Child's play is top of the agenda

Two rival organisations, representing 80 per cent of the providers of centre- based childcare, have joined forces to ensure their voices are heard, writes SHEILA WAYMAN

GONE IS the time when a child’s first day at school represented a tearful cutting of the apron strings. Now children generally arrive at primary level as confident veterans of pre-school, attuned to classroom routine and being part of a group.

The take-up on the free pre-school year, which was introduced in January 2010 under the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) scheme, is “phenomenal”, says the chief executive of the Irish Preschool Play Association (IPPA), Irene Gunning.

An estimated 97 per cent of children now attend pre-school and 94 per cent of childcare centres have opted into the ECCE scheme.

For three hours a day, five days a week, for 38 weeks of the year, children between the ages of three and four are entitled to go to a pre-school free of charge. The State pays centres €64.50 a week for each child (€75 where staff are more highly trained) and the services can levy only “top up” fees from parents for more hours or additional, optional extras such as food, outings and other activities.

To see pre-school as a place where children learn to sit down at a table quietly in preparation for “real” school would be a mistake.

Parents should look on it as a very rich year for their children, says Gunning, when they are stretched physically and intellectually, socially and emotionally. Children learn by doing, which should be a messy, noisy, very active process.

The ECCE scheme is funded by the State but provided by a childcare industry which operates in the open market and developed rapidly at a time when getting more women into the workforce was an economic imperative.

For the past 20-plus years, two rival organisations have represented the sector, but now they are merging to form “one big voice” called Early Childhood Ireland, representing at least 80 per cent of providers of centre-based childcare. It will enable them to pool resources for, among other things, training, lobbying and research to inform policies.

The senior partner is the IPPA, both in terms of age and numbers of members. Founded in 1969, its roots lie in community playgroups, but its current membership of 2,700 includes full-time daycare providers, part-time and after-school services, as well as playgroups and parent-toddler groups.

The National Children’s Nurseries Association, which has 800 members, including most of the big childcare chains, was set up in 1988 to support the fledgling full-time daycare industry that was not being catered for by the IPPA.

“It was a more conservative time, when there was still the feeling, perhaps, that children should not be in creches but at home with their mothers,” says the NCNA’s director of services, Teresa Heeney.

While the ECCE scheme has brought a new focus on children aged three to four, Early Childhood Ireland will be advocating better supports and quality care for children aged between nought and three.

“There are still tens of thousands of children in full-time day centres around the country,” says Heeney. “If the three-to-five age group is important, then the nought-to-three is even more important that you get it right.”

A childcare centre is not just somewhere to “park” children to be kept safe until a parent returns. It needs to be a stimulating and enriching experience for children at a critically formative stage of their lives.

At this age, “every day counts”, stresses Gunning. “Every living waking moment children learn – they learn something either positively or negatively.” The younger the child, the more integrated care and education needs to be.

As she and Heeney work towards full merger by the middle of the year, consulting members around the State, they are in a unique position to gauge the current state of centre-based childcare. Here they talk about some of the key aspects that concern parents and providers:

COST VERSUS QUALITY

There is no doubt that the cost of childcare is a huge issue for parents. For their part, providers of centre-based childcare argue that salaries represent about 70 per cent of their costs and that there is no “wriggle room” on that, because regulations and best practice require high staffing levels.

The National Consumer Agency last month published the findings of a survey which illustrated how prices can vary. For example, in Dublin city centre, full-time care for a six-month-old baby ranged from €185 to €265 a week. It also found that less than half of all the childcare centres surveyed (44 per cent) displayed their prices.

Parents have to pay for childcare out of after-tax income and the sector has lobbied long and hard for tax credits – although cynics argue this would just drive up the cost. Tax credits “must be forthcoming for the parents of the future”, says Heeney.

However, when parents are choosing a place for their child, price is only one factor. After location and cost, everything comes down to the level of inside information a parent has, she explains, and the NCNA has a nine-step guide on its website advising parents on what to look for.

They need to see the centre’s most recent Health Service Executive inspection report, talk to other parents who have children there and make a drop-in visit unannounced.

Many parents talk about getting a good feeling about a place, “but you have to be able to put parameters around what is a good feeling”, stresses Heeney. “If it has got an appalling HSE inspection report, you would want to put your good feeling in your bag and go find somewhere else.”

Ask all the difficult questions at the start. “Are your staff trained and can I see their qualifications?” is a key one.

“After all that, when you are happy, then, and only then, should you depend on that ‘warm fuzzy feeling’,” says Heeney.

There is always a balance between cost and quality, says Gunning. Cost is a matter of what a parent can afford, while the key to quality lies in relationships, between staff and children, staff and parents and between staff themselves.

“A parent can walk into a state-of-the-art building and know they’re in a good spot, but you have to look further – to see what the atmosphere is like, what the children are doing, how they are being treated and how you yourself are being treated.”

The problem of high turnover of staff in some daycare centres is not as acute as it once was but “children do need stable relationships – and so do the parents”, stresses Gunning. It is another thing to keep in mind when choosing a place.

EFFECTS OF RECESSION

The sharp rise in the rate of unemployment, from 4.3 per cent in 2007 to the current 13.5 per cent, has caused a marked fall-off in the demand for full-time daycare.

In many cases, reduced hours and shrinking incomes mean couples who do still have jobs are seeking only part-time childcare.

Parents are negotiating new and distinct relationships on the basis of anything they need, says Heeney, and services are responding positively – not that they have much choice.

But within that trend, providers report a rise in full-time babycare as more mothers seem to be choosing not to avail of the optional 16 weeks’ unpaid leave that follows 26 weeks of maternity benefit – probably because they can’t afford it.

Gunning believes there has been a significant shift towards childcare by relatives; this might be coupled with half a day in a centre or participation in the free pre-school scheme.

“It is really important that we keep the creche side open and operational because the more it shrinks the worse it is for the sector,” says Heeney. Having spent hundreds of millions developing full-time childcare services, we don’t want to come out of recession and find that they have all shut down, the expertise lost and we have to set them all up again, she comments.

FREE PRE-SCHOOL SCHEME

Switching a grant, which was previously paid to parents as an early childhood supplement to be spent on whatever they liked, into the ECCE scheme was undoubtedly the right thing for the State to do.

Providers argue that the capitation rate is too low and does not allow for a single minute of “non-contact” time, to facilitate planning, writing up notes on a child or hosting parent-teacher meetings.

They are also very exercised over the fact that nearly all childcare centres are being charged commercial rates by local authorities if they offer anything more than the bare ECCE scheme.

Gunning says the scheme is good all round and it is driving an improvement in quality, as it requires certain levels of training among staff.

“Early childhood education pays dividends – but only when it is working well between the parents and the providers,” she says.

Members of both the IPPA and NCNA feel they need to help parents understand better the nature and importance of the play-based Aistear curriculum framework, which guides services and is of use in the home too.

INSPECTIONS

A lack of inspections of childcare facilities is a worry for parents and of concern to providers too, says Heeney. The recruitment embargo within the HSE, which is responsible for inspecting pre-schools, playgroups, nurseries, creches, daycare and similar services, means many places are going at least two years without an inspection – and up to five years in some areas, says Gunning.

The current situation lacks transparency, says Heeney. If a parent asks to see a centre’s latest HSE report and it is from two years ago, it is going to look suspicious. That is not fair on the provider or on the parent and it is most definitely not fair on children. “You don’t want the care and protection of children to be lax in any way in its regulation and inspection.”

Despite promises going back several years that HSE inspection reports of childcare centres would be published online, this has still not happened. A spokeswoman for the HSE says it will not be possible this year, due to resource issues, but will be kept under review. However, people can find a full list of all pre-schools which have been inspected, as well as contact details for their local HSE pre-school inspector, at hse.ie/go/preschools. Obtaining a copy of a report from the HSE under the Freedom of Information Act would cost €15 and take up to 20 days.

Early Childhood Ireland will be lobbying for annual inspections everywhere but it will also look for a review of the way these are carried out – a big complaint among providers is inconsistency.

PARENTAL COMPLAINTS

The HSE is the first port of call for parents who have serious concerns relating to health and safety issues among childcare providers.

The NCNA also has a procedure to handle complaints from the public about any of its members, but it will only investigate those put in writing. It acts like a mediator between the two sides if necessary and “the desired outcome is always about improving practice”, says Heeney.

However, it does not investigate complaints relating to money. “There is no resolution to that,” she comments.

The IPPA has an open phoneline for disgruntled parents who sometimes do not know where they can go for advice, says Gunning. Maybe they don’t like a particular practice, but it is not a closing down issue that they would bring to the HSE.

MINISTER FOR CHILDREN

Both women are “thrilled” with the creation of a full ministry for the first time to represent children at the Cabinet table. The choice of Fine Gael’s Frances Fitzgerald, a former social worker who has a good track record as a senator on relevant issues, to fill that role is also welcome.

“I felt it was a statement of value, more than any other Department,” says Heeney. “It was a positive opt-in.”

The dismissive attitude of some towards the elevation of the portfolio from a Minister of State “really reflects the status of children in Irish society”, suggests Gunning.

Our children’s health, welfare and wellbeing are the nation’s future, she points out, so she cannot understand why anybody would not take it seriously.

The first big joint venture by the IPPA and the NCNA is a conference entitled What Now for Children? on April 8th and 9th in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin.

For more information, see ippa.ie or ncna.ie.

CHILDCARE SERVICES: WHAT’S ON OFFER

The different types of pre-school childcare services, all of which, bar the drop-in centres, can qualify to offer the free Early Childhood Care and Education scheme:

Full daycare: a structured service for more than five hours per day.

Part-time daycare: a structured service for pre-school children for a total of more than three-and-a-half and less than five hours per day.

Sessional services: offer a programme for up to three-and-a-half hours per session (ie, morning or afternoon care). Providers include playgroups, creches, Montessori, playschools and afterschool services.

Childminders: one adult can care for up to five children in her own home. Childminders can qualify for the ECCE scheme if all five children are in the required age range, but that would be unusual.

Drop-in centres: childcare which is used exclusively on an intermittent basis, such as that provided in leisure centres or shopping centres.