These are the deadlines, information, and announcements for the week of 6th – 10th January 2025.
DEADLINES / IMPORTANT DATES:
27th January 2025 @12 noon
Deadline for Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme
1st February 2025
New Garda Vetting Procedures come into effect
28th February 2025
Submission of Year 2 Core Funding financial reporting – Income and expenditure
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
Service Closure due to severe weather
We are aware many services were forced to close this week due to the severe snow and ice.
The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth issued notification earlier in the week regarding Be Winter Ready. Please be aware that an application for Force Majeure, including evidence of the requirement to close, must be submitted to Pobal in the event of a service closure within 5 working days.
The application form can be found HERE and must be submitted via a Request on the Hive by selecting the following dropdown options:
- Request program type: User Account Management
- Request type: Force Majeure
- Request type detail: Standard Force Majeure
Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme
The application process for the Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme is now open and will close for applications on 27th January 2025 at 12pm . Information on the Scheme can be found HERE with detailed application templates, applicant guidelines and FAQ’s available HERE in the resources section on the Hive.
New Garda Vetting procedures
Important changes to the Garda Vetting procedure for the Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Aged Childcare (SAC) sector are coming in February 2025. Starting from 1st February 2025, the following changes will take effect:
• Early Childhood Ireland (ECI) will manage Garda Vetting services for all early learning and care, and school-age childcare employees (ECI membership is not required).
• Tusla will manage Garda Vetting services for registered providers including Chairpersons of Boards of Management.
• As part of these changes, Barnardos will no longer provide vetting services.
Guidance in relation to Garda vetting for childminders will be available soon.
More detailed information on the new Garda Vetting procedures can be found on the gov.ie website HERE.
Aistear Update
An updated version of Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework has been prepared by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). You can access the updated framework HERE
Core Funding Financial Management Tool update
An updated version of the Financial Management Tool (FMT) for 2024/25 is now available on the Early Years Hive HERE.
The FMT was developed by The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) as an optional support for services that do not have their own accountancy software packages. It can be used to prepare a trial balance, which Core Funding Partner Services will be required to submit to fulfil their financial reporting obligation after the end of the 2024/25 programme year.
Childminding Registration
Tusla have continued to expand the resources and support documentation available on their Childminding webpages //tusla.ie/early-years-inspectorate/childminding-services.
To contact Tusla’s childminding helpline ring (061) 440600 (option 9) or email cm.registration@tusla.ie or view their Frequently Asked Questions section on the website.
Covid Case Advice
Please see below links to relevant information:
Preventing the spread of covid 19 in school or childcare – HSE
Pre_School_ManagementInfectiousDisease.pdf
General Covid-19 queries: Contact HSE on 1800 700 700 between 8 am and 8 pm Monday to Friday and 9 am – 5 pm Saturday and Sunday / HSE Covid-19
