
Cheryl Hadland, director of Tops Day Nurseries, agrees that face-to-face contact between parent and keyworker is paramount. The chain, based in Bournemouth, caters for children aged birth to 12-years-old in its nine nurseries and four out-of-school clubs.
Parents receive diaries too, giving details of what toys and activities their child has enjoyed that day, meals they have eaten, and so on. Ms Hadland says feedback is equally essential for older children as well as babies.
Tops Day Nurseries uses nursery noticeboards, pigeonholes, personalised letters to parents and newsletters, which are also duplicated on its website.
Natalie Taylor, manager at the chain's Wimborne nursery, is undertaking an NVQ4 project looking at communications - which has highlighted some of the most effective ways of opening channels.
She says that questionnaires sent home in children's bags are rarely as successful as when they are distributed at parents' evenings. She thinks this is because parents have already set aside time to attend, so are much more inclined to respond.
Coffee mornings are also a useful method of gaining valuable feedback and the nurseries, in turn, commit themselves to responding to any points raised. Ms Taylor says, 'Explaining everything is key. We keep parents involved with all the choices we make, for example, if we change the menu.
We give them details of projects and encourage them to keep it going at home. For example, eating with chopsticks if the children have been finding out about the Chinese culture.'
Personal contact
Rosalind Taylor, of Puffins of Exeter Childcare Centres, agrees that personal contact is essential between parents and staff.
Puffins' eight nurseries are all geographically close to each other. 'Most of them are within five minutes of head office in Exeter,' she says. 'We keep in touch personally as far as possible. Parents can always speak to members of staff at drop-off or pick-up time. But if they need longer with the manager or keyworker that can be arranged.'
Children have home books and a personal record. Special achievements are celebrated with a Post-It note stuck on to a balloon.
Monthly newsletters are produced by each nursery (all managers have computer training), with information about staff, holidays, or anything else of interest to parents. The newsletters go home in children's bags.
Puffins has a website, although Ms Taylor estimates it is used mainly by parents new to the area who are researching childcare, rather than those with children already attending.
Parents' evenings are held twice a year, incorporating training sessions on diverse issues including messy play or baby massage.
But overall Ms Taylor says it comes down to face-to-face contact, 'You need to talk to people. It is children we are talking about, not pairs of shoes in a shoe shop.'
Everything goes
Martin Pace, director of London and south-east based Dolphin Nurseries which has five settings, takes a catch-all approach to communications. 'We try to communicate with parents in as many different ways as we possibly can because we have about 800 parents on our books and not all of them are going to want to be communicated with in one single way,' he says.
Systems include a corporate newsletter (covering curriculum, staff development and training) and monthly individual nursery newsletters about staff changes, open evenings, reminders about labelling clothes, and so on.
There are websites, specific to each nursery and regularly updated (most recently with maps, so parents can navigate their way round the buildings), plus an overarching corporate website which works as an online brochure, with links to each nursery location.
Parents are asked to complete questionnaires - for example, on how nurseries have handled the settling-in process for new children. Parents also receive personal letters about significant developments and about fee reviews.
Within each nursery, there is a 'meet and greet' strategy where children and parents are personally welcomed every morning and specific meetings can be set up to discuss parents' individual needs. Parents are invited to social evenings, and may join a Parent Nursery Association.
Mr Pace says the multi-pronged approach is essential, 'Certain parents will read newsletters and some won't. Even if you send them along with bills, and you know they have got them, it still doesn't mean they will read them.
'So, if we are communicating anything, then it is communicated in various ways. We tell them, we put up signs, put a reminder in their children's clothes bags - we make sure that something is communicated comprehensively.'
Old fashioned way
But some nursery chains it seems, even in the 21st century, can get along nicely without an all-singing, all-dancing website.
Val Webb established her first Ashford Play Nursery School in Kent in 1971.
Now she has one unit with 46 children, one with 44 and another with 24, plus a baby unit. The closest she has come to a website is through her 17-year-old grandson who is working on one as part of a school project.
Ms Webb, who cheerfully describes herself as 'open minded, but old fashioned' has a red bulletin board in the entrance of each nursery which gives weekly menus, nursery plans, and information on, for example, chicken pox outbreaks.
Newsletters go out annually, or whenever there is something specific to inform parents about, such as fundraising. New parents can find out additional information about the nursery from a welcome pack.
But she chooses not to get staff to complete contact books. She says they put a burden on staff who are in any case always accessible and responsive to parents' queries. She believes it is essential that parents can ask questions, and hear about their children's day at the nursery. 'We try to see each parent at the end of the day or session,' she says. 'I am always available and parents have a telephone number where I'm available 24 hours a day.
'If a child has had a bad day, if there have been a few tears, then the parent needs to know that.'