Border Counties Childcare Network

Childcare Programmes Implementation Plan 2010

SECTION 1:  INTRODUCTION TO VCO 2010 IMPLEMENTATION PLAN:

The BCCN has developed the 2010 action plan in line with its revised vision, mission and key aims. These are as follows:

Vision

That Early Childhood and After School service’s will meet high quality standards, with all children at the heart of policy and practice

Mission 

To promote quality standards in all Early Childhood and After School services and support service providers within the Border Counties and Meath to these standards

Equality Statement

The BCCN respects, supports and celebrates children’s and families individual needs, rights, cultures and differences.

Aims

• Promote the needs and rights of all children in Early Childhood and After School services
• Promote the process of networking and partnership between  all agencies impacting on children
• Support the  development, delivery and accreditation of training for the Early Childhood and After School sector
• Provide a broad range of information for the sector to support the delivery of quality services
• Support the attainment of National Quality Standards (i.e. Siolta & Aistear)
• Identify and highlight the barriers and supports to the delivery of high quality services
• Inform and influence policy at local, regional and national levels
• To progress the delivery innovative Early Childhood & After Schools projects
• Promote Cross Border collaboration within the Early Childhood  and After School sector

In considering and planning the actions, BCCN’s overriding goal as always, is to support the attainment of high quality standards in Early Childhood and After School services as far as we possibly can within the confines of the budget available to us, working with other supportive agencies who can assist also in progressing this agenda.  In doing this we believe we will progress each of the objectives outlined by the OMCYA and in particular Objective one which is in relation to Siolta and objective two which is in relation to the NCIP.

The BCCN work to date has progressed the quality agenda in a variety of different ways, particularly within Pre-school  services, using funding available to us over an 10 year period through the EU Special Support  Programme for Peace and Reconciliation, the EOCP and NCIP. Additional funding, accessed through collaboration with other agencies, has enhanced this work and enabled us to develop a range of integrated strategies to support the sector that we would like to build on into the future.  Work to date has lead to:

• Increased development and provision of  information resources
• Development, delivery and accreditation of nationally certified training to support practitioners working with the Under 3’s, 3-5 year olds and school age children in After School services.
• Development and delivery of in-service training to support the Pre-school sector specifically
• Provision of on site mentoring/coaching support
• Development and implement of a Quality assessment  for  pre-school services
• Collaboration with a range of other agencies at local, regional, national , cross border and international levels to  increase financial and other supports  to assist  the development of quality services

A key outcome of work has been the development and implementation of our Quality Development and Accreditation which has  supported a cohort of services across the region to develop quality standards  in a measurable way  within all areas of service delivery. This has greatly supported and prepared services to meet the national quality standards as outlined in Siolta. Twenty services will shortly receive the BCCN Quality Award for the standards achieved both in their provision and practice.

In looking to the future we aim to draw on the learning we gained from our work to date and bring this to an exciting new phase of development lead by the Early Years Education Unit. ( EYEU) We welcome the opportunity to engage directly with EYEU as all agencies are drawn together to exclusively progress the Siolta quality agenda. This is an opportunity that the BCCN fully embraces and will work to support  throughout the six Border Counties and Meath.

In addition we would hope to combine our knowledge and experience to date to work with the OMCYA and other stakeholders to inform and support future Government policy  for young children and work towards the development of national standards for School Age Child Care /After School sector.

SECTION 2:  VCO CORE OBJECTIVES:

Statement of intent:

The BCCN intends to promote and support the attainment of Siolta standards in all of its work with Early Childhood services. In particular we will work with the EYEU to Pilot use of the Siolta tools and processes.

Components

• Working directly with the Early Years Education Unit
• Creating  two Siolta Coordinator Posts  to pilot use of Siolta resources and processes across the six border counties and Meath
• Work with CCC’s /relevant NVCO’s to map the work carried out to date by all agencies in each of these counties to progress the Siolta agenda
• Organise the delivery of information sessions in each of the seven counties
• Establish Siolta Networks  in each county
• Organise the delivery of Siolta training sessions across the region
• Assist in the development of training sessions with other stakholders
• Deliver Siolta training sessions in line with standards agreed with other stakeholders
• Provide  regular on site support to a small cohort  of services
• Participate in National Siolta Training days and collaboration with other agencies
• Liaison with CCC’s and other relevant groups at county level

Providing additional support to services to meet Siolta standards

Statement of intent

In implementing the BCCN Quality Programme we have identified a significant range of issues in relation to gaps in information and training leading to a deficit of the knowledge and skills required at various levels to deliver services to high standard. In helping to address some of these gaps and in turn supporting the attainment of the Siolta standards we aim  to provide both Nationally certified  training and planned programmes of in service training for practitioners working with the Under 3’s  and 3- 5 year olds. The Nationally certified training will include modules especially developed by BCCN to build the knowledge and skills of practitioners in relation to supporting children’s learning as well as continuing to  deliver and accredit existing modules within the FETAC system in response to demand.

Components

TRAINING

Delivery and accreditation of Nationally Certified BCCN Training Modules  at level 5 including:

1. BCCN/FETAC Curriculum Module,  BCCN/FETAC working with the Under 3’s module BCCN/HSE/FETAC Life Style planning Module) a.) Delivery and accreditation of modules at Level 6
2. Development, organisation and delivery of standardised in service training programmes for Practitioners working with Infants and Toddlers outside the Siolta cohort)
3. Development, organisation and delivery of standardised in service training  programmes across the region  for Practitioners working with Pre-school children (outside the Siolta cohort)
4. Provision of on gong support and information to trainers
5. To assist BCCN Siolta Coordinators in the organisation and delivery of Siolta training
6. Organisation of information and in service training days for BCCN trainers
7. Production of information materials to support standardised  delivery of high quality Level and level 6 training (session plans, resources for trainers and handouts for participants to accompany training)
8. Carry out the FETAC selfevaluation processes in preparation for assessment by FETAC monitor 
9. Provide ongoing updates for the BCCN website on all matters regarding
10. To provide an interactive website for BCCN Trainers
11. To provide an angoing advice and support for practitioners seeking RPL
12. To train and support a team of trainers to deliver the Curriculum and Under 3 module

INFORMATION

1. Production of information resources  for parents on the materials /activities used within Early Childhood services to promote children’s learning and development within the Siolta/Aistear context
2. Production of leaflets for parents to highlight their role in enhancing children’s development and learning
3. Production of posters for services to highlight important messages from Siolta and Aistear
4. Promotion of Siolta and Aistear messages through the local media
5. Promotion through the relaunched BCCN web site and newsletter

All of the activities outlined above progress one the key NCIP objectives of improving quality in services.

In addition we would like to continue to progress the quality agenda for school age children in After School services.

Statement of intent

Developing quality supports for After School services

The BCCN would like to build on the work carried out to date to progress the quality After School agenda.

During the last three - four years BCCN has carried out a range of activities in collaborating with other agencies also interested in progressing the After School agenda. These include agencies involved with QDOSS (Quality Development of Out of School services), SACCI (School Age Childcare Collaborative Initiative), the Irish Youth Foundation on the MOST (Mapping Out of School Time) project, a number of County Childcare Committees and Play Board with whom we have engaged in a cross border collaboration project to progress after school services.

Components

1. Working with QDOSS and other interested groups to progress the development of national standards for After School  services building on the standards already developed by BCCN in our quality programme for After School services
2. Identifying and Collating the resources produced so far by other agencies to support the development of after school services
3. Identifying the number, type, status of After School services available  in the region
4. Preparing and carrying out a survey of After School services in the region in order to identify their information, training and support needs
5. Identifying CCC strategies within the region to progress the development of after school services
6. Consulting with CCC’s and other relevant players on the actions required to progress the delivery of  after school services
7. Development, organisation and delivery of training  programmes for Practitioners working with school age children