Childcare services to be regulated

A series of regulations and standards on the provision of childcare services for children under three is being proposed in a document which is up for consultation.

The regulations are aimed at improving early childhood services by establishing a regulatory framework to promote, regulate and monitor high quality educational childcare services founded on the rights of the child.

The document was drawn up by the Technical Committee on Child Day Care and commissioned in 2002 by then Social Policy Minister Lawrence Gonzi to consider the situation and propose national standards. The consultation document was presented by Family Minister Dolores Cristina and Education Minister Louis Galea at a news conference yesterday.

Ms Cristina said the Maltese family had evolved and the document was taking this into consideration as well as the parents' needs to balance their responsibilities between the family and work.

The idea was for parents to be at work with the knowledge that the childcare services were increasing their child's opportunity of success in school and life.

Dr Galea said research demonstrated that the first few years of a child's life were crucial for its development and the quality of childcare services had to have a direct impact on the child's achievement in compulsory schooling and life skills acquisition.

Due to the changing labour market trends, the provision of early childhood services had also become a necessity, he said.

Once the consultation process was concluded a regulatory framework would be established.

Ms Cristina said that a Development and Regulating Unit within the Department of Family Welfare was also in the process of being set up. The unit would register and inspect all the services to be regulated according to national standards. It would also issue licences for the provision of the service and ensure that regulations were upheld.

All relevant entities are encouraged to come forward and take part by providing their feedback, especially those already providing a similar service, parents or others.

Correspondence in relation to the document is to be sent to Childcare Consultation Process, Ministry for Family, Palazzo Ferreria, Republic Street, Valletta, CMR 02 - e-mail childcare@gov.mt - by September 30.

The document is available on the web.

www.education.gov.mt

www.welfare.gov.mt