National Childcare Scheme,Early Learning & Care

Monday 15th April 2019

Minister announces capital funding for service providers who sign up to the National Childcare Scheme
Funding will allow providers to purchase ICT support to assist in recording and reporting children’s attendance
A ‘one stop shop’ template for maintaining attendance records will also be available to meet providers’ needs
Initiative complements other National Childcare Scheme supports, including the Transition Support Payment, the national communications campaign and nationwide training programme for providers
Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Dr Katherine Zappone T.D., has today announced that capital funding will be available to service providers who sign up to the new National Childcare Scheme. The funding will allow service providers to purchase ICT support which will assist them in recording and reporting children’s attendance. Announcing the funding, Minister Zappone noted:

“The National Childcare Scheme has been designed to be flexible and responsive, with families’ needs and the business requirements of our dedicated childcare service providers in mind. We know that family life happens, and the Scheme’s attendance rules recognise and respond to this.

I also want to make it as easy and efficient as possible for providers to meet their obligations in relation to recording and reporting attendance. This ICT support grant, coupled with our new ‘one stop shop’ template, will do just that, ensuring streamlined administration and more time spent doing the work that really matters – providing quality Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare to our nation’s children.”

A standard template for maintaining attendance records will also be made available to providers. This template will meet providers’ needs not just for the National Childcare Scheme but also the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme and Tulsa registrations. On the development of the template, Minister Zappone further commented:

“This is another important step in supporting providers to meet requirements which are necessary to ensure that public funds are used to support the maximum number of families possible. For the first time, there is a single, coherent document on which they can rely in terms of meeting their attendance recording obligations.”

Applications for capital funding are set to open in June and detailed guidelines on the application process will be published on www.ncs.gov.ie in the coming days.

Providers can purchase ICT support which meets the eligibility criteria and will be reimbursed for the amount spent up to the maximum amount allowable. A full list of eligibility criteria will be laid out in the application guidelines.

The maximum grants will vary depending on the size of the service availing of State supports, and will range from €500 to €2,000.

ENDS

Notes to the editors

Grants for ICT hardware and software of between €500 and €2,000 will be available to services participating in the National Childcare Scheme.

This National Childcare Scheme will provide financial support for families towards the cost of high quality childcare. The Scheme will open to applications in October 2019 and aims to:

Improve outcomes for children
Reduce poverty
Facilitate labour market activation and
Tangibly reduce the cost of childcare in Ireland for tens of thousands of families.