Rethink Ireland Innovate Fund Project: From Couch to Screen

Engaging Children and Supporting Families Through High-quality Responsive Hybrid Home Visiting

Home Visiting Programmes provide a critical lifeline to children and families at-risk of educational inequality and social exclusion.  Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Home Visitors have been making virtual ‘home visits’ via video/phone calls as well as socially distanced outdoor visits to ensure family well-being, address the educational divide and prevent developmental delays. The need for a high-quality responsive hybrid home visiting delivery model that supports children and parents in an ever-changing Covid-impacted world was identified.  

A key goal of the Rethink Ireland Innovate Fund Project: From Couch to Screen - Engaging Children and Supporting Families Through High-quality Responsive Hybrid Home Visiting was to align standards in terms of professional qualifications across the country and build the skills and capacity to deliver high quality Home Visiting Programmes that would have a significant positive impact on children and families. 

Our team 

  • 16 partner organizations in Dublin, Limerick, Galway, Roscommon, Meath, Kerry, Westmeath, Tipperary, Laois, Offaly, Longford and Louth  
  • 9 NCI colleagues from the Centre for Teaching and Learning, Quality Assurance, Finance, Exams, School’s & Registrar’s Offices who guided us through the QQI and programme development process.  
  • 45 coordinators and Home Visitors around the country along with the ParentChild+ Senior Specialist and the Consultant on the Sláintecare Community Mothers project  

The Rethink Ireland Project enabled us to redesign the existing home visiting curriculum and pedagogy to incorporate blended delivery methods e.g., indoors, outdoors and online as well as develop e-learning modules for leadership/change management for the Coordinators and curriculum/pedagogy for the home visitors.  

The first QQI Accredited professional qualifications in home visiting were developed. 

  • Level 6 Microcredential in Core Pedagogy and Curriculum in Home Visiting  
  • Level 7 Microcredential in Leadership and Change Management for Home Visiting Coordinators. 

Non-accredited programme-specific training and eLearning resources designed and delivered by the coordinators as part of their Level 7 course will be developed over the summer to provide ongoing training and capacity building for home visitors. 

Securing QQI accreditation for the Curriculum and Leadership modules, particularly in such a short time frame, was a real achievement and the result of many people working together. It would not have been possible without the support of:  

  • 16 partner organizations in Dublin, Limerick, Galway, Roscommon, Meath, Kerry, Westmeath, Tipperary, Laois, Offaly, Longford and Louth  
  • 9 NCI colleagues from the Centre for Educational and Lifelong Learning, Quality Assurance, Finance, Exams, School’s & Registrar’s Offices who guided us through the QQI and programme development process.  
  • 45 coordinators and Home Visitors around the country along with the ParentChild+ Senior Specialist and the Consultant on the Sláintecare Community Mothers project  
  • It is the base on which we can develop further the professionalism of Home Visitors and encourage them to progress to a degree level. It is another step in the realisation of the Government’s First 5 goals of developing a standardised model of home visiting across Ireland. 

For more information, please contact:

Email: Anna.Barr@ncirl.ie