Issue 21 - Centre for Early Childhood Development & Education

ISSUE 21
Summer/Autumn 2008
Centre for Early Childhood Development & Education Newsletter
The National Childcare Training Strategy (NCTS) page 3
Also In this issue…
Síolta Diary Update on the Dormant Accounts Preschool Quality Improvement Measure
Vision into Practice: The Conference Proceedings Targeted Research Series 2008-2010
Feedback from the Síolta Self-assessment Consultation Process

Welcome...
To this edition of ‘Alana’.
Heino Schonfeld
Contents
Editorial 02
The National Childcare
Training Strategy 03
Update on the Dormant
Accounts Preschool Quality
Improvement Measure 04
Feedback from the
Síolta Self-Assessment
Consultation Process 05
Síolta Diary 05
Vision into Practice:
The Conference Proceedings 06
ICIN News 06
Mary O'Kane 06
Targeted Research Series
2008-2010 06
Editor
Heino Schonfeld
Printers
Print Media Services
If you have any comments or suggestions
for this newsletter, please contact the Information
Officer at 01 8842113 or by email at
peadar.cassidy@spd.dcu.ie.
Special thanks to Áine Nolan and DCULS for their work
on the Irish translation of the Alana Newsletter.
The economic cycle in Ireland has reached its peak and is now turning
downwards. This, in itself is hardly surprising. Anyone old enough will have
experienced a number of these cyclical events in her or his lifetime. What is
different, though, is the rapid and drastic nature of the downturn. Combined
with an astounding overestimate of this year’s tax take by the Government this
has led to a serious fiscal imbalance. There are a number of options to address
this imbalance: borrowing (limited scope due to EU rules), increasing revenue
(mainly through tax increases) or a reduction in public expenditure. It appears
that our Government prefers to consider the latter option at present.
In this situation it is crucial to prioritise public expenditure and in particular
to differentiate between general costs and areas of investment, that is
expenditure which promises economic returns and increases the country’s
competitiveness.
At the recent launch of Barnardos’ 2007 Annual Report, Prof John Fitzgerald of
the Economic and Social Research Institute said early intervention in vulnerable
children’s lives was vital if potential economic and social costs were to be
tackled. He is not alone with this view. Indeed, the statement summarises
a very large and increasing body of evidence for public investment in early
childhood education. While the rate of return varies from study to study, there
is no doubt anymore that investment in early childhood education yields quite
extraordinary returns in real money – in addition to the obvious gains in human
and social capital.
It is therefore not surprising that the National Competitiveness Council strongly
supports “the provision of ring-fenced funding for the development of preprimary
education, required for facilities and teacher training, targeted initially
in areas of greatest socio-economic and educational disadvantage.”
As recently as July 18th of this year the National Economic and Social Council
published a major report on ‘The Irish Economy in the Early 21st Century’ and
stated politely “the Council considers that, in constructing a national system of
early childhood education and care, policy has, so far, not displayed anything
like the boldness with which Ireland remedied deficits in the provision of
secondary education in the late 1960s and in third level in the 1970s.”
The message is clear: early childhood education is not a luxury only affordable
in good times but an essential investment for the future of our children and
our economy. The question is whether Government will get the message in
time. Given the delay in the rollout of the early childhood education strand of
the DEIS programme, one has to remain doubtful.
Heino Schonfeld
National Competitiveness Council (2007). Annual Competitiveness
Report 2006. Volume 2: Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge. Dublin:
National Competitiveness Council.
National Economic and Social Council (2008). The Irish Economy in the Early
21st Century. Dublin: The National Economic and Social Council.
2

The National Childcare Training Strategy (NCTS)
By Maresa Duignan, Assistant Director, CECDE
A commitment was made as part of
the National Childcare Investment
Programme (NCIP) (2007 – 2010)
to put in place a national training
strategy to ensure that the ECCE
workforce would be appropriately
qualified and professionally prepared
to carry out the challenging work of
supporting the optimal well-being,
learning and development of children
in their care.
For the past year the CECDE has been
participating in an interdepartmental
working group with representatives
from the Departments of Education
and Science, Enterprise, Trade and
Employment and the Office for the
Minister for Children and Youth
Affairs and chaired by the National
Qualifications Authority of Ireland. The
initial challenge for the group was to
establish the qualifications profile of
the existing ECCE workforce and the
range and nature of education and
training provision that is available. It
became immediately apparent that
the availability of such data is very
limited and therefore a great deal
of primary research was required
to establish reliable baselines upon
which to build a training strategy
for the future. Additionally, the
development of practice frameworks
such as Síolta (CECDE, 2006) and the
National Council for Curriculum and
Assessment’s (NCCA) Early Learning
Framework (NCCA, Forthcoming)
and other policy developments such
as the Revised Preschool Regulations
(Department of Health and Children
[DHC], 2006), the Disability Act (DHC,
2005), and the Delivering Equality in
Schools (DEIS) Strategy (DES, 2005),
to name but a few, required that the
Model Framework for Education,
Training and Professional Development
published by the Department of
Justice, Equality and Law Reform in
2002, would need to be revisited to
ensure that the occupational profiles it
proposed were still valid.
At the time of writing, a final draft
of a consultation document, which
will distil all of the collected data and
pose a series of questions designed to
inform the development of the NCTS,
is nearing completion. It is anticipated
that this will be made available in
the Autumn of this year and that the
CECDE will manage a consultation
process on the key issues raised.
This is an important policy initiative
that has the potential to transform
the delivery of ECCE services in
Ireland and we would encourage all
organisations, practitioners, parents
and children to participate fully in
this consultation process and ensure
your views are represented in the final
National Childcare Training Strategy.
For further information see our
website www.cecde.ie.
3

Update on the Dormant Account
Preschool Quality
Improvement Measure
By Bronagh Cleland, Development Officer, CECDE
Bronagh Cleland
Over 200 preschools that feed into
Primary Schools that are recognized
as experiencing a high level of
Educational Disadvantage have
recently applied for funding under the
Dormant Account Preschool Quality
Improvement Measure.
The scheme that was introduced
under the Early Education strand
of the Delivering Equality of
Opportunity in Schools programme
(DEIS) was accessed through the
Dormant Accounts fund. DEIS is
a major intervention operated by
the Department of Education and
Science (DES) to combat educational
disadvantage. The funding for the
Preschool Quality Improvement
Measure was accessed through the
Dormant Accounts fund and is being
administered by the CECDE on behalf
of the DES.
The funding is being offered to
support the implementation of quality
measures as outlined in Síolta, the
National Quality Framework for Early
Childhood Education.
There was a range of applications
made under the Síolta Standard
Environments. These included
replacing worn and poor quality
furniture and equipment with child
appropriate alternatives. However the
majority of preschools that applied
for funding under this standard did so
to develop and upgrade the outdoor
environment. There were also a
number of applications made under
the Transitions Standard including a
joint proposal from 14 preschools to
work with the 9 primary schools in
their local area to support children’s
transitions from the preschool to the
primary school. A significant number
of preschools applied for funding
for staff to take part in further
professional development including
the areas of First Aid and Special
Educational Needs. Other popular
Standards under which preschools
applied included Play, Curriculum and
Parents and Families.
This funding measure closed on 4th
July 2008. Successful applicants will be
notified in the coming months. Further
details of the approved projects will be
published in the next edition of Alana.

Feedback from the Síolta Selfassessment
Consultation Process
By Karen Mahony, Development Officer, CECDE
The CECDE recently carried out
a process of consultation with its
Consultative Committee on the newlydeveloped
Síolta Self-assessment
Instrument and accompanying
Exemplars. In total 44% of the
representative organisations on the
Committee responded; this included
100% of those organisations with
a role in supporting high quality
practice in the ECCE sector. The
majority of respondents endorsed
the instrument and the exemplars at
every level. However, a small number
of respondents suggested minor
amendments or revisions which the
CECDE considered and amendments
were made as appropriate.
Following the detailed consultation
process and the revision of the
instrument and exemplars, an informal
Practitioner Advisory Forum was
established to audit the language used
and the content of the exemplars
specific to each setting type.
With a high endorsement from the
sector, the CECDE is confident that
the revisions made to the tool and
its exemplars reflect best practice
within the Irish context and we are
now in a position to pilot the tool this
coming September. We would like
to take this opportunity to thank all
the organisations and practitioners
who contributed to the above process
through the CECDE Consultative
Committee and the Practitioner
Advisory Forum. As ever, we greatly
value the time and effort that individuals
contribute to develop and support
quality within the ECCE sector.
For a more detailed outline of
the consultation findings, please
see http://www.cecde.ie/english/
consultation_assessment.php.
Karen Mahony
Síolta Diary
By Maresa Duignan, Assistant Director
It would appear from the media
and indeed echoed by the weather,
that Summer 2008 will not be the
re-energising, sunshine soaked
respite that we all so desperately
need! Despite the doom and gloom
however, I continue to be encouraged
by the continuing endeavors of ECCE
practitioners towards improving the
quality of both practice and service
provision. Our Síolta workshops are
being delivered all over the country
to enthusiastic groups and we have
finally been able to advertise two
Síolta Coordinator posts thanks to
our collaboration with the three
early intervention and prevention
programmes in Dublin (see Alana,
Spring 2008). These new posts will
facilitate the establishment of pilot
processes designed to evaluate and
where necessary refine the materials,
resources and processes associated
with the Síolta Quality Assurance
Programme. We are very excited
to finally be able to engage in this
essential work, which is a vital
prerequisite for a national roll-out
of the programme. We hope that
in the future there will be more of
these posts as we continue to build
up the quality of our early childhood
education services for young children
in Ireland.
So in the absence of sunshine,
perhaps we can all draw some
energy from the fact that positive
steps are being taken to facilitate the
final phase in the development of
Síolta which we believe will serve to
recognise and validate the excellent
work of the ECCE community in
Ireland.
Maresa Duignan
5

Vision into Practice: The
Conference Proceedings
The CECDE is delighted to announce that the conference proceedings from
Vision into Practice: Making Quality a Reality in the Lives of Young Children have
now been published. The 2nd CECDE International Conference was held in
Dublin Castle, February 8th-10th, 2007. The published proceedings include forty
papers as well as the three keynote addresses, all of which were peer-reviewed
by a panel selected from the ECCE community in Ireland.
Vision into Practice can be downloaded from the CECDE website (www.
cecde.ie) or contact the office at 01 8842110 or early.childhood@spd.dcu.
ie for details of how to order a published copy.
Targeted Research
Series 2008 - 2010
Following on from the success of the CECDE’s initial targeted research series,
we announced earlier this year that we would be tendering for a further
four projects. We are now delighted to reveal that we have recently awarded
this funding. The working titles as well as the research institutes and key
researchers are as follows:
1. Targeted Early Childhood Educational Provision within a Cluster of
DEIS Settings
The Centre for Social and Educational Research, Dublin Institute of
Technology
Dr. Nóirín Hayes and Dr. Mary O’Kane
2. Bringing Practitioners and Parents Together – Development of a
Framework for Action for Promoting Cultural Diversity in Early
Childhood Education Settings
The Centre for Social and Family Research, Waterford Institute of
Technology
Fergus Hogan, Jonathan Culleton, Máire O’Reilly, Jacqui Duggan and
Claire Nolan
Congratulations
to Mary O’Kane
Congratulations are due to Mary
O’Kane who was recently awarded
her PhD from the Dublin Institute of
Technology for “Building Bridges: The
Transition from Preschool to Primary
School for Children in Ireland”. Mary
is the first of the original cohort of
CECDE-sponsored PhD students to
complete her studies. The finished
thesis, one of the few pieces of
research completed in the area of
Transitions in ECCE in Ireland, is
available from the CECDE Library and
can also be accessed online at http://
www.cecde.ie/english/maryokane.php.
3. Professional Development for Early Childhood Professionals -
Examining Pedagogy in Early Childhood
Stranmillis University College
Dr. Glenda Walsh, Dr. Colette Gray, Sheelagh Carville, Karen Hanna and
Dorothy McMillan
4. Development of a Framework for Action for the Inclusion of
Children with Special Needs in Early Childhood Education Settings
The Curriculum Development Unit, Mary Immaculate College Limerick in
conjunction with Limerick City Childcare Committee
Eucharia McCarthy and Mary Moloney.
Please check out our website at http://www.cecde.ie/english/
targeted_projects.php for further information.
Mary O’Kane