A new report commissioned by Start Strong, a coalition of organisations and individuals concerned with early care and education in Ireland, claims that the current way services are run on a market model and expected to operate as businesses, is not in the ‘best interests of children’, as their quality is very ‘variable’.
To improve the standard of the country’s early years services, it recommends that they be recognised as providing a public service and funded accordingly.
The report, 'Childcare': business or profession?, by Professors Eva Lloyd and Helen Penn, directors of ICMEC (International Centre for the Study of the Mixed Economy of Childcare) the University of East London, compares the Irish childcare market to that of other countries and proposes a new model of early years services focused on quality that is accessible and affordable to families.
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