Childcare Act 1991

Over a long period of time and recent years we have seen a massive increase in the development of early childhood and its services. We have an increase by woman who has participated in working and also we can now look at the value of play and socialisation for children to develop and learn.

Today we can see many services saying that they meet the requirements that they are meant to. That they look at the best interest of the child in fact this is not what is happening but simply just Cinderella services. Child centred practice is where very child has a right to reach their full potential in every aspect. They have a right to education and for their development to be supported. We need to have a high quality service so that children can develop

The UNCRC known as the UN Convention on the Rights of the child. According to McPartland(2013,P.14)”In essence the convention on the rights of the child sates that children have basic human rights ;to survival; to develop to their fullest potential; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation and to participate fully in family cultural and social life”. This convention has four main principles for children these are Non-discrimination, to support the best intrest of the child, for the child to have a right to life, development and survival and last to respect the view of the child. The Childcare Act 1991. This legislation is very important to protecting children. Part seven this document looked at childcare practitioners and how to do their job. This looked at the environment and the space the children need and does it have quality standards. This legislation looks at the best interest of the child in the family home and is very child centred. The Childcare Act 2006 looks at the standard of childcare services. This regulation takes children under six into account. In preschool services this regulation looks at the environment, the ratios of adult to child and how the children are being cared for. These regulations need to be followed in childcare services to have a high quality standard

Donohoe and Gaynor (2011, p.10) states that “It highlighted the crucial importance of quality provision”. The white paper had made four recommendations these were to address quality to have research expanded, to have a specialist early years development unit and finally to have an early education agency. These then led to the major change in early childhood which is the centre for early childhood development and education they then made their own aims that had led them to full fill these aims by launching the document Siolta: The national quality framework for early childhood and education. The Irish word Siolta means seeds in English. Siolta can be used in any curriculum in settings. The document has 12 principles then there is 16 standards that all link in with the principles. Donohoe and Gaynor (2011,P.12) states that “Services describe their own practice in each standard, make plans for improving their practice and collect a portfolio of evidence to demonstrate the progress they have made”. For practitioners to look back and reflect if they are meeting the siolta standards on each standard there is signposts for reflection. This is a good thing as practitioners then can look back and reflect on their actions or on what they had done and this then helps to improve the quality of early childhood settings. Siolta aims to provide a