Quality Early Years Care and Education: What to Look for in an Early Years Service

Abstract

This booklet is written as a guide for parents and carers of young children to provide information that can support you in making decisions about the best care and education setting for your child outside the home. In Ireland, young children are cared for and educated in a range of early years settings or services – at home; with relatives; with childminders; in sessional services (preschools, playschools, naoínraí); and in part-day and full-day care settings such as crèches and nurseries. All of these can be called early years care and education settings. The booklet includes detailed information about why quality really matters in the early years and looks at how young children learn and what they need in order to be able to learn best. It examines the importance of communication and of early years services working in partnership with parents. The booklet also provides information on the national quality supports that are available for all early years services to help improve their quality as well as details about the different types of early years inspections. To help further with this most important decision-making on behalf of your young child, there is a suggested set of questions you may wish to ask a service provider to support you in finding out about the quality of their service.