The launch of Choosing Childcare and Early Education App

A new childcare app is set to ease pressures on parents across Northern Ireland by providing constant fingertip access to both details of childcare and early education providers and quality ratings, thanks to Early Years. The Choosing Childcare and Early

A new childcare app is set to ease pressures on parents across Northern Ireland by providing constant fingertip access to both details of childcare and early education providers and quality ratings, thanks to Early Years. The Choosing Childcare and Early Education app also provides wide-ranging advice for parents and allows them to communicate with friends, sharing and highlighting important childcare information.

Early Years began development on the service two years ago and, after deciding an app could provide real help and precious time savings for mums, dads and carers, undertook detailed research to evaluate what information is easily accessible and what could be improved to help parents locally.

Those expected to benefit from the app - launched on March 20 include:

  • 30,000 children and families educated and cared for by Early Years member groups in the voluntary, independent and statutory sectors
  • 10,000 early years staff across Northern Ireland

Siobhan Fitzpatrick, Early Years CEO, said: “This will be a massive help to any and all parents of children aged 0-6 who make use of it.

“Whether parents are busy trying to balance work and home lives, are finding information hard to come by, or are having any sort of difficulty relating to their child’s care, education and well-being, they will be able to answer their questions anywhere in an instant and with the touch of a button.

“Early Years is committed to using the most modern developments, in every sense, across our service – and this app comes as recognition that people are increasingly making use of digital technology to manage their lives, while this sort of technology is used by many people in all areas of the country and all socioeconomic and cultural circumstances. “We’ve taken our time developing this app to make sure it is as good as it can be, and we think it will make a lot of parents’ lives palpably easier – as well as being able to ease stress by providing answers to questions relating to their child or children – and ultimately also help improve children’s experiences.”

The app features a map search for local childcare and early education providers by area and a manual search for providers by name, address or postcode, access to contact details of all childcare and early education providers registered with the Health and Social Care Trusts. It also gives parents the ability to view available Education and Training Inspectorate reports on different providers, an email facility to share settings’ information with friends and family, and a parent zone with helpful resources and guidance on choosing childcare and early education providers, best practice and settling in information. Providers will also see huge benefits as parents will be able to find out all necessary information about them with minimal effort.

The iPhone and Android app has been developed by iPLANiT Digital Web Agency, which is based in Dublin and which provided the creative and technical talent to the platform.

Download the app on iTunes here >>

Download the app on Google Play here >>

View the web version here >>

View 'How to' documents here >>

Photograph: L to R: Gerry Conway, Commission Lead for Children and Families, Health and Social Care Board, Siobhan Fitzpatrick CBE, Chief Executive Officer, Early Years, Linda Drysdale, Early Years Team, Department of Education, Chad Gilmer, Managing Director, iPLANiT Ltd and Chris Lyttle, Alliance Party MLA.

Last updated 10 years ago