All about inclusivity at Krafty Kids

All about inclusivity at Krafty Kidz

Krafty Kidz is a community based childcare facility providing services in five different locations across the county, soon to be six.

They provide care for over 300 kids, with around eighty members of staff. Krafty Kidz received €750,000 under the Department for Children’s Building Blocks Scheme last May to carry out the build of a new creche facility at Doon Heights in Ballyconnell, which they hope to open later this year; while they have recently opened a creche in Cavan Town.

The childcare provider has recognised the demand for services, particularly for children aged 0-3 years. They have been “at the heart of the community for nearly thirty years”, and in that time “the demand for childcare has soared”.

“Our rate of expansion has been excessive,” Krafty Kidz CEO Annette Coyle told the Celt, describing how they “see the need” for the service and “try to meet that demand”.

When Annette came to the service 10 years ago, Krafty Kidz had five members of staff and less than twenty children.

Krafty Kidz “consistently go over and above” for the children in their care and their families and she said it is “really important” that they are an inclusive service. They are “open to” all children and all families. An example of how they go above and beyond for their children is their bus to Cavan General Hospital to collect one child who has additional needs and is currently staying in the hospital, however is “medically well enough” to attend the service. “If we didn’t do that, that child would be missing out on pre-school,” the CEO told the Celt, describing how his face lit up the room when he came to the service.

“For us it’s about the individual child and really meeting every child’s individual needs and I really think that’s what makes us different from other services,” she said, adding that inclusivity “really is part of our ethos”; while in one of their pre-school rooms, over half of the children have additional needs. Recently, their staff team gave up their weekend to do autism training. The CEO said she is “delighted” to be shortlisted for this year’s awards, and suspects some of their parents nominated them.

“It’s great to get the recognition and I suppose it’s a reflection of the hard work, passion and dedication of our staff team and our board at Krafty Kidz,” she concluded.