Ensuring good quality childcare services

The Main focus of the public consultation document issued last July is to provide a regulatory framework for child day care services for children under three years of age.

Such a framework does not exist in Malta, to date. Regardless of whether one agrees that parents with young children should make use of child day care facilities, the fact that a host of factors have contributed towards parents making use of informal and formal childcare arrangements has to be acknowledged.

The Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity is to date aware of over 40 privately-run child care centres, or other facilities such as private kindergartens, which cater for children younger than three years.

A very rough estimate indicates that there are over one thousand children attending such facilities. Moreover, other informal home-based childminding facilities are also on the increase.

Our starting point was that, faced with this social fact, it is Government's responsibility to ensure that these services are regulated so as to ascertain that the best possible service is delivered to the children.

The underpinning philosophy that spurred this consultation document was to safeguard the interests of the children. The prime responsibility of children rests with the parents, and child care facilities should not be perceived as replacing the family but as a service that complements and supports it.

The Technical Committee on Child Day Care, within the Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity, cannot help but note that the role of fathers in the upbringing of their children was largely overlooked in a recent opinion piece in the press by Fr Anton Gouder.

This reflects the prevailing male-breadwinner model. Ample research has demonstrated that the role of fathers is pivotal in the upbringing of children, and to this effect, fathers should be empowered to participate and to develop significant bonds with their children.

Research in early childhood education, care

Literature on child development demonstrates that there are a multiplicity of interrelated factors that have a bearing on a child's cognitive, physical, social and emotional development including income, parental employment, parental behaviour, family stability and child care services.

Consequently, it is difficult to identify or separate the effect of each. However, there seems to be broad consensus that the quality of child care experienced is relevant.

For instance, the National Research Council study states that "the second wave of child care research strongly supports a key conclusion: child care quality is important to children's development."

Carollee Howes (1990) concurs in her reading of the literature. There is less controversy in the literature over the issue of child care quality. In studies of concurrent social adjustment, infants and toddlers scored higher when they were enrolled in child care arrangements with stable, as opposed to unstable caregivers; with caregivers trained in child development as opposed to untrained caregivers, and with more adult caregivers per child (Howes, 1983; Howes and Rubenstein, 1985; Ruopp et al., 1979).

A high quality child care programme can be identified by certain general characteristics. These include: (1) staff/caregiver-child ratios that are adequate to allow interactions between each child and the caregiver to be frequent and personal;

(2) Staffing that is stable so that children have a chance to develop consistent relationships with caregivers; (3) group sizes that allow children's interactions with other children to be personal and individual;

(4) Teachers/caregivers who have specific, post-secondary training in early childhood education so that the programme is developmentally appropriate rather than instruction based;

(5) Health and safety provisions that ensure children's well-being; (6) a physical and administrative environment that enhances the programme for everyone, including the caregivers.

In 1987, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) adopted a position statement on quality, compensation, and affordability in early childhood programmes.

The revised position issued in 1995 reaffirms the importance of each of these three components - quality, compensation, and affordability. Recent studies suggest that poor quality settings for infants and toddlers are especially troubling because of their potentially negative impact on children.

The quality of child care is directly related to children's social and cognitive development, with better quality care associated with better outcomes regardless of child background (Ruopp et al, 1979; Vandell & Powers 1983; Goelman & Pence 1987; Phillips, McCartney & Scarr 1987; Whitebook, Howes, Phillips 1989; Hayes, Palmer & Zaslw 1990; Bryant, Peisner-Feinberg, & Clifford 1993; Gallinsky et al. 1994; Helburn 1995).

Waldvogel's (2002) recent review of both American and European research shows that child care programmes that are intensive, intervene early, and promote high pedagogical standards contribute very effectively to raise the cognitive performance of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

In turn, this helps children start and proceed on a much more equal footing once they enter formal education. Although there is need for more longitudinal research, any existing evidence suggests that early quality care continues to exert positive emotional and cognitive results throughout childhood (Waldvogel, 2002: 539).

The results of the Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) project, presented by Sylva Kathy during the EECERA Conference which was held in Malta a few weeks ago, demonstrates the positive effects of high quality pre-school provision on children's intellectual and social/behavioural development at the start of primary school.

This project is the first major European longitudinal study of a national sample of young children's development. The key findings include:

¤ the quality of pre-school is directly related to better cognitive and social/behavioural development

¤ Disadvantaged children, in particular, can benefit significantly from good quality pre-school experiences, especially where they are with a mixture of children from different social backgrounds.

¤ Pre-school experience, compared to none, enhances all-round development in children.

As underlined by Paul Steinhauer, staff psychiatrist at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the first six years of life lay the foundation for acquiring social skills and competence in communication, reading, mathematics and reasoning.

These skills are essential for success in school and for later labour force participation. They are also important for the development of self-confidence and self-management.

If the basic competencies are not achieved during these early years, it is very difficult for the child to achieve full competency at a later age.

Peter Moss, Professor in Early Childhood Education and Care refers to the "multiple objectives" in early childhood policy and states that this should go beyond childcare for working parents and early education, and should also include supporting families and maintaining social integration.

This concurs with the vision of this Ministry, which, in collaboration with other entities, will continue to work to promote the welfare of Maltese families as highlighted in the National Action Plan on Poverty and Social Exclusion.

May we remind all interested parties that the consultation period is open until the end of this month. Contact: childcare@gov.mt

References:

Gösta Esping-Andersen "The Welfare State in the 21st Century": Unequal Opportunities and Social Inheritance, University of Pompeu Fabra.

Balageur, J., Mestres. J., & Penn, H. (n.d.). Quality in Services for Young Children: A Discussion Paper, European Commission on Childcare Network.

Waldvogel, J. 2002. 'Child care, women's employment, and child outcomes'. Journal of Population Economics, 15: 527-48.

Quality, Compensation and Affordability: A position Statement of the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Moss, P. 2001. Beyond Early Childhood Education and Care, early Childhood Education and Care Stockholm June 13-15, 2001.

Mr Schembri is chairperson, Technical Committee on Child Day Care, Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity.