National Childcare Scheme

Wednesday, 13 January 2021

Questions (611, 612, 613)

Kathleen Funchion

Question:

611. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of children referred under the national childcare scheme via the HSE, Tusla and so on from September to December 2020; and the number of children referred via Community Childcare Subvention Plus for the same period in 2019. [44709/20]

View answer

Kathleen Funchion

Question:

612. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of referrals for the national childcare scheme from September to December 2020 and the number of community childcare subvention plus referrals for September to December 2019, by county. [44710/20]

View answer

Kathleen Funchion

Question:

613. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of referrals under the national childcare scheme by each sponsor body nationally and by county. [44711/20]

View answer

Written answers

Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth

I propose to take Questions Nos. 611 to 613, inclusive, together.

Sponsorship arrangements within the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) and under the legacy schemes play an important role in making additional supports available for families with complex and challenging needs that Early Learning and Care can help to address.

My Department has undertaken a series of measures to raise awareness of the Sponsor Program of the NCS including:

- working directly with the Sponsor Bodies to build their capacity and support the new relationships being built between the Sponsor Bodies, the Parents, the Provider and the Scheme Administrator.

- working with the CCCs to assist them with queries, in the case of CCCs DCEDIY is following up on specific cases in addition to any policy, information or training questions CCCs have.

- working with the National Co-ordinator for the Teen Parents Support Programme (TPSP) to ensure teen parents are aware of their right to access child care under the NCS.

- DCEDIY has reached out to Children and Young People's Services Committees to provide them with information on Sponsor Children on the National Childcare Scheme.

- an article on the Sponsorship on the NCS in the Early Years Sectoral e-bulletin December edition, that provided information and details of the contacts needed to access additional information.

At the request of my Department Pobal have undertaken a review of the Sponsorship scheme administration and processes with a view to introducing changes that will make the process easier to engage with, more efficient and a positive experience for all stakeholders involved. This review has been completed and the rollout of recommendations is in process.

The figures provided in table 1 is the figure of sponsored children that have taken up a childcare place with a childcare provider from September to December 2020.

Table 1. Figures from September to December 2020

County	Health Services Executive (HSE)	Minister for Education (DE)	Minister for Justice (DJ)	National Homeless Authorities (for Sponsored NCS)	TUSLA Child and Family Agency	Total
Carlow	-	-	-	1	35	36
Cavan	-	-	1	-	18	19
Clare	1	-	-	-	2	3
Cork	3	1	-	3	16	23
Donegal	-	-	4	-	12	16
Dublin	54	2	-	93	128	277
Galway	-	-	-	3	13	16
Kerry	1	-	-	2	8	11
Kildare	-	-	-	3	-	3
Kilkenny	-	-	3	-	21	24
Laois	-	-	2	-	9	11
Leitrim	-	-	-	-	4	4
Limerick	1	-	-	6	26	33
Longford	-	-	-	-	3	3
Louth	4	1	-	2	8	15
Mayo	-	-	1	-	1	2
Meath	1	-	-	-	3	4
Monaghan	-	-	-	-	6	6
Offaly	-	-	1	-	-	1
Roscommon	-	-	1	-	-	1
Sligo	-	-	-	-	4	4
Tipperary	-	-	5	-	29	34
Waterford	-	-	-	1	4	5
Westmeath	-	1	-	-	2	3
Wexford	-	-	-	-	8	8
Wicklow	-	-	22	-	66	88

Table 2. Figures from September to December 2020

Sponsor Body

Health Services Executive (HSE)

Minister for Education

(DE)

Minister for Justice

(DJ)

National Homeless Authorities (for Sponsored NCS)

TUSLA Child and Family Agency

Total

114

426

649

Please note that a child could have attended in more than one county, but will only appear once in the total. This is why the county total does not match the total sum which you would get if you added up each county in turn.

Information provided in table 3 is the number of children that were referred from each sponsored body nationally from September to December 2020. As not all are in childcare provision a county-by-county is not available.

Table 3. Figures from September to December 2020

Sponsor	Total
Health Services Executive (HSE)	99
Minister for Education (DE)	6
Minister for Justice (DJ)	94
National Homeless Authorities (for Sponsored NCS)	193
TUSLA Child and Family Agency	586

Sponsor referrals since programme launch:

The figures provided in table 4 are the figures for sponsored children that have taken up a childcare place with a childcare provider since programme launch.

Table 4. Figures since programme launch

County	Health Services Executive (HSE)	Minister for Education (DE)	Minister for Justice (DJ)	National Homeless Authorities (for Sponsored NCS)	TUSLA Child and Family Agency	Total
Carlow	-	-	-	2	47	49
Cavan	-	-	15	-	20	35
Clare	1	-	-	-	3	4
Cork	3	1	-	4	17	25
Donegal	-	-	6	-	13	19
Dublin	67	2	-	171	144	384
Galway	-	-	-	17	22	39
Kerry	1	-	-	2	8	11
Kildare	-	-	-	5	-	5
Kilkenny	-	-	8	-	24	32
Laois	-	-	5	-	20	25
Leitrim	-	-	-	-	4	4
Limerick	1	-	-	18	36	55
Longford	-	-	5	-	4	9
Louth	4	1	-	3	8	16
Mayo	-	-	1	-	1	2
Meath	1	-	-	3	4	8
Monaghan	-	-	-	-	9	9
Offaly	-	-	1	-	1	2
Roscommon	-	-	29	-	1	30
Sligo	-	-	-	-	5	5
Tipperary	-	-	11	-	41	52
Waterford	-	-	12	2	7	21
Westmeath	-	1	-	-	2	3
Wexford	-	-	-	-	8	8
Wicklow	-	-	25	3	66	94

Table 5. Figures since programme launch

Sponsor Body

Health Services Executive (HSE)

Minister for Education

(DE)

Minister for Justice

(DJ)

National Homeless Authorities (for Sponsored NCS)

TUSLA Child and Family Agency

Total

105

230

515

933

Information provided in table 6 is the number of children that were referred from each sponsored body nationally since programme launch. Children are identified by unique PPSN.

Table 6. Figures since programme launch

Sponsor	Total
Health Services Executive (HSE)	116
Minister for Education (DE)	6
Minister for Justice (DJ)	184
National Homeless Authorities (for Sponsored NCS)	384
TUSLA Child and Family Agency	678

CCSP sponsorship:

Provided in the tables below are the breakdown of children that were registered for Community Childcare Subvention Transitional (CCST) for children in families experiencing homelessness and Community Childcare Subvention Resettlement (CCSR) for programme refugees both nationally and on a county level under CCSP from September 2019 to 31 December 2019.

The below table does not include all children who were referred from each sponsored body. While CCSR and CCST have a unique identifier, Public Health Nurse (PHN) referrals, Tusla Referrals and Secondary school students are automatically granted the maximum subsidy allowable under CCSP which is identical to other non-sponsored claimants entitled to this subsidy level and therefore we are unable to extract these referrals from other CCSP registrations.

Please note that a child could have attended in more than one county, but will only appear once in the total.

In addition it should be noted that CCSP requires an annual re-registration which runs from late August to late October. As such the registration activity in the table below do not necessarily represent new registrations. This fixed annual cycle does not apply to NCS registrations.

Table 7. CCSP figures from September 2019 to 31 December 2019

County	CCS Resettlement	CCS Transitional
Cork County	2	2
Clare	0	4
Carlow	8	1
Cork City	4	12
Donegal	4	0
Dun Laoghaire	1	3
Dublin South	1	20
Dublin City	30	179
Fingal	3	17
Galway	6	23
Kildare	2	11
Kilkenny	14	0
Kerry	3	5
Longford	2	0
Louth	1	11
Limerick	2	17
Laois	7	0
Meath	10	0
Offaly	4	3
Roscommon	28	0
Sligo	2	0
Tipperary	1	1
Waterford	17	2
Westmeath	6	0
Wexford	4	1
Total Unique Children	154	312