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.

This has long been demanded by stakeholders such as Early Childhood Ireland, the umbrella organisation of early years providers in Ireland. Inspectors will be empowered to specify improvement conditions that a service must comply with. Lengthy court proceedings will be avoided by the imposition of fines.

Significantly, the legislation will allow the establishment of minimum qualification for childcare practitioners. The minister already indicated that these will be extended from the free preschool year to all childcare services from Sept 1, 2014, for new services, and from Sept 2015 for existing services. All staff must have a level 5 qualification in early childhood care and education, and team leaders will have to have a level 6 qualification.

Finally, the legislation will, for the first time, allow school-age childcare to be regulated.

However, while the legislation is a step forward it lacks ambition and provides only for some of the required improvements and promises no investment in vital supports for our youngest children.

It is very welcome that early-years services will have to register and comply with minimum standards prior to opening their doors to children and parents. However, it is worth to remember that this means compliance with only very minimal standards. Most standards relate to health and safety rather to child development and education. Also, most of our childcare infrastructure is in place and new services may be few and far between.

The inspection of services is going to be tightened and the powers of inspectors are increased, but the nature of inspection does not seem to be changed. A recent pilot project of joint inspections by the HSE and School Inspectorate found significant shortcomings in the area of child development and early education practice.

Why does the proposed legislation not use the learning of the pilot project to change the focus of the inspections from a merely health and safety focus to a more educational approach?

Again, the promised minimum limits of staff qualifications are welcome but are they enough? The training and education of early-years staff affects the quality of services and outcomes primarily through the knowledge, skills, and competencies that are transmitted and encouraged by practitioners.

A level 5 minimum qualification is at Leaving Cert or pre-vocational level — will that really contribute to the development of precious early years and lead to better-prepared schoolchildren?

The skills and traits that research identifies as key to high-quality services and outcomes are:

- Good understanding of child development and learning;

- Ability to develop children’s perspectives;

- Ability to praise, comfort, question, and be responsive to children;

- Leadership skills, problem- solving, and development of targeted lesson plans;

- Good vocabulary and ability to elicit children’s ideas.

These are very high-level skills and require proper preparation for practice. Moreover, ongoing professional development is crucial for better outcomes for our young.

The Workforce Development Plan for the Early Childhood Care and Education Sector in Ireland of 2010 still awaits implementation and resourcing.

International practice and research suggest a graduate workforce for early-years service. We have many, and increasingly high-quality, degree and postgraduate courses in childcare in Ireland. Unfortunately, many of the graduates do not end up working in childcare but move to other professions and primary teaching due to the poor pay and condition in the early-years sector.

The minister referred to the pre-school quality agenda she launched in June of this year. This agenda promises to:

- Increase the required qualification standards of childcare staff;

- Support implementation of Síolta and Aistear, including examining the establishment of nationwide mentoring supports;

- Implement new national pre-school standards;

- Introduce registration of all childcare providers;

- Develop a more robust, consistent and regular inspection system;

- Publish inspection reports;

- Ensure action is taken in response to findings of non-compliance;

- Increase sanctions for non-compliant childcare providers.

The proposed legislation addresses some of this agenda but falls short of most of the more important interventions. Most importantly, early-years services have to be supported to implement the crucial quality framework and curriculum. Early-years education is a public good, just like primary education, and deserves investment and support.

* Heino Schonfeld is former director of the Centre for early Childhood Development and Education and director of Leitmotiv consultancy.