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“INSPECTION IS GOOD for everyone.” That is the verdict from a body dedicated to safeguarding children’s development in their early years.
Early Childhood Ireland (ECI) was responding to this week’s report from Tusla, the child and family agency, which found there had been just one inspector operating per 21,052 children in the Dublin and northeast area of the country.
While Tusla claims that such shortcomings have been addressed, Early Childhood Ireland – whose members comprise both parents and policymakers as well as childcare sector professionals – said it was concerned that there are not “regular and consistent inspections across the country” of childcare and young children’s educational facilities.
It said:
Some of our members are waiting five years in between inspections, which is just not good enough.
While it welcomed a new recruitment phase for inspectors next month, it said that it needed assurance that all inspectors are also qualified in early childhood care and education.
Consistent inspection makes it easier to tackle “small breaches” within a few days, and prevent a situation from escalating, it said.
Parents who were worried by the Tusla report or can’t find an inspection report for a facility where their children are to attend should visit the place themselves and speak to a manager, ECI recommends.
There are two leaflets available for parents to download in the run-up to ‘back to school’ week – one for pre-schoolers, and one for ‘big school’-going children.
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So five years means that in some places they have had two rounds of play school age kids in their care and no inspection ??? This is crazy im so lucky to not have to use these facilities, again it proves this country is a joke for protecting the safety of their people
I’m not sure there is any need for these expensive inspectors in company cars. Any parent knows what is acceptable and if they can’t agree they can just refer to the guidelines given to the creche by HSE . They can hop into the creche any time of day! They are not locked out.. They can count heads. The crowd that inspect the restaurants and kitchens could inspect the food.
Primary schools are inspected in detail about once every four years but the school gate social club conduct a thorough inspection of everything every day. They arrive twenty minutes early to collect the kids and discuss progress and then if necessary take very decisive action!
It sounds like the parents are doing the inspections and are happy enough to continue sending their children there and recommending it to others. A lot of inspection reports are cut and paste jobs and you hear a lot more from other parents who sent children there.
There are childcare co ops in UK that are owned run and inspected by a committee of parents. i’m not sure if NHS visit at all . They are not for profit so are quite cheap.
It is interesting to note that a couple of days ago, the Journal facilitated a debate on public sector pay when many respondents castigated public servants. Today, there are complaints that there are not enough inspectors (public servants) for creches. The best way to increase inspections is to recruit well qualified experts who are paid appropriately. There seems to be a double-standard here.
I think parents should avoid chains anyway. If the owner isn’t in situ then she is watching the bottom line and all corners will be cut . After all , it’s a business model. cut cut cut expand expand like the nursing home chains…. don’t they call that the second childhood.
Actually, it’s usually a he when it is a very “successful chain” expanding rapidly, paying minimum labour costs and running a fabulous marketing campaign.
Typical HIQA – sooner that quango is put out of its misery the better
You would want to be bonkers to leave your flesh and blood alone in these places
Rat I’ll give you a scenario. Two professionals we’ll say one with a Phd in science working in a lab somewhere and the other an accounting degree working with an American multi national bank. What is your solution? They aren’t at the top of their careers yet.
What’s your solution? They have two children, love their jobs and last year were shocked to find they had paid almost 60,000 in tax between them.
We are so focussed on inspection, or the lack of inspections, that we are overlooking the very real issues within the sector. What about staff with minimum qualification levels being expected to understand and know how to support child development? What about staff at all levels including university graduates with a four year degree in early childhood education earning €9-10 per hour? On the one hand we expect quality, on the other, nobody wants to pay for it. Quality costs. Let’s have a debate on salaries and what would be a reasonable salary for what is expected of early childhood staff. Let’s chat about motivation – it is very difficult to be motivated when all we ever hear about are ‘deficits’ in the sector. That is the official inspectorate term not mine. It is very hard to be motivated when your contract is for 38 weeks of the year. It is very hard to be motivated when the fee for childcare is set by Government, who pedal the scheme as ‘free’ creating the impression that providers who charge for additional hours of care are somehow wronging parents. I could go on, but the issues within the sector go way beyond inspection.
Seems like it’s a big risk to leave your child somewhere that is only rarely inspected. While word of mouth is grand, it doesn’t replace strict standards. Nothing should be too good for small vulnerable children and when it goes wrong, it can be disastrous.
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