Services must inform the Department if they close the entire service and they may be given Force Majeure permission to close if the closure is outside of their control, such as power cuts or extreme weather. My Department can, at its discretion, continue to provide funding to services which have closed on Force Majeure grounds.
If a service reduces its hours, and is contracted to provide any of the Department funding schemes, ECCE, NCS or CCSP, they are required in their funding agreements to notify parents and amend their service calendar at least 4 weeks in advance of the change of hours.
If a service has not done so, the parents should, in the first instance, contact their local County Childcare Committee who can escalate the case to the Department if necessary. The CCCs are funded by the Department and act as the Department’s local agents in each county.
If a service reduces it hours without reducing parental fees, they would be considered to be in breach of Transition Funding, which requires providers not to increase their fees over the amount charged in September 2021. The local CCC will consider parents complaints in the first instance.
If the service reduces its ECCE hours, it will be in breach of the ECCE funding agreement, which requires them to provide 3 hours of ECCE a day, for 182 days of the year. If a room closure or reduced hours would result in this level of service not being provided, they will be required to make up the hours.
Parents should contact their local CCC who can escalate the case to the Department if necessary.
