21st January saw Investors in Families celebrating its first birthday with a party in Westminster. This came days after Investors in Families Cymru was launched

But what is Investors in Families?

Investors in Families is the national accreditation scheme established to recognise those schools and other settings that work with families to achieve the five outcomes of Every Child Matters.

Investors in Families aims to:

• value and support the role that families play in the life of the child
• support families in developing their children's achievement and self-esteem;
• help families participate in raising their children's achievement and self-esteem
• promote social inclusion and a sense of well-being through positive participation in family life

Investors in Families' useful website has a section for each of the 5 Every Child Matters outcomes which demonstrate the kinds of things that can be done, from things to think about to actual examples. For example:

Citizenship

Our objective
To encourage parents to support their children to become responsible citizens and make a contribution to society.

What we did
We devised a school award based on the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme with three strands; personal development, service to the school and service to the wider community, all recorded in a log book. The children (Y6) were divided into groups, each group headed by a parent mentor. They agreed targets in each of the areas and the mentor monitored the children's progress towards the award. Regular meetings and review helped keep everyone on track and awards were made with great celebration at the end of the school year.

How well it worked
Although a few children fell by the wayside, most kept going throughout the year and parents were delighted with the 'service to home' aspect which meant a commitment to take on a job (or a few jobs) in the home and do them regularly either each day or several times a week. This meant that children really were making a contribution to home life. This scheme has become a feature of our school.

Benefits we see
The parents work alongside their children to help them achieve the targets in their log books. The children who take part become more mature and responsible as a result of undertaking some regular responsibility. Some who regularly visit an old people's home to read or play cards have the satisfaction of receiving lovely letters of gratitude from the residents.

But what my school be assessed on?

Assessment will be based in each case on a portfolio of evidence provided by the school to support their application. The school should:

• demonstrate its strategic commitment to and development of work with families by highlighting the relevant sections of its School Plan (e.g. judicial use of the highlighter pen, or "cut and paste" of extracts from the Plan).
• detail the success criteria that it uses to gauge whether its work with families is successful or not and give some idea of its current assessment of its progress.
• demonstrate the processes it has introduced so as to ensure that work with families is a 'whole school' approach, rather than being fragmented and not wholly effective across all the school's activities.
• demonstrate how it strives to ensure that all families and parents are included in its work, not only those easiest to engage and to make contact with.
• summarise those extended activities that enhance its work with families and specify those partner agencies that contribute to this aspect of the work.

For more information including case studies of schools who have been through the process visit www.investorsinfamilies.org.uk

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