Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 14 July 2021
256. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the budget allocation for better start early years specialists within his Department in 2019, 2020 and to date in 2021, in tabular form. [38257/21]
View answerBetter Start, which is located within Pobal, was established in 2014 by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) in association with the Department of Education to co-ordinate the work of existing State-funded supports for quality in early learning and care settings.
The Better Start team of specialists work across three areas: the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), the Quality Development Service (QDS), and a Learning and Development Unit.
Under AIM, Better Start Early Years Specialists work collaboratively with parents, pre-school providers, and with other professionals to support the development of inclusive learning environments in pre-school services. Better Start provides early learning and care practitioners across the country with timely access to advice and support from experts in early learning and care (and disability in particular) to assist them meet each child's needs. Better Start also provides coaching and mentoring to the pre-school staff on supporting children with disabilities to participate in the ECCE pre-school programme.
Specialists in the Quality Development Service (QDS) work with early learning and care settings in a mentoring capacity to promote and develop the quality of practice, as set out in Síolta, the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education, and Aistear, the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework.
The Better Start Learning and Development Unit co-ordinates the roll-out of a range of training options for early learning and care practitioners, to support them to deliver quality early learning and care experiences for all children.
The table below shows the total annual budget allocation for Better Start in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
|
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
|
€11.17m |
€13.2m |
€14.2m |
