Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 375: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the steps she will take to ensure standards within the new pre-school scheme and the service provided is an appropriate educational one and not merely child minding; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30456/09]

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, I have responsibility for the implementation of the new Early Childhood Care and Education scheme (ECCE) which provides a free Pre-School year to eligible children and which will be introduced in January 2010. It is also a condition of the pre-school year that services who wish to participate will be required to provide an appropriate educational programme for children which adheres to the principles of Síolta, the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education. Síolta is a quality assurance process which addresses all aspects of practice in early childhood care and education services. It is designed to support practitioners to develop high quality services for children aged birth to six years. Services participating in the scheme will be supported by a national team of Siolta Co-Ordinators and the City and County Childcare Committees.

In addition, the Curricular Framework for Early Learning Aistear, has been developed in consultation with the sector by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). Aistear will support practitioners in planning for and providing enriching, challenging and enjoyable learning opportunities for children from birth to six years. The NCCA will be developing exemplars for use by services which will be available on-line.

It is a requirement of the ECCE scheme that pre-school leaders in services participating in the scheme hold a qualification in childcare which is equivalent to FETAC Level 5. However, in the first two full years of the scheme, the requirement will be met where a person holds a childcare qualification that includes the four core modules of Early Education, Child Development, Caring for Children and Work Experience and has at least 2 years experience of working in a position of responsibility with children in the 0 - 6 age range.

National and international research has established that there is a close relationship between the capacity and qualifications of the workforce in early childhood care and education settings and the quality of young children's early experiences. There is a commitment to the upskilling of the workforce in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) sector and a Workforce Development Plan for the sector will be published in 2010. A consultative process is currently underway and will conclude at the end of this month. As part of the development of the Workforce Development Plan for the ECCE sector, an analysis of the educational attainment of people employed in childcare sector was carried out. This analysis draws on data from the National Skills database and shows a major shift towards higher qualification levels since 1999. The condition that services participating in the ECCE must have appropriately qualified staff to deliver the pre-school year, is expected to support this upward trend.