Dear colleague,
Following the publication in November of our joint report with Barnardos, we have continued our campaign to move Ireland in the direction of the Scandinavian childcare model.
Together with Barnardos, OPEN and the National Women's Council of Ireland, we are organising a seminar on the Scandinavian model on Monday 4th March. There are details of the seminar below.
Also, in advance of the seminar, the 4 participating organisations are carrying out a survey to find out parents' experiences of and attitudes towards childcare and afterschool care in Ireland. If you are a parent, please follow the link the below to fill in our survey - it will take you just 5 minutes.
This e-newsletter also contains news updates on cuts to Childminding Advisory Officer posts and the latest child poverty statistics.
There is also a series of three articles on parenting supports: two evaluations of Irish initiatives that combine supports for parents with high quality early care and education services; and a summary of Scotland's new National Parenting Strategy.
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Scandinavian Childcare: Making it Happen
 Barnardos, OPEN, National Women's Council of Ireland and Start Strong are exploring ways to improve childcare and afterschool care services in Ireland. At the moment, services differ greatly in terms of quality and availability and they can be very expensive for parents. We are trying to look for a more sustainable solution to childcare and afterschool care that is in the best interests of children, their parents and service providers. Join us on 4th March at our seminar, "Scandinavian Childcare: Making it Happen". Read more |
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Childcare / afterschool survey: Have your say
 As part of Start Strong's ongoing campaign with Barnardos, OPEN and the National Women's Council of Ireland, highlighting the Scandinavian childcare model, we want to explore families' experience of childcare and afterschool care in Ireland.
If you're a parent with a child who uses childcare or afterschool care (including any form of childminding by relatives or others) or a parent who doesn't now use childcare but would like to, we'd really appreciate you taking the time to fill out a short survey. It will take around 5 minutes and your responses can be anonymous. The survey is open until 24th February. Take our survey now
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Cuts to Childminding Advisory Officer posts
 As a result of recent HSE cuts, the funding for Childminding Advisory Officer posts in many counties has been removed, or will shortly be removed. Up to 2010 there was a post in every county. After Easter this year, only a handful of posts will remain.
The cuts are not only bad for the individuals concerned, many of whom will now be unemployed. They will also make it more difficult to move towards the regulation of all paid childminders, as contact will now be lost with a large number of childminders whom the Childminding Advisory Officers were supporting. Read more
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Supporting parents and children: Tallaght West
 Tallaght West CDI is one of the three sites that make up the Prevention and Early Intervention Programme, co-funded by the Government and The Atlantic Philanthropies. Over the last few years, CDI has run a series of programmes for children and families in the local area.
CDI has just published the evaluation of its Early Years Programme, which shows the benefits of providing supports for parents at the same time as providing high quality services for young children. Read more |
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Supporting parents and children: the Docklands
 Three evaluation reports have just been published on the Early Learning Initiative, which runs a series of educational programmes (based in the National College of Ireland) for children and parents in the Docklands area of Dublin.
There is a strong focus in the programmes on supporting parents' involvement in their children's learning. The reports, which are baseline evaluations, show that the programmes are already having a positive impact. Read more
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Scotland's National Parenting Strategy
 The Scottish Government has published a "National Parenting Strategy" that sets out the Scottish Government's commitments across a wide range of supports for parents. Its publication is very timely for Irish policy-makers, as not only are we in urgent need of a national parenting strategy here, but we have a real opportunity coming up in the National Early Years Strategy to put something similar in place. Read more |
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Growing number of children living in poverty
 The latest poverty data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show rising levels of poverty and deprivation, concentrated particularly among children. The new figures, which relate to 2011, show that 32% - nearly one-third - of all children are now experiencing deprivation, up from 24% just 2 years previously. Read more |
Start StrongAdvancing children's early care and education in Ireland
  www.startstrong.ie+353-1-662-4018
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 | Supporters
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 | The Economics of Children's Early Years
Start Strong's report presents the compelling economic case for Government investment in early care and education. Read it now
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 | If I Had a Magic Wand
Our recent publication presents children's own views on early care and education services. Read it online |
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