This Week in Childcare

Dear Colleagues, 

These are the deadlines, information, and announcements for the week 12^th to 16^th December 2022.

DEADLINES / IMPORTANT DATES:                  

Friday 16^th December

Closing date for DCEDIY Building Blocks grant

Closing date for Irish Language Survey

Monday 2^nd January 2023

Increase of NCS subsidies

Friday 13^th January 2023

AIM Level 7 extension applications ONLY (see below for details)

FOR YOUR INFORMTION

Irish Language Survey

DCEDIY are trying to get a full picture of the extent of Irish-medium provision across the country and have sent a link to a short survey to services. If you provide Irish-medium early learning and care or school-age childcare, or are interested in doing so, DCEDIY would like to hear from you oncurrent and future provision.

 This is the link to a short survey for all centre-based settings and a separate link to a short survey for childminders.

Suíomh Ionad-Bunaithe/ Centre-based settings: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/SurveyonIrish-MediumProvisionofELCSAC2022

 Feighlíocht Leanaí/ Childminding: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/SurveyonIrish-MediumProvisionofChildminding2022

 Your responses are greatly appreciated and will help DCEDIY to improve supports for Irish-medium services including services that would like to strengthen their provision through Irish.

Building Blocks Grant

The closing date for the Building Blocks grant has been extended to Friday 16 December 2022 at 5pm. 

There will be no further extension to this date, and it will not be possible to submit late applications.

When submitting your application, please ensure you have attached all required documents from the following checklist: 

Applicant Guidelines and FAQs are available on the Capital documents  page of the Early Years Hive for support on completing the application for Building Blocks – Improvement Grant. In addition, applicants can contact the Pobal’s Early Years Provider Centre (EYPC) with any queries by raising a Service Request on Hive under the programme: Building Blocks – Improvement Grant and selecting the relevant subcategory.  For further information and support you may wish to view the recorded webinar at the following link: Building Blocks Webinar

Christmas and New Year Payment Dates

AIM Level 7 – Extension deadline

For children attending services with an approved AIM Level 7 application during the 2021/2022 programme call, the deadline for applying for an extension for the 2022/2023 programme call year is Friday 13^th January 2023. Queries in relation to extension applications can be done by contacting the Early Years Provider Centre on hive through raising a request: Programme – AIM Level 7, Request Type – Application, Request Type – How to

A guide to assist is available on hive – Resources – Better Start/AIM Guides

Increase of Minimum NCS subsidy rate

As previously communicated, from 2 January 2023, the minimum rate for NCS subsidies will increase from €0.50 to €1.40. The increase, which was introduced by Minister Roderic O’Gorman as part of Budget 2023 measures, means that if parents are in receipt of a subsidy which is less than the maximum, they will receive a higher subsidy towards their childcare fees.

Awards were recalculated with this new rate and updated accordingly. This affects existing claims. Service providers do not need to modify the claim if the hours are remaining the same. However, service providers will have to recalculate co-payment and issue new parental agreements. To help service with additional admin work the Department agreed that services have two months to create and sign new Parental Agreement. Therefore, the deadline for new parental agreements for uplifted claims is 02/03/2023.

Please see the how-to guide here for more information on this new page.

Parental agreement

Pobal has developed a new semi-automated Parental Agreement. This new feature is available on the ‘Parental Agreement and Co-payment” section of NCS claims on the NCS registrations. Once you have calculated the co-payment for an NCS claim, the Parental Agreement will include all co-payment weekly amounts, the child’s name, the claim to and from date etc. this will be available to download and print from this page. Further information on this new feature will be available later next week. 

Please see the how-to guide here for more information on the Parental Agreement. Service providers may continue to use the previous version of the parental agreement for NCS, with the new subsidy calculated.

Tusla Resources

Tusla has updated the resources section of the website and has additional material available. Please click on the following resources section of the Early Years Inspectorate Website. The section has been restructured into three sections to assist navigation and access for the sector:

• Guidance Documents
• Notices
• Reports

Tusla has published a series of guidance documents for Early Years Services  on procedures for obtaining vetting. Tusla EYI worked with Early Childhood Ireland to develop a series of short guidance documents to support registered providers and others involved in the governance of services to understand and meet the requirements in relation to vetting of new and existing members of staff. Most of the documents relate to Garda Vetting requirements and there are additional documents covering Police Vetting, reference letters and management structures in Early Years Services. The documents can either be accessed individually or as one booklet with all documents collated together.

Early Years Provider Centre and National Childcare Scheme Parent Support Centre

EYPC and the Parent Support Centre will operate at reduced hours from Friday 23^rd December 2022. Please click on the links for the relevant information:

• EYPC
• Parent Support Centre

Normal operating hours will resume from Tuesday 3 January 2023.

COVID case advice    

ELC and SAC providers and Childminders that have positive cases and require support can contact the HSE ELC/SAC dedicated helpline on 01 511 9777.

For general Covid-19 queries you can contact HSE live on 1800 700 700 or 01 240 8787 or visit the First 5 website for the most up to date information and guidance. (www.first5.gov.ie)

Should you have any queries on any of the above, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0449335454 or info@westmeathchildcare.ie