Children Need a Quality Childcare Service – Tánaiste

Tánaiste Mary Harney today (Monday 28th February 2000) said that the "the need to provide a quality childcare service was imperative. If we are to treat this issue seriously we must ensure that we have the necessary certified trained workers".

The Tánaiste was speaking at the Conference Dinner of OMNA, the DIT/NOW Early Childhood and Education Project in Dublin Castle. The Early Childhood and Education Project is one of the 32 NOW projects supported by the European Social Fund. The project has targeted groups of Early Childhood and Education workers within the community who do not hold appropriate certification and workplace supervisors/managers working in Early Childhood and Education centers.

The School of Sciences in DIT has, through its delivery programmes and its ongoing research, been a leading motivator in the field of Early Childhood and Education, identifying and highlighting issues in Early Childhood and Education Project training.

The Tánaiste said "Training is vital within this rapidly expanding economy but this training must be flexible enough to meet the need of employers and workers. We must be creative in providing skills, upgrading these skills and in recognizing the qualifications attached to these skills."

The Tánaiste said "that those that have been targeted include untrained ECCE workers on CE schemes who gain work experience in Early Childhood and Education centers, however, in many instances this does not lead to quality training because the workplace supervisors do not have the skills to convert the work into a meaningful quality learning experience for the trainee and in many instances childcare methods suffer as a result."

The Tánaiste continued "many Early Childhood and Education trainees and workers, primarily women caring for children under six years, while having excellent childcare skills, do not have any nationally accredited certification or encounter obstacles in attending courses or being released from work for training. The OMNA project provides an efficient, cost effective and flexible method of implementing APL (Accreditation of Prior Leaning), or recognition for prior skills and work set against a national standard."

"Work-based training provides a worthwhile and valuable alternative to full-time training and the OMNA project has developed a number of such models within the Programme. The APL systems are in place but the momentum needs to be sustained so that practitioners, trainers and accreditation bodies absorb the methodologies and models devised in order to reach greater numbers of Early Childhood and Education workers effectively," the Tánaiste added.

The Tánaiste said "the future development of pilot schemes at local and community levels or demonstration projects such as the OMNA project will be important sources of learning and evaluation in terms of maximising social and economic benefits, ensuring an efficient allocation of resources and minimising deadweight costs.

The Tánaiste continued "Over the next seven years the Government will spend £250 million on childcare places. This year £47 million is being allocated to towards increased provision. Those who already provide childcare places and those who wish to enter the market will receive capital grants to upgrade and develop their premises. Assistance is also now available to community-based childcare projects, including the cost of support staff and training in child minding. Extra resources will be given to national organisations which specialise in childcare. Budget 2000 also included a number of measures to promote childcare initiatives being taken in different Government Departments."