Better Start

Better Start is a national initiative established by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) to bring an integrated national approach to developing quality in Early Years Education and Care (ECEC) for children aged from birth to six years in Ireland.

It is a national service, working in collaboration with City and County Childcare Committees and voluntary childcare organisations to ensure that children in Ireland benefit from high quality early years services. Síolta, the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education, and Aistear, the National Early Years Curriculum Framework are the national quality frameworks which underpin this work. These evidence-based frameworks are designed to support early years services to provide the best possible outcomes for children from birth to six years.

It coordinates and extends the wide-ranging choice of supports and services already provided through Childcare Committees and voluntary childcare organisations. This initiative provides a specialist on-site mentoring service.

The mentoring service is delivered by a highly skilled and experienced Early Years Specialist team.

For further information contact the Better Start Team on 01 51 17 888, enquiries@betterstart.ie or refer to the Better Start Website.