IFDCO Conference 2009 a Resounding Success!

Greetings from Ireland - IFDCO Presidency 2006 - 2009

I have had a great response in Ireland to having been elected to host the Presidency of IFDCO for the next three years and have submitted a funding application to the Irish Government to help with the costs of hosting the International Conference in 2009.

Ireland had a long tradition of large families with stay-at-home Moms and only in recent years have we seen a dramatic change in that because our economy has boomed. Mothers now have the opportunity to work outside the home and often this is not just a lifestyle choice, but is a result of a rapid rise in the cost of housing. The demand for childcare is therefore increasing continuously.

The Irish Government with aid from the European Union has put substantial funds into the development and improvement in quality of Childcare. Structures have been established which include Childminding Ireland and all the national voluntary organisations concerned with children and childcare. The two most relevant ones to our sub-sector – Family Day Care which is called “Childminding” in Ireland and the UK – are the establishment of the post of Childminders Advisory Officer locally throughout the country and the establishment of CECDE (The Centre for Early Childhood Development & Education: www.cecde.ie) Childminding Ireland (of which I am a founder member and now work as the Chief Executive) welcomes these initiatives as well as the substantial funding which we receive to employ staff and have comfortable offices to provide services to our Childminding membership, such as advice booklets and a group insurance scheme. It’s very different from working in a corner of the dining room back in the 1990s!

We work closely with the Childminders Advisory Officers, promoting and attending their events, providing training where possible, and they in turn recommend the Childminders who contact them to enquire about joining our organisation. The CECDE has prepared a set of Quality Standards for the various childcare and early education settings, including family day care. They are called “Síolta” and are up on a website www.Síolta.ie If you get the opportunity to look them up, I would welcome any comments, as we are going to pilot implementing these quality standards with some of our members this year.

I would like to tell you a bit about myself. I have three grown children, a son Fergal who is the father of my lovely grandson, Shane and married to my wonderful daughter-in-law, Holly from California. I have two daughters, Dervla who lives with my and my husband John, and Clara who is in Oxford University, UK, studying for a doctorate in Psychology. My husband is a Quantity Surveyor and works from home – all over the home! I’m glad I go out to my office Monday to Thursday! We’re married nearly forty years and hope to stay married!

My first two children were close – 11 months apart, known here as Irish twins! When Clara, my youngest child was born, seven years younger, I so hoped that I would have another so that she would not be too lonely or petted. I had a few misses then but a little companion arrived to our house to be minded for a few days, and I saw how those two little girls got on together and that is how I drifted into becoming a family day care provider.

There was not organisation of any kind for us in Ireland of the early 1980s. My uncle was Dr. Michael Hayes, Chief Medical Officer in the UK at that time and on a visit he asked me did I work. I replied “Ah No, I’m only a Childminder” - which was the common self-perception of Childminders at that time. He asked if we had any organisation here in Ireland for support, training, registration, insurance or networking. I replied “Eh, No!” I think I hardly understood what those words meant in the context of Childminding. On his return to London, he sent me information about the Nat. Childminding Association in the UK and I got my eyes opened wide. I went to their conference in Norwich eventually, and from there on I was determined with a small group of other childminders, to develop a national organisation here in Ireland.

When NICMA, the Northern Ireland Childminding Association was formed, separately from the NCMA UK, we became allies, attending each others conferences, exchanging information and securing funding for Cross Border training projects for Childminders.

We established a training course – bringing in tutors, paediatricians, play experts and psychologists and got the organisation going. Progress was very slow. Ireland did not bring in child care regulations until 1997, and even still, Childminders are excluded, if they care for fewer than 3 pre-school children, and Childminders were reluctant to come forward, discouraged usually by husbands who did not want the income declared.

In 1997, as the “National Childminding Association of Ireland” we received state funds – a small amount for a photocopier and some part-time administration. Then when the economy bounced upwards in 1999, we received substantial funds to rent offices and employ staff.

Although it has all taken a long time to get professionalised, I sometimes have to pinch myself when I see the reality of 12 staff, nice offices, and annual funding to publish leaflets and guidance books for Childminders.

Being offered the Presidency of IFDCO is a tremendous honour for me and for Ireland, and I hope to have a successful term, with the promotion of lots of research into children’s lives in family day care, and into what works for Childminders too so that we can share that information with each other, with providers as well as with policy makers in each of our countries and with those who get paid to support us in our homes caring for children. The International Conference will take place in Ireland, in Cork, the city in the middle of the south on the map. Look at the college campus on the internet if you can. www.ucc.ie

I live in a nice small town by the sea, surrounded by hills, Greystones, Co. Wicklow, about 20 miles south of Dublin city. I grew up there, and so my sports are watery, canoeing, scuba and snorkelling and also, I became a mountaineer by marriage, (John has been a keen climber, with many high alpine routes climbed,) enjoying hill-walking and some snow and ice climbing in Scotland in the 1980s and 1990s. Now I stick to skiing (rather badly) and hill-walking. I have a BA honours degree and a diploma in Early Childhood Care and Education.

I know that the experience of visiting Ireland, and participating in the conference in Cork in 2009 will be different, but every bit as exciting as our trip to Orlando last July, and I urge you to start a saving scheme now, in groups if you have a network, or as individuals.

Please see IFDCO as your way of opening up to all the hundreds of thousands of Family Day Care Providers / Childminders throughout the world and kindly send me an item for inclusion in the next newsletter. It can only be a great newsletter if enough of you contribute!

Until the next Newsletter, can I wish each of you a very happy new year, and may all your hopes and wishes for 2007 come to fruition.

Sincerely,

Patricia Murray
Ireland
President IFDCO 2006 - 2009

International Family Day Care Organisation
Triennial International Conference
‘Celebrating Quality Family Childcare’
University College Cork 22 – 25 July 2009.
Additional Keynote Prof. Jacqueline Barnes

Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social issues,
Birkbeck, University of London, UK
Abstract: The Families Children and Child Care Study: Use of childcare, its
quality and outcomes up to age 3 years.
The purpose of the Families Children and Child Care (FCCC) Study, the most
detailed and largest English study of child care, was to examine the short and longerterm effects of childcare on children's development between birth and school entry.

The following types of care were studied: care at home by mother and/or father; care
by grandparents, other relations, or friends; care by nannies in the child's own home;
care by childminders (family day care) in the childminder's home; group care in day
nurseries or child care centres, both public and private; combinations of the above.
Two research sites were involved, one in North London and the other in Oxfordshire.
1201 families were recruited during pregnancy, between 1999 and 2001 and were
followed until their children were 51 months of age.

Results will be presented about the use of childcare, observed quality at 10 and 18
months, factors related to its use and to satisfaction with both child care quality and
communication with the caregivers. Results of two in-depth qualitative studies will
be presented, one focussing on mothers who use non-maternal childcare before their

infant is 6 months old and the other on fathers who are the primary caregivers of their
child in the first year. In addition factors associated with child outcomes at 36 months
will be presented. Policy implications of the findings will be discussed.

Seminar Presentations
Presenter: Bridget Murray, Henderson Community College, Associate
Professor/Program Coordinator, Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education
2660. Green Street, Henderson, KY. 42420. USA
Abstract: Who Should Be the Voice of Family Child Care in the United States?

Presenters: Diana Trister Dodge, Founder and President of Teaching Strategies,
Author of the Creative Curriculum for Family Child Care.
Abstract: Building a High Quality Family Day Care / Childminding Program: The
Creative Curriculum Approach.

Presenters: OMCYA
Abstract: Siolta, the development of quality standards for infant school and childcare
settings in the Republic of Ireland.

Presenter: Anne Condie, SCMA, Scotland.
Abstract: Supporting quality childminding: a perspective.
Presenters: Helen Lynch, Lecturer in Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy,
School of Clinical Therapies, University College Cork, Brookfield Health Sciences
Complex, College Road, Cork.

Dr. Noirin Hayes, Director, Centre for Social and Educational Research, Dublin
Institute of Technology, Dublin.
Abstract: Every day learning in every day environments for Children under three

Presenter: Greta Hundley Research 2001) Project Co-ordinator, Family Child Care
Services Central Coast, NSW Australia

Liz Shanahan, Family Day Carer for Family Child Care Services Central Coast for
19yrss.
Abstract: Partners in Parenting Programe

Presenter: Dr. Jutta Hinke-Ruhnau,
Abstract: How Family Day Care/Childminding becomes Professional

Presenter: Kate Byrne, Adolescent Pschologist, Kildare, Ireland.
Abstract: Building the Attachment relationship

Presenter: Katy Kenshur, President of the SanDiego County Family Child Care
Association, Instructor of “Family Child Care at It’s Best” for the University
California of Davis & Family Childcare Provider
Abstract: "Going Green!" Eco Healthy Childcare Come Learn simple and effective
techniques to make your childcare an environmentally healthy safe and green as
possible.

Presenters: Maeve Milne & Barbara Quinn, NICMA, N.Ireland.
Abstract: Children’s Learning and Development Project

Presenter: Marie Doherty, Project Officer, Curriculum Development Unit, Mary
Immaculate College, South Circlare Road, Limerick City
Abstract: Results of a research study for a degree dissertation last year titled ‘How
Childminders Perceive Their Role in 21st Century Ireland?’ with a specific focus on
the ‘care and education’ discourse within Ireland present day and how childminders
perceive their role.

Presenter: Marion Gamble, Child Care and Training Consultant, UK.
Abstract: Communication/Working in Partnership

Presenter: Mary McGrath, Youth Worker Participative democracy Wicklow VEC,
Ireland.
Abstract: Engaging Young Children in democratic structures

Presenter: Dr Elise Davis,,Senior Research Fellow, VicHealth Public Harlth
Research Fellow McCaughey Centre, VicHealth Centre for the Promotion of
Mental Healgh and Community Wellbeing, School of Population Health, University
of Melbourne, Australia.
Abstract: Promoting Child and Parental Mental Health in Family Day
Care/Childminding

Presenter: Ramona Freeman,Ph.D. Program Director, Early Childhood
Education, Kent State University – Salem, OH, USA.
Abstract: “Male Counterparts in Family Child Care: The Positive Role that Husbands
Play in Successful Homes ”

Presenter: Robyn Daff, Team Leader Child Care, City of Kingston, 34 Brindisi
Street, Mentone VIC 3194, Australia
Abstract: Love in a Hot Climate - Quality care in a Regulated Environment

Presenter: Rosemary Black, NICMA, N.Ireland.
Abstract: High Scope in Family Daycare/Childminding

Report on NAFCC – IFDCO Conference, Orlando Florida

Childminding Ireland send four representatives to this important conference, Nuala Rahill, Chair of the Board of Directors, Marian Murray, Director, myself, the Chief Executive and Rachel Hennessy, Childminding Network Organiser.

We left Dublin Airport early on Monday 24th July, for Newark USA where we picked up our connecting flight to Orlando.

We couldn’t believe the size of the Caribe Royale resort which housed the conference centre. There was a very large reception/restaurant building, three tower blocks of hotel bedrooms and five blocks of villa/apartment style accommodation. Each block was 12 floors high! The resort itself was the size of a small town, with three swimming pools and five restaurants. The actual conference centre was the size of the main terminal building at Dublin Airport – with capacity for conferences with 2,000 delegates. Each workshop theatre was the size of the average sports hall in a school!

The three ladies shared a villa and I had a room in the hotel complex. The villa became our office for the five days. The first task was to establish logistically how we would cover as many of the seminars and presentations as possible and share the load of the very early morning starts – 7.00 am! We did this under Nuala’s guidance and succeeded in covering a wide range of presentations which will be written up in detail for the report to the Board and the Newsletter at the end of this year. In summary, I attended presentations entitled as follows : Association Development; The power of Networks & Hubs; Selling the Sizzle – marketing strategies for organisations; Management by Notebook – effecting record-keeping for providers; Local & State Strategies to Improve the Quality in Family Day Care; Introduction to the Family Childcare Environment Rating Scale – A Revision of the FDCRS (this is the adaptation of the ECCERS, rating scale, for Childminding homes) and several Keynote addresses

The temperature in Orlando in July is hot, very hot, but of course all the accommodation and theatres were air conditioned, and we had to remember to bring jackets for indoors. Each of us worked hard from Wednesday to Saturday, with long days attending and participating in seminars and work shops. I presented a paper on the development of the Childcare Sector in Ireland over the past ten years, starting with the EU funds and the formation by Sylda Langford of the Expert Working Group on Childcare which developed the National Childcare Strategy in 1999. There was a lot of interest in this from countries where state support for Childminding is wanting.

NAFCC is the National Association for Family Child Care – National means all states in the USA. The number of delegates therefore was wonderful – 1,250! Most delegates were individual Childminders who came in groups with their State organisation, and about 250 delegates were “advocates” i.e. people working with organisations like Childminding Ireland at State level or State inspection/training personnel. It was extraordinary to see so many people gathered to discuss Childminding – rather than childcare generally which is usually focussed on day nurseries or play schools.

IFDCO is the International Family Day Care Organisation, where Childminding Ireland is a member. It is a world-wide network of Childminders, Childminding organisations and with many researchers, advocates and support workers. Its function is to acquire and disseminate information about Childminding, (or “Family Day Care”) particularly evidence-based good practice, which comes from research carried out by individuals or teams in the universities throughout the world. Promoting such research is a very important part of the role of IFDCO.

IFDCO is not a wealthy organisation, generating about €2,000 each year in subscriptions. It is organised by the International Executive Committee which has representation from each of the three world regions – Europe-Africa, Americas, Asia-Australia-New Zealand. The Presidency rotates between these regions, lasting for a three-year term ending with hosting the triennial international conference, before passing on the Presidency. Ireland has had representation at the last four triennials – 1996, Sacramento USA, 1999, Glasgow, Scotland, 2003, Wellington, New Zealand and this year in Orlando, Florida. The IFDCO Triennial Conference is held in collaboration with a major national childminding or childcare conference. Ireland has never held the Presidency. Following Childminding Ireland’s very successful International Childminding Conference hosted in the Radisson Hotel Dublin, in November, 2005, Ireland was mooted as a nominee and a serious possibility for the Presidency 2006 – 2009. Childminding Ireland was approached by Swedish and Canadian representatives and the outgoing President, and following consultation and encouragement from the Board of Directors, the nomination was agreed. While it is a great reflection on Childminding Ireland’s development over the past ten years to be honoured with this nomination, nevertheless the substantial investment and commitment to the development of a vibrant, quality-driven childcare sector by the Irish Government played a big part in Ireland being selected. The establishment of the Office of the Minister for Children, the establishment in UCC of a dedicated Chair for Early Childhood Studies and the mainstreaming of the EOCP into the National Childcare Investment Programme which includes substantial funding of the national voluntary childcare organisations including Childminding Ireland and most of all, the Childminding Initiative, with a grant of up to €630 for Childminders and the appointment of Childminders Advisory Officers throughout the country all aroused great interest worldwide. So Childminding Ireland came home from Orlando with the IFDCO Presidency, and Patricia Murray elected as Presidency for 2006 – 2009. A campaign for funds to carry out the role and to host the Conference in 2009 will begin! (Any members with suggestions of companies to approach for sponsorship of the Conference, big or small – le me know!)

I cannot describe the feeling during the two occasions when I was on the platform addressing over 1,000 Childminders and well-wishes from all over the world. Firstly, at the formal reception opening the conference, I was asked to say a “wish” for peace and happiness for children and their families all over the world in my own language – Gaeilge! My voice was faltering with emotion as well as with rusty Irish. But I did a good job, because all I heard was 1,000 voices shouting “Go Ireland, Go Ireland” and 1,000 coloured streamers waving in that vast hall. Hundreds of people crowded me afterwards, promising to come to Cork in 2009. And all this emotion on alcohol-free champagne, which flowed freely with the super cocktail food.

• The “Wish” in Irish – and the other languages of the world was
• “In Swahili, the word “Tymani” means hope.
• In Every land across the globe, people want nothing more than safety for children, the hope for a better tomorrow, the hope that peace reign in every land.
• Hope is universal. The work you do for children throughout the world gives us all that hope.”

The official hand-over of the Presidency of IFDCO by the outgoing President, Kay Jackson took place at the Awards Ceremony at the formal dinner of the Conference. As I invited the delegates to join in the next conference in Cork, Ireland in 2009, there was a standing ovation, with more cheering and “Go Irelands” Several ladies later approached me and asked could they buy Childminding Ireland t-shirts like the ones which we all faithfully wore as Irish delegates!. We could have made $$$$s!

Minister for Children, Brian Lenihan TD is launching the Irish Presidency on Monday 2nd October in Dublin at 11 am, thanks to the kind provision of a venue by ISPCC in 30 Lower Baggot Street.

Patricia Murray, CE
Childminding Ireland.

IFDCO NAFCC International Conference - Orlando Florida Awarding Ceremony

This is an award to Kay, in recognition of her work for IFDCO over many years.  It is an award for Faith, Hope and Love.

Text of Patricia Murray’s Presentation of Award to Kay Jackson, outgoing President – IFDCO.

Kay had Faith, she believed that we could have a vibrant organisation, when we doubted,

Kay had Hope, when we were in despair and couldn’t get newsletters circulated easily, or an up-to-date membership list, or pay our subscription, or target new members

Kay had Love – for all of us, never impatient wor rude when we took a week to answer an e-mail. She gave her valuable time as a consultant to IFDCO, free, out of love!

I have known Kay over many years, but we rarely met.  We have shared professional information and opinions and have warm mutual respect.

Along with Sweden and Canada, Kay nominated Ireland to take on the role of the IFDCO presidency until our next triennial conference in Cork, Ireland, in 2009.

Ireland has been involved in IFDCO since 1996 in Sacramento and participated in conferences each three years, in Scotland in 1999, in New Zealand in 2003 and now at this exciting conference here in Orlando in 2006.

Ireland is honoured to be elected to the Presidency of this worthy organisation which does not compete with any local or regional or national organisation or with any family day care provider – IFDCO connects them all.

Ireland will be outreaching and inclusive during this Presidency.  We need to make our Newsletter available on our website in Spanish, and the other major African and European languages.

We have many international contacts and would like to make so many more at this conference so we have a special membership deal for $5 for providers and $10 for supporters/advocates of Family Day Care.  The printing of the application forms here was sponsored by Lake Shore, and we appreciate that very much.  I would urge all of you to visit their excellent stand at the trade exhibition.  I would like to say a big thank you to Scott Burns for this.

I would like to end by congratulating Chris Cross and her team, especially Brenda Ives and thanking you all for the most splendid, interesting and diverse conference I’ve ever attended.  I have gained personally and Ireland’s national organisation Childminding Ireland  as well as our policy makers from the information our Irish team brings home from this conference and eventually hopefully, our children and families will also benefit from international best practice shared here in Orlando.

Thank you again Kay, for all your effort on our behalf and I would like to present you now with this award on behalf of IFDCO.

Patricia Murray
Orlando, 28th July 2006.