Ms Teresa Heeney:

Services are invited to participate in equal start on the basis of the children who attend the service.

It is a good model. There are a number of tiers. It needs to be expanded and made available to more services. We certainly hear from our members that its impact is very meaningful. They have staff hours to engage with families who may be new in communities. That is particularly important in order that such families can feel a sense of belonging in those communities. There is no doubt that it is a powerful model. If there were a legislative basis for early years, then the equal start programme would be applied probably in a more universal way across all services because all services have some children who could benefit from a model like it.