Childcare standards - Issues must be addressed

Given the paramount importance of education in early childhood, it is worrying to learn that standards of care are still being compromised despite last year’s damning exposé of major flaws in the way some creches were run.

Surprisingly, the latest complaints have come, not from the media as one might expect, but from the Association of Childhood Professionals, which represents around 25,000 workers at 4,600 centres where young children are cared for while their parents are working.

Blaming this scenario on lack of quality and inadequate child care policy, the ACP claims some €350m has been taken out of early childhood care and education in recent years. With hours being cut, carers are apparently maintaining standards by working extra hours on a voluntary basis.