Dear Colleagues,
Here are the deadlines, important dates, and announcements for the week of 24 – 28 January 2022.
DEADLINES/IMPORTANT DATES:
Friday 28 January 2022
- December 2021 Community Service FIRs completion deadline
Monday 31 January 2022
- 5p.m. application deadline for re-opened ventilation and outdoor play grant
FOR YOUR INFORMATION:
School Age Childcare services and Covid notifications to Tusla
If you are a stand-alone school age service, you do not have to notify Tusla if you have a child with a positive Covid case. This is because the notification of incidents regulation is not in the SAC regulations, only in the preschool regs. If, however, you are offering both ELC and SAC and the children are mixing you would need to notify Tusla of a positive case in a school aged child.
NCS unconfirmed registrations
It has come to Pobal’s attention that some services have not received NCS payments because parents have not confirmed the registration on the system. NCS payments can only issue once the parent has confirmed the details. We are making contact with the services that have been brought to our attention. If you wish to check whether you have any unconfirmed registrations:
On the Hive, go to the registrations tab and click on NCS registrations. The list will show the child’s name, date of birth, claim end date and parent confirmed yes/no.
To see more details, click on the yellow arrow on the child’s registration and click view. You will be able to see which claim might be ‘pending parent confirmation’.
If you find there are claimed weeks where the child was in attendance, but the parent did not confirm, ask the parent to go back onto the Hive and confirm any outstanding weeks so that the payments can be released.
NCS refresher webinar.
Following Pobal’s webinars last week, a recording has been uploaded to the Hive on the training videos page here along with copies of the slides from the presentation. Any questions raised during the webinars will be answered in an FAQ document which will be issued by Pobal shortly.
Covid case advice
There are two national helplines for services.
The HSE dedicated number for ELC/SAC services who have confirmed Covid-19 cases is 01 511 9777.
The national support helpline operates at weekends and bank holidays only.
As usual, if you have any queries or questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0449335454or by email info@westmeathchildcare.ie
Until next week, have a great weekend
Regards
Westmeath County Childcare Committee
