Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 147: To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if a national training programme around the implementation of Síolta and Aistear will be a key feature of the forthcoming National Children and Young People Policy Framework (2012-2017); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29844/12]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The purpose of the forthcoming National Children and Young People's Policy Framework is to provide an overarching framework under which policy and services for children and young people will be developed and implemented in the State. The Children and Young People's Policy Framework will build on Our Children - Their Lives , Ireland's first children's strategy which was published in 2000, and it will cover the period from 2012 to 2017. The development of a new policy framework will also meet one of the key recommendations in the implementation plan for the Ryan Report.

The new Children and Young People's Policy Framework is being developed in a holistic way to comprehend the continuum of the lifecourse from infancy, through early and middle childhood, to adolescence through to early adulthood. The policy framework will further bring together key policies of relevance to children and young people that are instanced in the Programme for Government including those relating to prevention and early intervention initiatives, early childhood education, breaking the cycle of disadvantage through area based approaches to address child poverty, addressing youth homelessness and aftercare provision, and addressing issues around anti-social behaviour.

As it is an overarching policy framework, it is not a vehicle for developing or setting out an national training programme for any practice frameworks. However, the implementation of quality measures in the early years sector is likely to form part of the Early Years Strategy, one of the age cohort strategies which will be developed under the policy framework. Work has commenced on developing that strategy.