Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 February 2015
334. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs his views on concerns that the new Tusla – Child and Family Agency regulations for child care providers are putting an excessive administrative burden on child care providers, and diverting valuable time to administrative tasks, that would be better spent caring for children. [6813/15]
View answerThe revised Child Care Regulations, which are required under the new amendments to Part VII of the Child Care Act 1991, are currently being developed in association with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. These new Regulations, which will be finalised shortly, will provide for a number of reforms being introduced by my Department under the Early Years Quality Agenda. The reforms include new qualification requirements for staff working directly with children in the childcare sector, the introduction of a new registration process for new childcare services and the strengthening of the national pre-school inspection system.
Following the commencement of the new Regulations, all new childcare services will be inspected by the Early Years Inspectorate in Tusla to ensure that they meet the necessary criteria before registration is granted. A similar inspection will be carried out at three yearly intervals thereafter to ensure continued compliance. A second and separate phase of inspection, which will monitor the child care related criteria, will be carried out after the service has become operational and children are attending.
In addition to the above inspections, the Inspectorate of the Department of Education and Skills will lead and organise focused inspections of the quality of education provision in the early childhood education settings participating in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. These inspections will have a developmental focus looking in particular at the quality of children's learning experiences.
The Department of Education and Skills has indicated that they will be carrying out a consultation with the sector over the coming months and that they will work closely with Tusla to minimise any problems that may arise from these changes. It is not expected that the implementation of the changes will result in any significant increase in the administrative workload of childcare providers.
