Written answers

Thursday, 13 June 2013

Department of Children and Youth Affairs

Early Child Care Education Standards

Photo of Terence FlanaganTerence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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183. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if there are any plans to implement the Síolta National Quality Framework and the Aistear Early Childhood Curriculum Framework; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28474/13]

Photo of Frances FitzgeraldFrances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The implementation of Síolta and Aistear is the responsibility of the Department of Education and Skills. The DES has an Early Years Policy Unit which is co-located in Mespil Road with my Department and is responsible for these areas.

Síolta (the Irish word for Seeds) – the Childcare Quality Framework (2006) - is a set of National Principles, Standards and Components of Quality which collectively articulate a national vision and practical guidelines on quality in practice across all early childhood care and education settings. Implementation of Síolta is supported by a range of activities including:

- Introductory workshops, delivered by a range of support organisations including the City and County Childcare Committees and the Voluntary Childcare Organisations

- The Síolta Quality Assurance Programme (QAP), which is a 12 step programme that supports early childhood care and education settings to engage in structured review and development of their practice. Settings are supported by a trained Síolta Co-ordinator when they are working through the Síolta QAP.

The Síolta QAP is currently being field tested within 135 early childhood care and education settings. An evaluation of this field test has been commissioned by the Department of Education and Skills and will be completed by the end of this year.

Aistear – the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework (2009) - is organised around four themes – Well-being, Identity and Belonging, Communication, Exploring and Thinking – and expresses the national vision for good practice in relation to curriculum in early childhood. A range of activities are in place to disseminate the materials and resources of Aistear to all those working with children in the 0-6 age range. The on-line Aistear Toolkit provides a wealth of information and resources such as audio and visual podcasts. These have been accessed by thousands of users. This web-based resource will be continually updated into the future. Additionally, a network of Aistear tutors has been selected and trained to deliver professional development activities for infant class teachers through the education centre network nationally. The potential to extend this resource to practitioners in other early childhood care and education settings is currently under review.

The only support for the implementation of Síolta and Aistear in the pre-school sector to date has been provided by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs via the local Childcare Committees and Voluntary Childcare Organisations. International practice indicates that the best way to support quality in pre-school services is to provide regular mentoring support. Northern Ireland, which introduced a free pre-school year some time ago, did so with Early Education experts providing mentoring support to services. As a result, pre-school services in Northern Ireland have been evaluated as having very high standards of provision.

My Department, in conjunction with the Department of Education and Skills, and in ongoing consultation with the Department of Public Expenditure, is looking at options to develop a mentoring system for our pre-school sector to support implementation of the Siolta Framework and Aistear Curriculum.

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