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Start Strong e-newsletter - June 2010 |
Dear colleague,
Welcome to the June issue of our e-newsletter. Our consultation process on a vision for the future of children's early care and education is drawing to a close. We would love to hear your ideas! So please do come along to our national consultation meeting this Thursday 24th June (details below). If you can't make it on the 24th, and you haven't been involved in any of our other consultation meetings, you can share your ideas with us by sending an online submission any time up to 30th June.
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 In this issue
News from Start Strong
Policy focus: international
Research focus
Events
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Last chance to take part in our consultation process!
Our consultation process is drawing to a close, and we are keen to hear your views! Through the consultation process, we are trying to develop a shared vision for the future of children's early care and education in Ireland. What should
services and supports for young children and their families look
like in 10 years' time? What Government policies will help achieve that vision?
You are invited to take part in our open, national consultation meeting: 'Children 2020: Developing a Shared Vision for the Future of Children's Early Care and Education'. All interested individuals and organisations are welcome to attend. The meeting will be held in Dublin this Thursday 24th June at the Ashling Hotel, near Heuston Station. There is still time to register to take part! Registration forms and further information are available here.
The 24 June meeting is structured to provide an opportunity for in-depth discussions on:
- Putting children at the centre of the vision
- Developing a model of services for young children
- Supporting parents and families in the early years
- Ensuring equality of outcomes for all
Prof. Tom Collins of NUI Maynooth will open the day, and the meeting will include an input from Goodbody Economic Consultants.
If you are unable to attend the 24 June meeting and have not been involved in any of our other consultation meetings, then you can still share your views with us by making an online written submission here (closing date 30th June).
At the end of the consultation process, we hope to have a set of policy
proposals that could form the basis of a 10-year National Plan for Early
Childhood. As part of our campaign for a 10-year plan (which we are
calling Children 2020), we will then present our proposals
to the Government and to opposition political parties in the autumn. We will also subject our
policy proposals to cost-benefit analysis. Further details on the project will be available in future issues of this
e-newsletter and on the Research section of our website.
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Planning for the Early Years - why Ireland needs a national plan for early childhood
In connection with our consultation process, Start Strong has just published a policy brief titled: 'Planning for the Early Years: Why Ireland Needs a National Plan for Children's Early Care and Education'. A copy of the document will be given to every participant at the 24 June national consultation meeting, and it can also be downloaded from our website.
This short briefing note explains why Ireland needs a focused and ambitious plan for the long-term development of early childhood education and care: to drive positive change for young children, to build the foundations of a strong economy, and to reach international standards. UNICEF has identified a 'national plan for the organisation and financing of early childhood services' as one of its 10 international 'minimum standards'. In the absence of such a national plan, there is little hope of Ireland advancing far up UNICEF's international 'league table' for early years services and supports.
Start Strong's Children 2020 campaign is calling for the Irish Government to develop a national, 10-year plan for early childhood in Ireland. Through our consultation process we are listening to the views of a wide range of stakeholders on what the contents of a national plan might be. Read our policy brief 'Planning for the Early Years' here.
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Policy focus: international | Canada and Ireland - how to move 'from vision to action'?
Canada shares with Ireland the unfortunate distinction of having come joint bottom of UNICEF's international league table of early childhood education and care, published in 2008. That fact might suggest that Canada is not the best place for Ireland to turn to in looking for international good practice. But it does make it important to compare Canada and Ireland in their policy responses to the deficits highlighted by UNICEF, and to compare advocacy strategies among organisations that are pushing for change in the two countries.
There are some strong policy similarities between Canada and Ireland, which are reflected in UNICEF's findings. In neither country is there a national plan for young children's care and education. Both countries are characterised by a marked split between 'childcare' for the youngest children and early education for slightly older children, by reliance on private for-profit and not-for-profit provision of childcare services, by variable quality across services, by widespread use of informal and unregulated care (e.g. by childminders), and by a general presumption at policy level that the care and education of pre-school children is a parental responsibility rather than a public good.
However, Canadian policies also differ from Ireland's. In particular, the federal nature of Canada's government means that there is great diversity within Canada in the scale and nature of early years provision. Quebec, for example, has something approaching a universal system for early childhood education and care, with significant public funding for services allowing parental fees to be capped at 7 dollars (5.60 euros) per day, supervision of home-based care through local children's centres, and generous parental leave.
In 2008, Canada's Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU) published a briefing note that set out two people's vision of what early childhood education and care would ideally look like in 2020. Titled 'From Vision to Action: Early Childhood Education and Care in 2020', the short article was written by Martha Friendly (of CRRU) and Susan Prentice (University of Manitoba), adapted from a chapter of their 2009 book 'About Canada: Childcare'. The article is intended to be visionary, but it is specifically shaped for a Canadian context and is rich in policy ideas. It was one source of inspiration for Start Strong's consultation process on a vision for the future of children's early care and education in Ireland in 2020.
The CRRU article first describes in colourful detail a day in the life of an ideal 'children's centre' in the year 2020 in Regina, Saskatchewan, imagining the daily experience of the children, parents and teachers who share in the life of the centre. The article then goes on to imagine the range of Government policies that would underpin this vision of the children's centre of the future. While the vision may seem utopian, it is grounded in research on what works for children, and on policies that can be found in other countries.
As ever, the challenge in turning the vision into action is a political one. The current federal Government in Canada, which came into office in 2006, made large cuts to federal funds earmarked for the development of early care and education services, and replaced these with a monthly cash payment to all families with children under 6 - comparable to the Early Childcare Supplement introduced at about the same time in Ireland. Since then, there has been little policy progress at federal level in Canada. In Ireland, following the replacement this year of the Early Childcare Supplement by the Free Pre-School Year, there is - perhaps - greater cause for optimism about future policy development. What is for sure is that those advocating change in Ireland may have much to learn from watching developments in Canada. Read the CRRU's 'From Vision to Action' here.
(The CRRU's website draws together a valuable array of research and policy resources on early childhood education and care, both Canadian and international. It includes a library portal through which more than 5,000 documents can be accessed, as well as a link to the CRRU's weekly email newsletter of resources. You can view the CRRU's website here.)
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Strengthening family support for young children - what works?
C4EO (the UK's Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People's Services) has published a clear and practical overview of what works in helping to strengthen family support for young children.
Titled 'Improving Children's Attainment through a Better Quality of Family-based Support for Early Learning', this 'knowledge review' examines evidence on the effectiveness of a wide range of supports for families in improving children's outcomes. Written by Iram Siraj-Blatchford and John Siraj-Blatchford (both from the Institute of Education in London), the report is based both on a literature review of the reseach and on discussion groups held with families, children and early years specialists.
The report concludes that young children's attainment can be successfully supported within the family both directly and indirectly. Direct supports include initiatives to help parents understand the importance of learning in the home (e.g. through encouraging parents to read to children, go to the library, etc). Indirect supports include pre-natal and post-natal care, guidance on breastfeeding and nutrition, and supporting the family's role in children's self-esteem and resilience (e.g. through supporting parent-child relationships).
Drawing on discussions with families and service providers, the report also explores how services can best engage with parents. It notes the importance of services being accessible, non-stigmatising, trusted, and flexible enough to fit with parents' lifestyles. It recommends both using special initiatives (such as Incredible Years and Enhanced Triple-P) and building on existing resources such as health visitors (public health nurses). The report notes the benefits for child outcomes of home visiting, especially for younger children or where parents do not seek supports from centre-based provision.
The report is particularly timely for Start Strong, as one of the central questions in our consultation process is how best to help young children through supports for parents and families. As part of our consultation process, we held a focus group with specialists on the issue at the end of May, and supports for parents and families will also be one of the 4 discussion groups at our open, national consultation meeting on 24th June. If you are interested in joining in the discussion, please come along. Read the C4EO report here.
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Preparing for Life - latest findings
The Preparing for Life programme is a parenting and school-readiness intervention in the Dublin 17 area of north Dublin that combines supports for parents (both pre- and post-natal), home visitation, and quality supports for centre-based childcare services (with a dedicated Siolta coordinator for the area). The programme is being comprehensively evaluated, and as part of the evaluation the researchers from the Geary Institute at UCD have just published their latest findings. While the impact of the programme will not be known for some years, the research is already demonstrating the importance of formal supports for pre-school children.
The recruitment of participants in the programme is almost complete (recruitment happens at the pre-natal stage). To provide a baseline for assessing the programme's future impact, the researchers have begun measuring school readiness among children currently in junior infant classes of primary schools in the catchment area.
School-readiness is understood in a holistic way, and is measured in 5 domains: physical health and well-being; social competence; emotional maturity; language and cognitive development; and communication and general knowledge. Assessments are made through questionnaires both for care-givers in the home and for school teachers.
Over the next two years, further cohorts of children will allow more detail and confidence in the findings, but important conclusions are already emerging. In particular, there is a striking correlation between school-readiness and centre-based childcare (including Early Start). Children who had attended centre-based, pre-school services rated higher in all 5 domains than children who had not, and the difference was statistically significant in 4 domains after controlling for other factors. Among a wide range of socio-demographic factors, centre-based childcare was found to be one of the most significant predictors of school-readiness.
Perhaps even more striking, these are the findings before the pilot Síolta quality support programme in the area has had long to have effect. While the impact of quality has not yet been established within the Preparing for Life programme, it will be interesting to see if the effect of attendance in centre-based services rises over time as quality standards are promoted in the area. Evaluation reports from the programme are available here.
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NICHD study follows children to age 15 - finds quality really matters
One of the most prominent long-term studies of the effects of childcare has now tracked its sample of children through to the age of 15, with striking findings. The NICHD study in the US finds that the effects of childcare do not fade away over time, and are not limited to children from disadvantaged families. Crucially, the study shows that quality really matters.
The longitudinal NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) has been watching the development of around 1,000 children fom diverse economic backgrounds in the US. During the children's first 4 and a half years, the researchers recorded the type of childcare received (e.g. centre-based, in a childminder's home, or with relatives) and the hours of childcare per week, as well as observing quality of care during visits to the childcare provider. When the children reached 15 years old, they were assessed for their cognitive-academic achievement, as well as risk-taking (e.g. use of alcohol, drugs), impulsivity and 'externalising' behavioural problems.
Earlier findings from the NICHD study, when the children were younger, have become well-known - that non-relative care was associated with better cognitive-academic outcomes but that long hours of care each week were associated with more problem behaviour. While the study has found the effects to be small, they are significant and (unlike in some comparable studies) relate to children from families of all income levels. The latest findings show that the effects remain over time.
However, some striking differences from the earlier findings have emerged, with much clearer evidence that the quality of care received is key in determining beneficial outcomes for children. Firstly, the study now finds there is a 'turning point' in quality, that higher quality leads to better academic outcomes, but only where the quality standard is above this turning point. Secondly, while there continues to be a negative relationship between long hours in childcare and later behavioural problems, the study now shows that high quality in childcare offsets this effect.
The new findings are highly significant. They show that childcare can have long-term positive benefits for children from all social backgrounds, but only where the quality is high. The findings are published in the latest issue of the academic journal Child Development. Read the study here.
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 Start Strong - open national consultation meeting
Start Strong will be holding a National Consultation Meeting, open to all, on 24th June in Dublin. The meeting is titled 'Children 2020: Developing a Shared Vision for the Future of Children's Early Care and Education in Ireland'.
The event will take place at the Ashling Hotel in Dublin (near Heuston Station) on Thursday 24th June from 10.45am to 4.30pm. Registration, tea and coffee will be from 10.15am. Further details on the consultation meeting - include registration forms - are available here.
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