Policy Developments 1990-2004 - Centre for Early Childhood ...

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Section 4Policy Developments 1990-2004benefits, in the long run, are well worththe initial cost.” (DELR, 1995:171) Inaddition, the training of personnel workingwithin the Traveller preschools is cited asbeing of particular importance:Personnel working in pre-schoolsshould have early education/childcare training and have a childcentredapproach and training toensure an understanding ofTraveller culture and the specificneeds of Traveller children. (DELR,1995:33)In 2000, the DJELR published the FirstProgress Report of the Committee toMonitor and Co-ordinate theImplementation of theRecommendations of the Task Forceon the Travelling Community. Thisdocument expressed concern about the“…lack of progress generally on therecommendations of the Task Force in thearea of education.” (DJELR, 2000b:17)Furthermore, it recommended that“Childcare provision should be culturallyappropriate…” (DJELR, 2000b:22)In 1998, the DJELR commissioned aStudy on the Economics of Childcarein Ireland (DJELR, 1998:48), whichmakes little mention on the quality ofservices. It outlines elements such as adultchildratios, the size of groups and trainingand qualifications but the main focus is onthe quantification and costing of childcarein Ireland from an economic perspective.Similarly, Childcare Funding inIreland (DJELR, 2000a) primarilyoutlines the various funding mechanismsfor childcare in Ireland, yet defines qualitychildcare as incorporating:…learning opportunities as well asplay which is pivotal in thedevelopment of imagination andcreativity. (DJELR, 2000a:6)One of the first major policy documentsrelating to childcare was produced by theDJELR in 1999, the National ChildcareStrategy (DJELR, 1999). The ExpertWorking Group on Childcare, whichproduced the Report, had been establishedunder Partnership 2000 for Inclusion,Employment and Competitiveness in 1996as “…childcare is clearly an importantissue in promoting equality for women,and especially in promoting equalopportunities in employment.”(Government of Ireland, 1996:30) The aimof the Expert Working Group:…was to develop a strategy whichintegrates the different strands ofthe current arrangements for thedevelopment and delivery ofchildcare and early educationalservices. (DJELR, 1999:XXII).In total, the Report made 27recommendations towards achieving theaforementioned aim. Two of the GuidingPrinciples of the Report related directly toQuality:Achieving high quality childcareservices is an integral part of thestructure and implementation of theNational Childcare Strategy. Aquality childcare service must beregarded as one which providesenhancing experiences for childrenand positive interactions betweenadults and children. (DJELR,1999:49)This places quality at the heart of anyprovision of ECCE services at bothstructural and setting level. It furtheroutlines the components of a qualityservice, identifying play, the environment,equipment and resources, training andqualifications of personnel and parentalinvolvement, among others, as inherentelements of a quality service. Moreover, thesecond principle above identifies theinteractions between children and adults asa key constituent to quality. The criticalnecessity of achieving quality in services isalso evidenced not only in terms of the16
Section 4Policy Developments 1990-2004benefits to the individual child, but also inthe long-term consequences in relation tothe economy and society. Conversely, theeffects of poor quality services are outlined,which are noted as being possibly“…detrimental to childcare.” (DJELR,1999:52)The National Childcare Strategy alsoattempts to delineate the multipleperspectives from which quality can beviewed, interpreted and defined,elucidating the complexity which surroundsthe production of a comprehensivedefinition of quality congruent with thestandpoint of all. The following is a list ofpossible viewpoints of stakeholdersevaluating the quality of services, the viewsof which any definition must recognise andincorporate:Child development perspectiveGovernment / Regulatory perspectiveSocial Service perspectiveParent perspectiveChild perspectiveSocial funding policy perspectiveStaff perspectiveCultural perspectives (DJELR, 1999:52).The Report also outlines possible ways ofdefining the quality of services by the use ofindicators, which must be context-specific.Input indicators refer to concrete featuressuch as the premises and equipment andare easily defined. Process indicatorsconsist of the day-to-day happenings suchas relationships and interactions and aremore difficult to define. Lastly, outcomeindicators relate to the impact of provisionsuch as health and well-being.Following on from the recommendations inthe National Childcare Strategy (DJELR,1999) and the White Paper on EarlyChildhood Education, Ready to Learn,(DES, 1999a) and other policy documents(Coolahan, 1998; OMNA, 2000), theDJELR undertook the production of aModel Framework for Education,Training, and ProfessionalDevelopment in the Early ChildhoodCare and Education Sector (DJELR,2002a). This also followed on from thegovernment commitment in theProgramme for Prosperity and Fairness(Government of Ireland, 1999:119) to fundresearch into training and qualificationsand to this end, the Certifying BodiesSubgroup of the National Childcare CoordinatingCommittee (NCCC) (see EOCPsection below), was established. The ModelFramework outlines the occupationalprofiles and core skills of all personnelworking in the ECCE sector and details howthese profiles should be used to inform thedevelopment of education and trainingprogrammes. In its Foreword, the Ministerfor Justice, Equality and Law Reformoutlines the core necessity of appropriatetraining and qualifications to achievequality within the sector and for thedevelopment of the sector:The issue of quality in any sector isinextricably linked to the issues oftraining, education and professionaldevelopment. (DJELR, 2002a:3)A central rationale for the development ofcore skills and occupational profiles also isto ensure that quality in services can beassessed and evaluated. As was statedwithin the document:Quality assurance is a way toorganise and manage activities sothat they are informed by, and canbe evaluated against, a set of agreedstandards. (DJELR, 2002a:30)The Model Framework also elucidates themultiple perspectives present in anydefinition of quality for ECCE. Thecomplexity, yet necessity, entailed inincorporating the viewpoints of the variousstakeholders within services is alsostressed. This document lists suchperspectives as follows:17
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