The County Childcare Manager is urging all early childhood services in Donegal to apply for the new After-School Scheme aimed at providing up to 6,000 afterschool childcare places for children in primary school.
The initiative announced in December’s budget will commence in September 2013. A pilot scheme will start in early 2013, with a small number of places initially available. The places will be targeted at low-income families and will support parents to avail of employment opportunities.
These places will be provided to Childcare Providers by way of an extension to the current Childcare Employment and Training Support (CETS) Programme administered by Donegal County Childcare.
Avril McMonagle said that although the new After-School Support Scheme is a welcome development as an extension of supports to parents, she also added an air of caution in relation to the wider context of the scheme regarding its child-centredness.
“The new after-school places are specifically targeted at unemployed parents moving into low-income employment and would appear to be primarily a labour market scheme as opposed to an initiative that puts children’s welfare first.
“This is evident as there is no indication that the scheme will include quality measures, such as the regulation of after-school care including Garda vetting, qualification or training requirements for staff”.
Avril added that it is imperative that this public investment is validated by ensuring that all afterschool care is brought under the regulatory framework to ensure the protection of both children and afterschool providers.
Current Service Providers who wish to register their intent to participate in the new Scheme can do so by downloading an expression of interest form from the DCCC website www.donegalchildcare.com, the DCCC Facebook page or by emailing the office on info@donegalchildcare.com. Completed forms should be returned to DCCC no later than 25 January, 2013.