Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 October 2013
173. Deputy Robert Dowds asked the Minister for Social Protection the safeguards that are in place for community employment schemes in circumstances where a scheme's child care places are redistributed to a different sponsor and this renders the original scheme non-viable due to a lack of numbers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43537/13]
View answerThe Department of Social Protection (DSP) is improving the provision of training and work experience for CE participants who wish to pursue a career in child care. This involves defined standards of achievement, a career progression path, and a structure for CE participants in Early Years Services. These changes are designed to provide a more tailored and valuable support to the provision of community child care and achieve greater coherence between participation on CE and the job market.
All CE child care places will be under the management of dedicated child care sponsoring schemes. In circumstances where this involves the transfer of child care places from one scheme to another, the original scheme will be offered the option of proposing alternative work and training for the places foregone. In cases where the scheme does not avail of this, consideration will be given to joining with another scheme in order to ensure viability.
