Sir, – I am an early years educator from Ireland who trained in the UK and worked there in this sector for several years. Upon my return to Ireland, I was shocked and saddened by how difficult it was to find a good quality early years setting for my own children. The quality of early education provision and standards of care in the UK far exceeds most Irish settings, in my experience. I strongly believe this is largely due to the rigorous and frequent inspections conducted by Ofsted, the UK government’s Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills.
The focus of successive Irish governments has been to provide financial support to parents to place their children in privately-run childcare establishments in order to facilitate their return to work. However, little money has been spent on monitoring and evaluating the quality of care delivered to the children in such establishments.
As a result, many individuals working in childcare in this country have no qualifications in this area nor are they required to have them. In addition, current inspections focus mainly on public and environmental health risks rather than on the quality of education and care. Emerging reports in the media would suggest that, yet again, light touch regulation by the Irish government in the private sector could result in abuses by individuals who are willing to put financial profit before the welfare of a group of extremely vulnerable people in our society. Unfortunately, it is our children who would pay the price. – Yours, etc,
NICOLA O’REILLY,
Waterford Road,
Kilkenny,
Co Kilkenny.