She was balancing this against how a poor report would impact her studies and that the student had given so much time already to get to where she was. I thnk that anyone working in this sector has a predisposition to be caring and supportive full stop. Having to confront a student who appears to be not suitable and perhaps undermining her future job prospects is hard. It’s a big responsibility to carry.

Yet I feel that she would put the children, that this student may have a connection with in the future, first. A hard issue to cope with even if you were being paid and properly acknowledged for it.

I guess a lot of this comes down to so many of us feeling undervalued when trying to operate a business that people really do seem to resent paying a reasonable amount for a lot of the time, and now with our fees being decided by a higher power through the ECCE we really are having a monetary value outside of our control placed on our work.

Our work encompasses so much more than the hours of contact child care – accounts, preparation, cleaning, paper work – for the HSE, the ECCE, Aistear…… I think a lot of people outside of the service forget this.

But back to my first instance of agreeing with you – having someone of a professional nature enter your setting and give positive feedback and praise for the work being done and advise on how to improve is incredibly rewarding.

A mentor system would provide this incredibly well.

I was given a little tatse of it when i had my HSE inspection recently. Up until now I felt slightly intimidated by the inspections – and I know I’m not the only one – I felt as though i was in combat instead of working with them and it was a real shame.
No acknowledgement was ever made of the high level of standard I keep or the quality of the activities done with the children, or the high level of qualifications achieved by my staff – infact very few postive comments were ever received which is incredibly disheartening in this business – or indeed any business.
This visit however the inpector actually started her summation with hugely positive comments and praise and then carried on to the usual policy updates and recommendations – which were given in a matter of fact way – not the usual intimidating, over offical way.

This was very, very uplifting – to recieve postive affirmations from another professional body.

Perhaps if we had more of this type of positive reinforcement on a regualr basis instead of feeling like we are being bombarded with rules and paperwork and enforced pricing and continuous inspection – the morale of the whole sector could be lifted and we could begin to feel more positive about engaging with the need for maintaining quality and the National Strategy.

CCS has seen a lot of issues this year, a particular hit is that there will be no second application for places. Any new parents will possibly be accomodated via the “contingency” which is supposed to cover all and any emergencies a service might have during the year. More likely, it will mean childcare managers having to refuse a place or go seeking some top up funding from SVP or others.

It’s a lot of pressure to have baring down on childcare services and their underpaid staff!