Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 561: To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs in view of the recent announcement that a condition will be added to new early childhood care and education scheme contracts to require participating service providers to use Síolta: The National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education (2006) and Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework (2009) to provide an appropriate educational and care programmes for children in their pre-school year, if she will outline a national Síolta and Aistear training strategy to support early childhood services to meet this requirement; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29379/12]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I would like to assure the Deputy that early years services are already familiar with the national practice guidelines of Síolta and Aistear. Pobal carry out an annual survey, the Annual Beneficiary Questionnaire, to capture information about childcare facilities funded under the National Childcare Investment Programme. For the 2010 survey, Pobal added a number of questions to assess levels of awareness of and engagement with these initiatives.

The results show a very high level of awareness among services of both Aistear and Síolta, with well over 90% of respondents stating awareness of each of them, while more than four out of every five respondents have attended a Síolta information session. My Department is working with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, the City and County Childcare Committees and the Voluntary Childcare Organisations to determine how quality improvement in the early years sector can continue to be supported.