Quality
The Importance of quality in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Services
High quality ECEC settings play an important role in promoting children’s well-being, supporting them in their development as confident and competent learners and working in partnership with parents to enable our youngest children to reach their full potential.
It is recognised that high quality is essential in providing the best experiences and outcomes for children. Research nationally and internationally has helped build our knowledge of why high quality services are important for children. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs, has drawn from national and international research on quality to develop two quality frameworks to support quality in ECEC services in Ireland. The quality frameworks are: Aistear, the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework and Siolta, the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Ireland.