Creche ‘no adverse effect’ on learning says Early Childhood Ireland

Early Childhood Ireland yesterday said parents can be reassured by new evidence that sending their children to a creche has no effect on their ability to learn.

Chief executive Teresa Heeney said the finding, in a Growing Up in Ireland report, was “obviously reassuring” for parents who worried about sending their children to childcare.

The report found no difference in the cognitive development of children in childcare and those cared for at home. A study of 9,000 children found, when tested at age five, children who attended childcare at age three did as well as those cared for solely by their parents.

However, the report did not include information about the quality of the childcare settings attended by the children.

Minister for Children and Youth Affairs James Reilly announced in October’s budget that his department will conduct an audit of childcare services. Ms Heeney said the audit, to start next year, would be crucial because it would show what types of settings were good and what made them good.

The report found childcare services with a graduate leader had a relatively small positive effect on the learning ability of children who completed the free pre-school year. Ms Heeney said even though the finding was only marginally statistically significant, it was important.

“It confirms other European research findings that the educational level of the staff in child care settings is the key indicator of quality,” she said.

Early Childhood Ireland represents more than 3,500 childcare professionals supporting more than 100,000 children in pre-school, after-school, and full day-care settings.

“We need to be making sure that the resources and the remuneration level in the childcare sector are enough to recruit and retain graduates. Currently, that is not the case,” she said.

Ms Heeney said that, over the summer, 14% of staff in early childhood education had to go on the dole because the service closed. “That is no way to work towards a graduate-led workforce,” she said.

The report also found children from lower-income families tended to start school earlier than those from higher income ones.

Ms Heeney said there was no evidence that starting school early was good for any child.

“Hopefully, the availability of the second free school year from next September will reduce the number of children being sent to school too early,” she said.

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