11.2 Early learning and care

11.2 Early learning and care

Realising the potential of early learning and care

One of the most positive stories emerging from the period covered by this report is the transformation that is occurring in the early learning and care sector. For many years, publicly-funded childcare and educational provision for those under four years of age was far more limited in Ireland than in many comparable countries. In the 1990s and early years of this century, participation in early education was either paid for by a small minority of parents, who could afford the fees, to a variety of private providers or paid for by the State for a very limited cohort of children deemed to be at risk of educational disadvantage. Despite the evidence that high-quality early years provision could bring about sustained, long-term improvements in the learning achievement of all young people, investment in early years education by the State compared very unfavourably with spending at primary, post-primary and third level.

The move to universal early learning and care provision

In the decade since 2010, we have seen a transformational change take place in the State’s interest in early learning and care. The Office of the Minister for Children, which had been established in 2002, became the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) in 2011 and it forms a core part of what is now the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY). In little over a decade, Ireland has moved to a position of universal provision and near-universal uptake of the publiclyfunded Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, as well as significant funding and subsidisation of early learning and care outside the ECCE programme.

The challenge of improving the quality of early learning and care

The involvement of the Department of Education Inspectorate for the first time in the quality assurance of early learning and care was just one strand in this remarkable period of policy formation and investment in the sector. The invitation, in 2015, from the then Minister for Children and Youth Affairs to the Department of Education Inspectorate to provide education-focused evaluations of settings in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme affirmed the established belief in the early learning and care sector that high quality care and education were equally important for the healthy development and growth of young children. We brought an education perspective to the evaluation and improvement of ELC provision. In doing so, we complemented the work of many others, including Tusla, the statutory

164 For example, in PISA 2018 tests, students from higher socio-economic backgrounds in Ireland performed better than those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, but the differences between these groups was lower in Ireland than on average across OECD countries. See McKeown, C., Denner, S., McAteer, S., Shiel, G., with O’Keefe, L. (2019) Learning for the Future: The Performance of 15-year-olds in Ireland on Reading Literacy, Science and Mathematics in PISA 2018. Dublin, 2019.

regulator for the sector, in supporting the national quality agenda in ELC settings through our specific focus on the quality of education in the settings and on how that quality could be further improved.

In a composite report on initial inspections undertaken by the Department of Education early years inspectors from 2016 onwards, we commented positively on the obvious commitment of early learning and care educators and setting leaders to provide good quality experiences for children. As we engaged with the sector through inspection, and in the consultations held prior to the formal commencement of EYEI inspections, we also learned about the unsatisfactory and precarious working conditions for many early years professionals, weaknesses in initial and continuing education for these professionals, the need for higher levels of funding in the sector, and the need for more cohesive curriculum provision from birth to six years across early years settings and primary schools.

Impressive progress in addressing structural, funding and other challenges

It is very welcome that, in the period covered by this report, we have seen actions led by the DCYA/ DCEDIY to address each of the above weaknesses. As outlined in Chapter 1, the extension of the ECCE programme in 2016 and 2018, making two years of free pre-school available to all children; the introduction of the Access and Inclusion Model in 2016, to support access and meaningful participation in the ECCE programme for children with disabilities; the introduction of new regulations for ELC services in 2016 (including the introduction of a minimum qualification requirement for early years educators); the introduction of the National Childcare Scheme and the extension of regulation to school-age childcare for the first time in 2019 have laid the foundations for wider access and have underpinned improvement in the quality of provision.

Fundamental questions and issues, including funding, professional learning for early years educators, working conditions and quality assurance are being addressed. Partnership for the Public Good, the report of the expert group on the funding model for early learning and care and school-age childcare, published in 2021, was supported by the announcement in Budget 2022 of a new multi-annual core funding stream for ELC and school-age childcare services. Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare, 2022-2028 was published in December 2021, and details ambitions for the further professionalisation of the ELC and school-age childcare workforce as evidenced by the establishment of a Joint Labour Committee for Early Years Services to improve pay and conditions of employment in the sector.

Whilst our focus is on centre based ELC provision and practice, we acknowledge that many children’s early childhood experiences take place in childminding settings and we welcome the publication in April 2021 of The National Action Plan for Childminding. This plan aims to bring all non-relative childminders within the scope of regulation and supports on a phased, incremental basis over the coming years.

Of particular relevance to the Inspectorate as a contributor to the quality assurance landscape of the ELC sector was the publication in December 2021 of Strengthening Early Childhood Education and Care in Ireland, a country policy review by the OECD examining how quality could be improved and assured in the sector. The findings of Strengthening Early Childhood Education and Care in Ireland endorsed the steps being taken in the areas of funding, professional learning for early years educators and working conditions. It also set out how both internal self-evaluation and effective external inspection could play their part in improving the quality of early learning and care provision. The Department of Education Early Years Inspectorate looks forward to working with our colleagues in the Tusla Early Years Inspectorate and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) in strengthening quality assurance in the sector, informed by the OECD’s recommendations.

A bright future for the early learning and care sector

Taken as a whole, these initiatives chart how Ireland can now systematically improve the quality of the care and education provision made available to our youngest citizens. The universal availability of the ECCE programme, together with the further developments that are already under way to improve its quality, have the potential to be as important in transforming educational achievement and social equity as the move to provide free second-level education in the 1970s.