Childcare experts urge parents to use ‘quality’ crèches

CHILDCARE experts say that Health Service Executive (HSE) regulations must be seen as minimal standards and is advising parents seeking a crèche for their child to look for one that is committed to quality through membership or involvement with a voluntary childcare organisation.

There are at least seven voluntary childcare support organisations, which offer quality support services to childcare staff, promote child development, curriculum development and also monitor the quality of their member crèches.

The vital role of these groups has already been acknowledged by the OECD in its 2003/2004 report, which pointed out that these seven organisations had been responsible for consistently setting higher quality standards which put the child at the centre of a childcare practice.

These groups include the IPPA, the Early Childhood Organisation; Barnardo’s; the National Crèche and Nurseries Association (NCNA); Waldorf-Steiner pre-schools; St Nicholas Montessori; Childminding Ireland and Children in Hospital.

The NCNA has 600 members and aims to “promote the physical, intellectual, emotional and social development of the children in their care, in a warm, welcoming and safe environment”.

Membership is based on passing an NCNA assessment visit where crèche owners can demonstrate that the nursery is “striving to be a home away from home with a warm and welcoming atmosphere”.

They must also show they “include a variety of activities which encourage the physical, intellectual, emotional and social development of children, based on clearly-defined aims and objectives and should always be flexible”.

According to the NCNA, the provision of “interesting, varied, challenging and satisfying play experiences” must also be evident.

Meanwhile, the IPPA’s quality initiative holds that the biggest single indicator of a quality service is the ability of staff to reflect on how they work and to use this to effectively plan and implement their curriculum.

“We provide support to evaluate services and implement quality improvement plans, develop curriculum frameworks; become reflective practitioners through observation, listening and reflection and we also strive to safeguard the child’s right to play; and we encourage staff to document their work and share this with families, funders and inspectors,” a spokeswoman said.

This summer, all crèches around the country have also been sent copies of Síolta — The National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education (NQF).

The Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education (CECDE) which devised the regulations, said they were being enthusiastically embraced by the childcare sector despite being non-compulsory.

“We’ve had a very positive response from crèche owners to the standards and we believe that as capacity grows, attaining such standards will become expected,” said CECDE director Heino Schonfeld.

“The standards are to be tested in the coming months by a sample of crèche owners to see how they are being implemented and after this we will develop inspection processes for use with all crèches.”

The standards include ensuring the right of the child to exercise choice, the development of constructive adult/child relationship, the development of an enriched outdoor and indoor environment which is developmentally appropriate for the child and valuing the role of the parent.