A good start at providing the best start

THE announcement by Children’s Minister Francis Fitzgerald of new childcare legislation in the wake of recent revelations of poor practice in pre-school service provision is welcome.

The proposals have to be welcomed as they address some of the very basic and long-standing requirements around registration, inspection and staffing of early years services. The minister and her officials also have to be commended for the pace of developing the draft legislation.

The draft legislation will provide a statutory basis for registration of pre-school services and will introduce a range of new enforcement powers for inspectors at pre-prosecution level. Under the proposed new system, all pre-school services will have to be registered in order to operate.