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Hope you're looking forward to the bank holiday weekend and mid-term break. Not long to go now! In this issue, we take a closer look at budget 2015 and the announcement of new "early childhood education inspectors". A key question we're asking is how these new inspectors will work with the existing Inspectorate. This week also saw the launch of two reports by Tusla - the Child and Family Agency. One was on the quality of pre-school services, as revealed in inspection reports and the other looked at the inspection process itself. We take a closer look at the research and ask how serious are the concerns raised about quality in some services? Also, does the research leave more questions unanswered than it attempts to address? As always, please feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you think. Enjoy the weekend! With best wishes, The team at Start Strong
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Budget 2015 a 'missed opportunity'  While some aspects of the Government's Budget for 2015 are welcome, the Budget was a missed opportunity to move towards high quality, affordable early care and education in Ireland.
There was no increase in investment in early care and education services to raise quality or improve affordability - even though Ireland has the one of the lowest rates of early years investment in Europe.
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New "early childhood education inspectors"  The one real piece of news in Budget 2015 for early childhood care and education was the announcement by the Minister for Education and Skills of the allocation of €600,000 to recruit "a new team of early childhood education inspectors".
The announcement of a new team of inspectors with an educational focus, is in principle a positive move. However, the devil is in the detail, and as yet we do not have many details such as how they will work with the existing Inspectorate in Tusla - the Child and Family Agency.
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Tusla report on quality in pre-schools
Tusla - the Child and Family Agency - has published two reports based on an analysis of inspection reports from 2012-2013. The reports were commissioned in the wake of the May 2013 Prime Time documentary, A Breach of Trust.
Here Start Strong looks at the report on the quality of pre-school services, as revealed in inspection reports.
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Tusla report on the inspection process
The recent Tusla report on the inspection process concluded that; "In general, the process of pre-school inspection is comprehensive, wide-ranging and forensic."
However, given the very limited scope of the report, Start Strong does not believe this conclusion holds up. The report was an opportunity to answer some big questions about the inspection system but that opportunity was not taken.
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Political Update
In each issue of the newsletter, "Political update" provides links to some of the most relevant political developments since the previous issue.
The section includes links to debates and key questions raised in the Oireachtas, as well as policy documents and press releases issued by Government Ministers and political parties.
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Start StrongAdvancing children's early care and education in Ireland
  www.startstrong.ie+353-1-662-4018
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