Parents, Early Years and Learning (PEAL)
originated as a consortium project of the National Children's
Bureau (NCB), Coram Family and the London Borough of Camden. Run
for the DfES sure start unit, the project related to a pre-budget
report commitment:
… good parenting is vital for children's
educational outcomes, health and social and behavioural
development, so parents should be able to receive support long
before compulsory schooling begins.
The aims of the project were:
- to identify and disseminate existing
effective practice in engaging parents
- to use the above as a basis for the
development of the core model, on which training course materials
to support practitioners could be based
- to deliver a two-day programme of national
training to practitioners in sure start local programmes, early
excellence centres and children's centres in the designated 700
communities
- to map the learning outcomes from the
training against two sets of National Occupational Standards and
identify routes to accreditation
- to provide protocols which establish links
between sure start local programmes, early excellence centres,
children's centres, voluntary sector schemes and primary and
nursery schools
A working group of the three partners was
established to design and steer the project. An advisory group was
also formed. This included experts drawn from parenting
organisations as well as individuals with experience of supporting
professionals working with parents.
During July 2005 and September 2006, training
resources were developed to support the training, drawing on best
practice and current research. Between September 2006 and March
2007 the team trained and supported trainers to deliver the PEAL
programme to children's centre practitioners. PEAL training was
offered to 1700 practitioners from approximately 700 children's
centres, across every government region. In February 2007 the
project received notification of further funding from the DfES (now
DCSF) under the Early Learning partnerships strand three
(Upskilling the workforce). A further roll-out phase was undertaken
with Early Learning Partnerships funding.
PEAL was funded by the department for
children, schools and families (DCSF) as part of the early learning
partnerships (Strand three: upskilling the workforce) funding
(April 2007 - March 2008). In conjunction with partner
organisations, training was offered to practitioners working with
young children in home-based and group settings. The training
events were delivered in venues across England from September 2007
- March 2008.
A team of 40 trainers were recruited and
delivered the training to groups of 20 practitioners.
Training was also being offered to local authority staff as part of
the Parents as Partners in Early Learning (PPEL) project.
Further to the PPEL project, a need was
identified within local authority groups for a continuation of the
PEAL training, From April 2008, three options were available for
such groups to commission from the Early Childhood Unit of the NCB.
The first option was the 'standard Option 1': a one-day training
which was fundamentally the same as that which had previously been
rolled out and could be adapted for specific groups such as
childminders and home visitors. The second option was more
strategic, where a group of Local Authority staff were trained in
PEAL (to gain a full understanding of its principles) on day one
and then used the second day to action plan how they would
disseminate PEAL across their authority. The final option was a
training for trainers, which was again a two-day training, using
PEAL Option 1 as a basis with participants then delivering PEAL
sessions within these small groups with a view to delivering within
their authorities.
In 2008, PEAL was mapped against relevant
National Occupational Standards (NOS) and as a result PEAL training
is now accredited by City and Guilds at level 3. Further
information about the accreditation process is available on the
accreditation page.
PEAL now offers several options for training.
As well as the options previously mentioned, the training can be
offered to support learning for the City and Guilds Work With
Parents Award at level 3. Available options include top-up training
for those who have already completed 1 or 2 days PEAL training to
enable participants to start evidencing their learning towards the
single unit (311) or the Full Award (3599). Two days’ training and
consultancy is also available to Local Authority groups. For
more information about the options, please see the link at the
bottom of this page, or contact Heather Goodwin by email or by calling 020 7843
6100.
Whilst there was an obvious demand for
group training, it was also clear that there was still a need for
individual places to be available. PEAL works closely with the NCB
Training Unit to provide occasional 'open' sessions for individuals
to book onto. For further information on these sessions, please
visit the NCB training
pages.
To support the PEAL training, Helen Wheeler,
Joyce Connor and Heather Goodwin wrote the Parents as Partners
in the Early Years Foundation Stage - Principles into Practice
book in 2008. Further practice examples
were produced to accompany the set of 21 already used in the
training and these are available to download in the resources section.
Future developments for PEAL include PEAL for
Parents and PEAL for Reception. Further details of these will
appear on the latest news section when they
become available.
Further information