​Important information on Covid-19 Operating Supports for the period 1 February – 5 March 2021

Portal Announcement:

We would like to remind all services that the funding agreement for ELC/SAC funding measures covering the period 1 February – 5 March is currently available on the Early Years Hive until close of business on Friday, 26 February.

Please review the below important information in relation to the Covid-19 Operating Supports.

Application and funding agreement process

There are two steps services must successfully complete in this process. If your service has completed only one of the below steps, the process is incomplete and requires action.

1. Go to My Account > COSP Emergency Measures and complete the calendar that is available on the My Account tab; and
2. Go to Programmes, select Covid-19 Operating Supports, complete each page and accept the Contract Activation.

See the Technical Guidelines for further assistance with completing the application process. This document is available under the Funding Measures heading on Useful Links.

Important: An application cannot be amended once it has been submitted. Please ensure that all information is correct before submitting.

Service Types

Service providers must ensure that they identify themselves under the correct service type on the application.

For example, a full time service that is contracted under ECCE but also has fee-paying children would be service type: ECCE and other programmes.

Closures

Mid-term closures

Service providers should ensure that the mid-term closures correlate to the scheduled midterm week on their ECCE calendars. Pobal check these before approval. If a service indicates they are closed for mid-term but have indicated they will be open on the ECCE calendar, we will decline the week and payment will not issue for that week.

Force Majeure closures

If services have previously submitted a force majeure for one of the first weeks in February, and have now indicated that they are open on the COSP Emergency Measures application, the week will be declined and payment will not issue for that week. Pobal will check against previous submissions.

Force majeure closures due to no demand will only be approved up to this week, and then on a weekly basis thereafter. Services are still required to submit weekly applications through Hive for the weeks after they submit the form.

Voluntary closures

All closures with a reason ‘Closed voluntarily’ will appear as declined on the Hive.

COSP Reviews

The window to submit COSP review requests closed on Monday 15th February.  Review requests submitted after this date will not be considered.

Service providers with an outstanding COSP review should not submit the application form until the query has been resolved.

Payment schedule

Services that contracted by Monday, 15 February, and who have confirmed that they will be open for all weeks in the period, will be paid on Friday, 19 February. Service Providers who have indicated closed weeks in the period, will require review and on approval will be paid in the subsequent weekly payment runs.

Payments will be issued on a weekly basis from 19 February onwards.

Help and support

Please see the Funding Measures heading on the Useful Links page on the early Years Hive for guidance.

Should you have any queries in relation to the Covid-19 Operating Supports outlined above please contact the Early Years Provider Centre by raising a Request on Hive and selecting the following categories:

• Request Type Detail: COSP General Query
• Request Type: COSP
• Programme Request: Covid 19 Supports