http://hdl.handle.net/10379/4472 2017-10-29T22:00:23Z http://hdl.handle.net/10379/6044 Lone parents and activation, what works and why: a review of the international evidence in the Irish context Millar, Michelle; Crosse, Rosemary This research sought to discover those policies, programmes and practices which enable lone parents to engage in employment which will lead to adequate living standards and improved well-being for them and their children. This evidence is grounded in its application to the Irish context, by giving due consideration to the profile of Irish lone parents and the barriers to paid employment experienced by them as well as the relevance and applicability of such approaches to the Irish policy landscape. 2016-09-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10379/6043 Review of the Children First Basic Level Training and Keeping Safe Training programmes Reddy, John; Devaney, Carmel; McGreogor, Caroline TUSLA, the Child and Family Agency (the Agency) is1 committed to ensuring the child protection and welfare training provided is designed and delivered in a responsive and effective manner to all who receive it. Two standardised training programmes are currently provided by the Agency personnel: Children First Basic Level Training is delivered to all Agency and Health Service Executive staff by Workforce Development Training Officers; and Keeping Safe also basic level training, is delivered externally by Children First Information and Advice Officers to those working with children and families in voluntary and community services. The Children First Basic Level Training programme that is delivered to Agency Staff2 was introduced by the workforce development team in September 2011 in response to the issuing of the Children First National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children (Department of Children and Youth Affairs, 2011). This basic level training programme was developed as a standardised programme prior to this there were different programmes and approaches nationally. Therefore, since 2011 there have been two standardised Children First Basic Level programmes provided by the [then] HSE and the Child and Family Agency, one for internal staff and one for external voluntary and community services staff. A review of these training programmes was commissioned in 2012 to provide the necessary information for the Agency to make an informed decision on the type and amount of child protection and welfare training each course should contain to ensure the training was meeting the needs of the target groups. 2014-04-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10379/6042 Practitioner guide to literature review: permanence and stability for children in care Moran, Lisa; McGregor, Caroline; Devaney, Carmel The purpose of this guide is to provide key messages from the main literature review for practitioners who wish to use the literature for report writing, court, case conferences and similar work processes. This guide is written in recognition of the challenge for practitioners to find time to read full reviews for each report that must be written, and also in recognition that literature reviews written in traditional academic style, as ours is, are highly valuable in some ways but limited in others. The main benefit of the full review is that it provides a comprehensive scoping review of literature relating to outcomes for permanence and stability for children in care. The limit is that without some useful guide, the document may be too cumbersome for use in some busy work contexts. Each section of this review includes tips for using the literature offers further guidance to practitioners on how you can apply it to your own work contexts. Research is continually changing and updating, and we encourage you to think about practical ways that you can keep abreast of studies on children in care that are continually emerging. 2016-06-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10379/6040 ‘Hoping for a Better Tomorrow’: a process study evaluation of the Greater Tomorrow Crèche and Ballyhaunis Community Preschool Services, Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo. Moran, Lisa; Garrity, Sheila; Mc Gregor, Caroline; Devaney, Carmel This report presents the results of a qualitative, process study evaluation of the Ballyhaunis Community Preschool and ‘Greater Tomorrow’ crèche services, conducted by the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre (UCFRC), NUI, Galway in 2015. Currently, the community preschool and the crèche facility are located in the grounds of St Mary’s Abbey and the Old Convent grounds respectively, close to Ballyhaunis town centre, Co. Mayo. Together, both services provide childcare spaces for approximately 60 children, employing seven staff in total. In both services, all staff members are qualified to NFQ Level 5 standards or higher. One senior staff member in the crèche is trained to NFQ Level 7, and the manager of both the crèche and preschool services is completing an NFQ Level 8 degree programme in Early Childhood Studies and Practice at NUI, Galway. The Greater Tomorrow crèche caters for children aged between 18 months and 3 years and operates a 4-day service from Monday to Thursday. The preschool caters to children aged 39 months or older and operates a 5-day service per week (Monday to Friday). Both the crèche and preschool services implement aspects of the ‘HighScope’ curriculum, which emphasises active and participatory approaches to learning and teaching. 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z