Inclusion and Equality

The Eastern Childcare Partnership has adopted the principle of social inclusion as a central value; throughout the work of the Partnership consistent consideration is given to ensuring that services are inclusive and can develop in their ability to meet the diverse range of children and parents in the eastern area.

The Partnership has promoted the social model of inclusion within the Early Years Sector through a variety of initiatives shifting the perspectives of service providers and Partnership member organisations towards inclusion rather than integration.

This developed understanding of inclusion within this Sector has assisted in creating a range of care, play and learning opportunities for children within the area, who previously found local services inaccessible.

The Childcare Partnership has developed a successful Disability Grant Scheme, which supports access to local provision for a number of disabled children. This Scheme is available each year to Early Years Providers; for further information about the Grant Scheme in 2005 contact the District Childcare Partnership in your area.

Free advice about adaptations and accessibility is available to all providers through the local Occupational Health Teams. You can contact these through the Health & Social Services Trust in your area (see Contacts page).

The Partnership has developed a menu of training initiatives which run in parallel with the Scheme; since 2001 a number of courses have been funded ranging from awareness raising to specific skills development; these have assisted the Early Years staff attending to further improve the accessibility of pre-school and after-school services for local disabled children.

The Partnership is pleased to introduce a further menu of training available to those working directly with children. The training is available through the ECP Peace II Training Project, funded by the EU Peace and Reconciliation Programme. For further information about available training, view our Training pages.

The Play For All Initiative is an inclusive play scheme based various settings within two local Council areas, Belfast and Down, and has been running for three years. The aims of the Project are;

• the development of inclusive play, leisure and arts services (all play services not just summer schemes) in all Belfast City Council managed centres ,community and voluntary centres which receive funding from the Council and those in Down District Council area
• the development of a model of good practice which can be replicated in other district council areas
• the development of an introductory training programme and an accredited training course.

Play For All is currently operating within Belfast and Down District Council areas however is seeking to expand across other Council areas in 2005-06. The Play For All project achieved 3rd place in the ‘participation category’ in the EHSSB award ceremony to celebrate the European Year of People with Disabilities. For more information about the Project contact Siobhan Stratton at Barnardos (see Contacts page)

The Partnership is committed to developing opportunities for effective consultation with local service providers, parents and children. The local networks generated through the District Childcare Partnerships assist approaches to this.

In 2004-05 the Partnership conducted a number of consultations with parents in relation to their perceived family support needs. These included the views of parents who may be seeking asylum or who are refugees, parents from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and parents currently using Early Years Services. For more information about the findings of these exercises, visit the Publications page.